Dundee railway station

Dundee
Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dè
External view of Dundee station (this entrance has now been demolished)
Location
Place	Dundee
Local authority	Dundee
Coordinates	56°27′24″N 2°58′16″W / 56.4566°N 2.9710°WCoordinates: 56°27′24″N 2°58′16″W / 56.4566°N 2.9710°W
Grid reference	NO402298
Operations
Station code	DEE
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	4
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	1.438 million
- Interchange	32,095
2005/06	1.515 million
- Interchange	31,818
2006/07	1.490 million
- Interchange	37,636
2007/08	1.600 million
- Interchange	49,068
2008/09	1.637 million
- Interchange	51,957
2009/10	1.664 million
- Interchange	58,921
2010/11	1.720 million
- Interchange	52,468
2011/12	1.723 million
- Interchange	59,229
2012/13	1.690 million
- Interchange	61,218
2013/14	1.737 million
- Interchange	67,746
2014/15	1.835 million
- Interchange	68,512
History
Original company	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
1 June 1878	Opened as Dundee Tay Bridge[1]
1965?	Renamed as Dundee[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 Dundee from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Dundee railway station serves the city of Dundee on the east coast of Scotland. The station has two through platforms and two terminal platforms. It is situated on the northern, non-electrified section of the East Coast Main Line, 59¼ miles (95 km) northeast of Edinburgh. As of January 2014, the main station building has been demolished to make way for a new building as part of the Dundee Waterfront Project.

History

The station is the rebuilt Dundee Tay Bridge railway station, which had been built by the North British Railway in 1878 as part of the Tay Rail Bridge project. Until the 1960s, other stations in Dundee included Dundee West, the Caledonian Railway station for Perth, and Dundee East station on the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway. It is located in cutting at the south end of Camperdown tunnel, which passes beneath the town's former docks (now filled in) and required permanent pumping to keep dry. The station is consequently sited below sea level.^[2]

Today, the only other remaining station within Dundee City boundaries is Broughty Ferry. Both Balmossie and Invergowrie stations are located very close to the cites boundaries, but lie in Angus and Perth and Kinross.

As part of the redevelopment of Dundee city centre in the 1960s the original public entrance of Dundee Tay Bridge station was demolished to accommodate the new Tay Road Bridge offramps, with a new smaller structure replacing it. A footbridge connected the new station building to the city's Union Street to allow pedestrians to cross the busy inner ring road safely. In 2005, the footbridge was demolished in two phases as part of a regeneration project called the Dundee Central Waterfront Development Plan. This project, which has included removal of the 1970s public entrance to the station, will attempt to restructure the approach roads to the Tay Road Bridge and create a new civic space, as well as making way for the new railway station.

Proposed developments

Proposed building of the new station

There is to be a new multimillion-pound railway station built, replacing the now partially demolished old station. While the new station is under construction, a temporary entrance on Riverside Drive is in use. The Dundee Waterfront project is due to end in 2031. Included in the plans is a major revamp to the Tay Road Bridge; other buildings include the multimillion-pound V&A Dundee and the redevelopment of the former Tay Hotel into a Malmaison.

The new station building will be built over the site of the demolished old station at a cost of 22 million pounds. It will include a five-story curved building that will house the new station entrance, concourse and access points on the first and underground floors as well as a 120-room Sleeperz Hotel occupying the upper floors. Construction is due to begin by the first quarter of 2015, with completion planned for late 2016 or early 2017 before the opening of the new V&A Dundee.

Services

A service to London King's Cross

There are direct connections to London King's Cross, plus CrossCountry Trains along the Cross Country Route to Penzance via Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St Davids and Plymouth. More frequent services run to Glasgow Queen Street, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

For a period of time, Dundee was the starting station of the longest direct rail journey in Britain - the 06:43 Virgin CrossCountry service to Penzance, which took just over 12 hours to complete. The station was the terminus of the reverse of this journey, the 08:30 CrossCountry service from Penzance which arrived at Dundee at 20:25. As of 14 December 2008, the longest through journey is now the 08:20 from Aberdeen to Penzance, arriving at Penzance at 21:50, 13.5 hours later.

Services in 2015 were:

• Virgin Trains East Coast:^[3]

3 trains per day to London Kings Cross from Aberdeen via Edinburgh, Newcastle and York.

3 trains per day to Aberdeen from London Kings Cross via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven.

1 train per day to Leeds from Aberdeen via Kirkcaldy.

1 train per day to Aberdeen from Leeds via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven.

Atmospheric view in 1966

• CrossCountry Trains:^[4]

1 train per day from Aberdeen to Penzance (SX)

2 trains per day to Plymouth originating from Dundee (1 SX)

1 train per day from Plymouth to Aberdeen (SO)

1 train per day from Plymouth terminating at Dundee

(On Sundays there is a train to Southampton Central)

• Caledonian Sleeper:^[5]

1 train per day to London Euston from Aberdeen via Edinburgh*, Preston and Crewe.

1 train per day to Aberdeen from London Euston via Crewe, Preston and Edinburgh*.

*Passengers can board or alight at Edinburgh Waverley. This is where the Sleepers to/from Fort William, Inverness and Aberdeen join/separate.

• Scotrail:^[6]

1 train per hour to Edinburgh from Aberdeen running via Leuchars, generally running fast, stopping only at Leuchars and Haymarket

1 train per hour to Edinburgh starting at Dundee via Leuchars, Kirkcaldy, Inverkeithing and Haymarket

1 train per hour to Glasgow Queen Street via Perth and Stirling.

2 trains per hour to Aberdeen via Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven.

1 train per hour from Edinburgh via Haymarket, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy and Leuchars terminating at Dundee

Station facilities

There is also a taxi stand immediately outside of the station building, and the main bus interchange is a five-minute walk from the station in the city centre.

There is a "Travel Office" for information and ticket purchasing, as well as an automatic ticket machine outside the office. The office often closes well before the last trains have departed.

There is also a small branch of bookshop/confectioner WHSmith and a bar and café after the automatic ticket gates on the concourse. The café, a branch of Pumpkin, mainly serves cold food such as sandwiches, and hot and cold drinks. Like the ticket office, the shop and café do not open in the late evening.

References

Notes

1. Butt (1995), page 85
2. Railscot - Tay Bridge and Associated Lines Railscot; Retrieved 2014-01-31
3. GB eNRT 2015-16, Table 26 (Network Rail)
4. GB eNRT 2015-16, Table 51 (Network Rail)
5. GB eNRT 2015-16, Table 402 (Network Rail)
6. GB eNRT 2015-16, Table 229 (Network Rail)

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 (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.
• Yonge, John (May 1987). Gerald Jacobs, ed. British Rail Track Diagams - Book 1: ScotRail (1st ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 0-9006-0948-6.
• Yonge, John (February 1993). Gerald Jacobs, ed. Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland and the Isle of Man (2nd ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 0-9006-0995-8.
• Yonge, John (April 1996). Gerald Jacobs, ed. Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland and the Isle of Man (3rd ed.). Exeter: Quail Map Company. ISBN 1-8983-1919-7.
• Yonge, John (2007). Gerald Jacobs, ed. Railway Track Diagams - Book 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (Quail Track Plans) (fifth ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps (formerly Quail Map Co). ISBN 978-0-9549866-3-6. OCLC 79435248.