Aviemore railway station

Aviemore
Scottish Gaelic: An Aghaidh Mhor
Under the canopy on Platform 1
Location
Place	Aviemore
Local authority	Highland
Coordinates	57°11′19″N 3°49′44″W / 57.1886°N 3.8288°WCoordinates: 57°11′19″N 3°49′44″W / 57.1886°N 3.8288°W
Grid reference	NH895123
Operations
Station code	AVM
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Owned by	Network Rail
Number of platforms	3 (2 National rail) (1 Strathspey Steam Railway)
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03	70,272
2004/05	80,977
2005/06	91,456
2006/07	0.101 million
2007/08	0.115 million
2008/09	0.121 million
2009/10	0.125 million
2010/11	0.132 million
2011/12	0.132 million
- Interchange	14
2012/13	0.136 million
- Interchange	59
2013/14	0.141 million
- Interchange	82
History
Original company	Inverness and Perth Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Highland Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
3 August 1863	Station opened
1898	Station rebuilt and expanded
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Aviemore from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Aviemore railway station serves the town and tourist resort of Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland. The station, which is owned by Network Rail (NR) and managed by Abellio ScotRail, is located on the Highland Main Line between Perth and Inverness, and is also the southern terminus of the Strathspey preserved railway.

History

Strathspey railway services have operated from this station since 1998.

The line was opened by the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) in 1863,^[1] subsequently becoming part of the Highland Railway.

The current station was opened in 1898,^[2] to designs by the architect William Roberts^[3] when the "direct" line to Inverness via Slochd was built, making Aviemore an important junction and replacing the original 1863 building. William Roberts also provided an engine shed to the north of the station in 1896.

It became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway after the Grouping of 1923, then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

The original I&PJR line to Forres fell victim to the Beeching Axe, closing to passengers in October 1965.

When Sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by Scotrail until the Privatisation of British Rail.

In 1998 the station was restored and refurbished, and the Strathspey Railway was finally allowed to use the island platform. All three buildings on the island platform were restored and brought back into use, having been derelict for many years, and a fourth was built from scratch. The new building comprises a ticket hall, booking office and shop, and the three original buildings are waiting rooms (with historical displays), staff offices, and toilets. Parking, reached from the Rothiemurchus road in the south of the village, is on the east side of the station, and passenger access to the Strathspey part of the station is via a foot-crossing of the rarely used junction spur. This is the second biggest railway station in Highland (Council area), after Inverness.

Following the moving of services, the Strathspey Railway subsequently closed their Aviemore (Speyside) railway station.

Description

Road access to the NR station building is from Grampian Road, to the west of the line. A canopied island platform, connected to the station building by a footbridge, lies beyond the two main-line tracks, and the further (eastern) platform face of this island is used by Strathspey trains. The junction between the Strathspey Railway and Network Rail lies to the south of the station and is controlled from the station signal box, which also controls a large portion of the main line either side of here (from Kingussie all the way to Culloden Moor since 1979) as well as the immediate station area.^[4]

Services

Services are provided by Abellio ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, and Virgin Trains East Coast on the Highland Main Line and Strathspey Railway on the former Inverness and Perth Junction Railway to Boat of Garten and Broomhill.

References

Notes

1. Butt (1995), page 21
2. RAILSCOT
3. The Buildings of Scotland, Highland and Islands. John Gifford. Yale University Press. 1992. ISBN 0-300-09625-9
4. Scottish Signal Boxes Jessop, R; "Ronrail"; Retrieved 2013-12-20

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137.
• Station on navigable O.S. map
• RAILSCOT on Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway
• RAILSCOT on Inverness and Perth Junction Railway

Further reading

• "Aviemore station reopens after £2.2m restoration". RAIL. No. 333 (EMAP Apex Publications). 17–30 June 1998. p. 10. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.