Laurencekirk railway station

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Laurencekirk

Location

Place

Laurencekirk

Local authority

Aberdeenshire

Operations

Managed by

First ScotRail

Platforms in use

History

1 November 1849

Opened

4 September 1967

Closed

December 2008

Re-opening

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

UK Railways Portal

Laurencekirk railway station is a mothballed railway station that is due to reopen. The reopened station will serve the communities of Laurencekirk and The Mearns from December 2008.

1 History
2 Refurbishment
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The station was originally served by the Aberdeen Railway, a line which ran from Aberdeen in the north to Guthrie (just outside Arbroath) to the south, via Montrose. The line joined the North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway just outside Montrose, and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway further south at Guthrie, but during the period of nationalisation and rationalisation in the mid 1950s, the various junctions and branch lines were scaled back, and following the Beeching Axe of the 1960s, the line was merged to form a continuous main-line route between Aberdeen and Dundee via Arbroath.^[1]

Laurencekirk railway station was closed in September 1967 by British Railways, at a time when they were looking to cut costs across their network, this despite the line on which the station stands being a busy main-line with frequent, direct services to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and a number of major destinations in England.^[1] The residents of Laurencekirk, many of whom now commute to Aberdeen and Dyce had successfully campaigned for the station to be re-opened - the official announcement being made during December 2006 that the station would open in December 2007.^[2] The announcement of December 2007 for the re-commencement of services to and from Laurencekirk was ultimately overly ambitious and it was announced in early 2008 that the station would be finished and ready for the December 2008 timetable change.^[3]

[edit] Refurbishment

The station building, which is presently is rather poor overall condition will be refurbished during Spring 2008, and a new car park with 70 parking spaces will be built across the railway line from the station building, together with a small number of disabled parking spaces next to the station building.^[3] First ScotRail have announced they have made provisional plans for 19 trains to serve the station each day, made up of 10 northbound services and 9 southbound services, with southbound services serving both Edinburgh and Glasgow. First ScotRail will also be responsible for gritting and snowclearing at the station. National Express East Coast services to/from London and CrossCountry services to the south will not initially stop at Laurencekirk, but the platforms will be of sufficient length to permit these services to stop in future and to permit First ScotRail to operate longer trains in the future.^[3]^[4]