Breich railway station

Breich National Rail
Location
Place Breich
Local authority West Lothian
Coordinates 55°49′39″N 3°40′03″W / 55.8275°N 3.6675°W / 55.8275; -3.6675Coordinates: 55°49′39″N 3°40′03″W / 55.8275°N 3.6675°W / 55.8275; -3.6675
Grid reference NS956606
Operations
Station code BRC
Managed by Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms 2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05 Decrease 118
2005/06 Decrease 53
2006/07 Increase 75
2007/08 Increase 303
2008/09 Decrease 200
2009/10 Decrease 116
2010/11 Decrease 68
2011/12 Increase 90
2012/13 Increase 102
2013/14 Decrease 64
2014/15 Increase 92
History
9 July 1869 Opened[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Breich from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Breich railway station is a remote railway station serving the village of Breich in West Lothian, Scotland. It is located on the Shotts Line, 21 miles (34 km) west of Edinburgh Waverley towards Glasgow Central. It is currently the sixth least used station in the UK and the second least used in Scotland, after Barry Links.[2]

History

The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on their Cleland and Midcalder Line on 9 July 1869.[1] Breich is named after the nearby Breich Water.[3] The station pre-dates the present day (2015) village of Breich and OS maps show that it has never possessed freight facilities such as loading docks and sidings, etc.[3]

The area although now very rural was once highly industrialised with several collieries, lime works, iron workings, etc. nearby, together with the Levenseat Branch of the North British Railway and the originally 4ft 6in Scotch gauge Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness line with its old terminus station of Longridge[3] opened in 1845 and closed in 1848.[4]

A ticket office and waiting room was still present in 1962 as shown by the photograph of that date, together with a linesman's brick hut building, both on the Glasgow bound platform.

The final section of the platforms running towards Edinburgh are slightly higher, have larger edging stones and a different construction suggesting that they were built at a different date than the rest of the platforms.

The station gardens have an unusual diversity of planted shrubs and trees.

The station in 1962

Services

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Addiewell   Abellio ScotRail
Shotts Line
  Fauldhouse
Historical railways
Addiewell
Line and station closed
  Caledonian Railway
Cleland and Midcalder Line
  Fauldhouse
Newpark
Loop line
and station closed
  Caledonian Railway
Cleland and Midcalder Line
Addiewell Loop
 

2011

Monday Saturdays saw one train a to Edinburgh and two towards Glasgow Central with no Sunday service.

2012

Monday to Saturdays the station is served by one eastbound towards Edinburgh and one westbound train towards Glasgow Central per day. There is no Sunday service.

Station usage

In 2014-15, Breich was the tenth least-used station in Britain, with 92 passenger exits and entries.[5]

West Lothian Council's Route Utilisation Strategy suggests that if there was an increase in service frequency on the Shotts Line more services could stop at Breich. This could help future developments in the Breich and Longridge areas.[6]

References

Notes

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Breich railway station.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, February 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.