Dunfermline Town railway station

Dunfermline Town railway station is a station in the town of Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line, 17 miles (27 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley.

Dunfermline Town Scottish Gaelic: Baile Dhùn Phàrlain[1]
St Margaret's Drive entrance
Location	Dunfermline, Fife Scotland
Coordinates	56.0682°N 3.4521°W
Grid reference	NT096870
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	DFE
History
Original company	Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
Key dates
5 March 1890	Opened as Dunfermline Lower[2]
1968	Renamed as Dunfermline
January 2000	Renamed as Dunfermline Town
Passengers
2015/16	0.727 million
2016/17	0.699 million
2017/18	0.697 million
2018/19	0.651 million
2019/20	0.562 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Railways in and around Dunfermline
Kincardine Line Stirling and Dunfermline Railway (ChR) Charlestown Torryburn Line Junction (ChR) Netherton Goods Charlestown Branch Jn (D&QR) Dunfermline Lower Dunfermline Upper (S&DR/E&NR) Townhill Junctions (D&QR) Rosyth Dunfermline Queen Margaret Halbeath (E&NR) Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway Edinburgh and Northern Railway Railways: ChR — Charlestown Railway (NBR) D&QR — Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway (NBR) E&NR — Dunfermline Branch of Edinburgh and Northern Railway (NBR) KL — Kincardine Line (NBR) S&DR — Stirling and Dunfermline Railway (NBR)

History

The station was opened by the Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway on 1 November 1877, named Dunfermline, Comely Park. It was rebuilt in 1889, the Down (northbound) platform being extended eastwards with a new booking office building and a new Up (southbound platform) being provided; the extended facilities were brought into use on 5 March 1890, from which date the station was known as Dunfermline Lower in contradistinction to Dunfermline Upper on the line to Stirling. After the latter station was closed in 1968, the suffix was dropped and it became known as plain Dunfermline. During the 1970s and 1980s British Rail only ran a regular daytime service on the Dunfermline line between Edinburgh and as far as Cowdenbeath; Lochgelly & Cardenden were only served during the weekday business peaks, whilst the remainder of the route to Thornton Junction was freight-only (having been closed to passengers in 1969). In 1989 though, BR decided to restore the Fife circular .

In March 1998, Dalgety Bay opened, while two years later in 2000, a new station was opened in the expanding eastern suburbs of Dunfermline and given the name of Dunfermline Queen Margaret, after the nearby Queen Margaret hospital. To prevent confusion following the opening of the nearby Dunfermline Queen Margaret in 2000, the station was again renamed to Dunfermline Town. Around the same time the frequency was improved to every 30mins to Edinburgh.

Station facilities

The station can be accessed from St. Margaret's Drive. The station building is on the northbound platform. In the building is a ticket office, a toilet (accessed by key) and a kiosk. There is also a CCTV monitoring centre for stations in the east of Scotland and a taxi ordering office. There is a public phone at the entrance and there are waiting rooms on both platforms. The platforms are connected by a ramped subway, this providing an alternative access to the station from Woodmill Street on the south side. There is a taxi rank at the main entrance and station car parks on both sides of the railway. CCTV is in operation.

Train services

On Mondays to Saturdays during the daytime, there is generally a half-hourly service southbound to Edinburgh Waverley, and a half-hourly service northbound round the Fife Circle as far as Cowdenbeath, with one service continuing through Kirkcaldy, eventually coming back to Edinburgh Waverley. In the evenings the service is hourly (and terminates at Glenrothes with Thornton) There is also a daily service to and from Perth via Markinch.

In 2016 the Sunday frequency service was increased to hourly, from its previous 2 hourly service .[3]

References

Notes

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Butt (1995), p. 85
3. Table 69 National Rail timetable, May 2016

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.

External links

• RAILSCOT on Charlestown Railway
• RAILSCOT on Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway
• RAILSCOT on Dunfermline Branch of Edinburgh and Northern Railway
• Dunfermline Town station on navigable OS map
• Video footage of Dunfermline Town railway station