Nairn railway station
Nairn railway station is a railway station serving the town of Nairn in Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line. It is a category B listed building.[2] The station appeared as 'Inverness' in the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
 | |
|---|---|
 The station in 2013 | |
| Location | Nairn, Highland Scotland |
| Coordinates | 57.5803°N 3.8716°W |
| Grid reference | NH881560 |
| Managed by | Abellio ScotRail |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | NRN |
| Key dates | |
| 5 November 1855 | Opened |
| Passengers | |
| 2015/16 |  0.130 million |
| 2016/17 |  0.120 million |
| 2017/18 | 0.112 million |
| 2018/19 | 0.118 million |
| 2019/20 | 0.135 million |
Listed Building – Category B | |
| Designated | 12 March 1981 |
| Reference no. | LB38454[2] |
| Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | |
History
The station was first opened in 1855 by the Inverness and Nairn Railway. In 1857, the line was extended eastwards to Dalvey. The route from Aberdeen to Inverness was merged into one company, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, in 1861. Many of the local stations either side of here succumbed to the Beeching Axe between 1965 and 1968, though Nairn was one of those that survived the cutbacks.
The station is 128 miles 72 chains (207.4 km) from Perth (measured via Dava), and has a passing loop 29 chains (580 m) long, flanked by two platforms which can each accommodate an eight-coach train.[3]
The station was notable for being the last working example of Highland Railway signalling principles, where a signal box was provided at each end to work the signals & points whilst the key token instruments for working the single line were located in the main building. The distance between the boxes was such that a bicycle was officially provided by BR (and later Railtrack) for the signaller to use.[4] The practice came to an end in April 2000, when the station was resignalled with colour lights and control shifted to a panel in the station building - as a result, most passenger services use the northern (former eastbound) platform in both directions (the southern one is now only used by Aberdeen-bound services if two trains are scheduled to pass here).
Control of the signalling at the station has since transferred to a new workstation in the Inverness signalling centre, following a 10-day line closure that also saw the loop at Elgin lengthened and a new station and loop commissioned at Forres.[5] A replacement bus service ran whilst the work was in progress, with the line reopening on schedule on 17 October 2017.
Services
There is approximately one service per two hours in each direction, with some additional trains at weekday peak-times. The first morning eastbound service runs to Dundee and Edinburgh Waverley, whilst the last evening service in the opposite direction comes from there; certain peak hour trains only run to/from Elgin, including one through working from Kyle of Lochalsh.[6]
On Sundays, there are five trains each way between Aberdeen and Inverness, plus a pair of services from the latter that run only as far as Elgin.
Transport Scotland and Scotrail intend to improve the service frequencies from here to Elgin and Inverness to hourly from 2018.[7]
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forres | Abellio ScotRail Aberdeen–Inverness line |
Inverness | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Connection to Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway |
Inverness and Nairn Railway | Gollanfield Junction Line open; Station closed | ||
| Auldearn Line open; Station closed |
Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway | Connection to Inverness and Nairn Railway | ||
Notes
- Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
- Historic Environment Scotland. "NAIRN RAILWAY STATION (Category B Listed Building) (LB38454)". Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- Brailsford 2017, map 18B.
- Section C - 2000The Signal Box; Retrieved 2013-10-09
- Engineers set to begin 10-day infrastructure upgrade between Inverness-KeithNetwork Rail Media Centre press release 5 October 2017; Retrieved 30 October 2017
- GB National Rail Timetable May - December 2017, Table 240
- "‘Rail revolution’ means 200 more services and 20,000 more seats for Scots passengers" Archived 2016-08-20 at the Wayback MachineTransport Scotland press release 15 March 2016; Retrieved 18 August 2016
