Dunbar railway station

Dunbar railway station serves the town of Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. It is located on the East Coast Main Line and is a two platform station. The main platform (One) is located on a loop adjacent to the main through lines. The second platform is on the main northbound line which has officially operated trains stopping there since 15 December 2019. It is 29 miles 5 chains (46.8 km) from Edinburgh Waverley and 364.092 miles (585.950 km) from London King's Cross.[5] Prior to December 2019, the line on which the main platform is located was bi-directional (meaning that trains travelling to/from London or Edinburgh Waverley had to take it in turns to use the station if they were scheduled to stop there). With all Northbound services now using the second platform and no longer using the main platform loop (with the exception of all terminating Scotrail Services from Edinburgh), this now leaves Syston station in Leicester as the only rare example of a single platformed main line railway station used on a major route.

Dunbar Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Bàrr[1]
Looking north from the reinstated second platform at Dunbar in 2020.
Location	Dunbar, East Lothian Scotland
Coordinates	55.9985°N 2.5145°W
Grid reference	NT680784
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	DUN
History
Original company	North British Railway
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
Key dates
16 June 1846	Opened[2][3]
Passengers
2015/16	0.453 million
2016/17	0.449 million
2017/18	0.460 million
2018/19	0.478 million
2019/20	0.474 million
Listed Building – Category B
Designated	11 January 1988
Reference no.	LB24857[4]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station, which was first opened by the North British Railway in June 1846, used to have two platforms and an overall roof.[3] The northbound platform loop line was taken out of use and lifted in the early 1970s, whilst the platform itself and the station roof were both removed during the modernisation and electrification by British Rail of the northern end of the East Coast Main Line in 1987–88.

For approximately five months in 1979, this was the terminal station for a shuttle service to Edinburgh Waverley. The shuttle service was provided after the East Coast Main Line was blocked due to the collapse of Penmanshiel Tunnel. Buses linked Dunbar with Berwick-upon-Tweed, from where rail services to London King's Cross resumed.

Preliminary work into a new second platform began in October 2015.[6] In December 2018, Network Rail announced (via press release) that Amco has been appointed the contractors in the construction of the second platform which started in Summer 2019 and have the works completed by early 2020. Construction of the new platform necessitated a new footbridge with lifts, and improvements to the station carpark were carried out as part of the project. The bridge was completed ahead of schedule and the new platform opened in December 2019.[7][8] Final fitting work and completion of the carpark continued, however it was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.[9]

Accidents and incidents

• On 3 January 1898, an express passenger train collided with a freight train that was being shunted. One person was killed and 21 were injured.[10]

Facilities

The station is fully staffed, with the ticket office open throughout the week (Monday - Friday 05:55 - 21:30, Saturday 06:25 - 20:40 and Sunday 11:15 - 21:30). Self-service ticket machines are also provided for use outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are toilets, a payphone and vending machines on the concourse. Train running information is provided by manual announcements, digital CIS displays, a customer help point and timetable posters. Level access is available from the entrance and concourse to the platform.[11]

There are two platforms. The station entrance is to the east, adjacent to the southbound platform. The northbound platform, reinstated in 2019, is accessible via a footbridge with lifts.

Services

The station is served by Abellio ScotRail, CrossCountry, London North Eastern Railway and TransPennine Express. It was managed by the InterCity East Coast franchise holder until June 2015 when responsibility was transferred from Virgin Trains East Coast to Abellio ScotRail.[12][13][14]

The station is served mainly by CrossCountry trains on the Plymouth to Edinburgh route with projections to/from Dundee (2 Services Monday-Saturday and 1 on Sundays) and Aberdeen (1 service per day) in the north and Penzance (1 service per day Monday-Saturday with an occasional Sunday) in the south. These trains serve Dunbar at roughly two-hourly intervals throughout the day. Some London North Eastern Railway services between London King's Cross/Leeds and Edinburgh Waverley call at Dunbar.[15]

Abellio ScotRail also provides some Monday to Saturday services to Edinburgh. The weekday ScotRail services were introduced in the May 2010 timetable (marking the first time in 20 years since Scottish local services used Dunbar). A year later in May 2011, all ScotRail services between Dunbar and Edinburgh introduced a one intermediate stop at Musselburgh to allow the connection of Dunbar students to Queen Margaret University. From the beginning of the December 2011 timetable, a late Saturday night service to Dunbar from Edinburgh was introduced. The Saturday daytime services were introduced in the December 2012 timetable. The Abellio ScotRail services enhance Dunbar every two hours during the day making the daytime services hourly on Mondays-Saturdays. Abellio ScotRail does not serve Dunbar on Sundays. Train services on Sundays are two hourly throughout the day except for the evenings where these services are hourly until mid/late evening. In December 2020, Scotrail took over the weekday early morning service around 0700 from Cross Country.

From December 2019, one southbound TransPennine Express service began to call at Dunbar.[16]

References

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Butt (1995)
3. RAILSCOT
4. "STATION ROAD, DUNBAR RAILWAY STATION AND STATION LODGE". Historic Scotland. Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
5. Yonge, John (December 2007) [1987]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 11B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-3-6.
6. Dunbar Railway Station could get second platform in three years Archived 11 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine East Lothian Courier news article 8 April 2016; Retrieved 9 February 2017
7. "Amco awarded Dunbar railway station upgrade contract" (Press release). Network Rail. 12 December 2018. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
8. "Second Platform at Dunbar station opened". 30 December 2019. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
9. Smith, Claire (3 July 2020). "Covid-19 | Network Rail restarts major projects in Scotland". New Civil Engineer. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
10. Trevena, Arthur (1981). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 2. Redruth: Atlantic Books. p. 9. ISBN 0-906899-03-6.
11. Dunbar station facilities Archived 11 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine National Rail Enquiries
12. Regional News Rail issue 788 25 November 2015 page 27
13. ScotRail Franchise Invitation to Tender Archived 13 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine Transport Scotland 23 January 2014
14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. Table 26 & 51 National Rail timetable, December 2018
16. TransPennine Express services calling at Dunbar 17 December 2019 Real Train Times

Sources

• 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.
• Scotrail timetables: Glasgow - Edinburgh - North Berwick & Dunbar
• "RAILSCOT - Dunbar station gallery". Retrieved 21 November 2008.

External links

• Video footage of Dunbar railway station