Alness railway station

Alness railway station is a railway station on the Far North Line, serving the village of Alness, on the Cromarty Firth, in the Highland council area of Scotland. The station consists of one platform on the northern side of the railway, with only a small shelter available. The original station platforms can still be seen on both sides of the single line through the station.

Alness Scottish Gaelic: Alanais[1]
Location	Alness, Highland Scotland
Coordinates	57.6944°N 4.2497°W
Grid reference	NH659694
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	ASS
History
Original company	Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
Pre-grouping	Highland Railway
Post-grouping	LMSR
Key dates
23 May 1863	Station opened
13 June 1960	Station closed
7 May 1973	Station reopened
Passengers
2015/16	23,614
2016/17	26,376
2017/18	29,272
2018/19	30,426
2019/20	27,050
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station is 28 miles 70 chains (46.5 km) from Inverness on the Far North Line towards Wick, and has a single platform which is long enough for a six-coach train.[2]

History

The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway (I&RR), which was to be a line between Inverness and Invergordon, was authorised in 1860, and opened in stages.[3] By the time that the last section, that between Dingwall and Invergordon, opened on 25 March 1863, the I&RR had amalgamated with the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJR), the authorisation being given on 30 June 1862.[4] On this last stretch, one of the original stations was that at Alness.[5] The I&AJR in turn amalgamated with other railways to form the Highland Railway in 1865,[6] which became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923.[7] The line then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station at Alness was then closed by the British Transport Commission on 13 June 1960[5] and remained so for 13 years.

The station reopened on 7 May 1973[5] after significant housing development in the area.[8] The initial service provision was three trains each way on weekdays and one on Sundays.[8] When sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail.

Services

On Mondays to Saturdays, there is generally a two-hourly service southbound to Inverness with four trains per day northbound to Wick.

On Sundays, there are five trains to Inverness, three to Tain and one each to Invergordon & through to Wick.[9]

Notes

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Brailsford 2017, map 18D.
3. Vallance, Clinker & Lambert 1985, p. 31
4. Vallance, Clinker & Lambert 1985, p. 32
5. Butt 1995, p. 15
6. Vallance, Clinker & Lambert 1985, p. 40
7. Vallance, Clinker & Lambert 1985, p. 154
8. Kichenside, G.M., ed. (May 1973). "Farther North station reopened". Modern Railways. XXX (296): 173.
9. Table 239 National Rail timetable, May 2016

References

• Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
• 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 978-1-85260-508-7. 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 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Vallance, H.A.; Clinker, C.R.; Lambert, Anthony J. (1985) [1938]. The Highland Railway (4th ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-946537-24-0.

External links

• RAILSCOT article on Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
• Alness station on navigable 1947 O.S. map