Dyce railway station

Dyce
Dyce Railway Station
Location
Place	Dyce
Local authority	Aberdeen City Council
Coordinates	57°12′20″N 2°11′33″W / 57.2056°N 2.1926°W / 57.2056; -2.1926Coordinates: 57°12′20″N 2°11′33″W / 57.2056°N 2.1926°W / 57.2056; -2.1926
Grid reference	NJ884128
Operations
Station code	DYC
Managed by	First ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03	0.239 million
2004/05	0.269 million
2005/06	0.335 million
2006/07	0.401 million
2007/08	0.454 million
2008/09	0.488 million
2009/10	0.515 million
2010/11	0.580 million
2011/12	0.678 million
History
20 September 1854	Opened
2 October 1965	Closed
15 September 1984	Reopened
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
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Dyce from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Dyce railway station is a railway station serving the town of Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland. The station is managed by First ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line, with some trains operating on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line and Glasgow to Aberdeen Line also extended to call at Dyce and Inverurie. This gives direct service from Dyce to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and intermediate stations.

It is the closest station to Aberdeen Airport, whose runway is located next to the station. Aircraft can frequently be seen landing and taking off. However, the passenger terminal is the other side of the runway so a bus or taxi journey is required to reach it. Bus services to the airport terminal are provided by Stagecoach Bluebird's 80 Jet Connect route. However, if travelling between the airport and Aberdeen city centre, direct bus services to/from the bus station at Union Square, such as route 727, are usually more convenient.

History

The station here was opened (along with the line) in 1854 by the Great North of Scotland Railway.^[1] It later became a junction for the Formartine and Buchan Railway, which diverged here and headed north to Peterhead & Fraserburgh; this opened to traffic in 1861 and had its own platforms alongside the main line ones. Passenger services over both branches ended as a result of the Beeching Axe on 4 October 1965, with the station also closing on that date. Freight continued to Peterhead until 1970 and to Fraserburgh until October 1979. There is still evidence on the ground of the old branch platforms which sat on the site of the station car park. The former branch lines are now a long distance cycle path, accessible from the western end of the car park.

The station was reopened by British Rail in September 1984.^[2]

Station facilities

The station has two platforms connected by a granite footbridge. It is unstaffed and there is no ticket office, but automatic ticket machines are provided. Other facilities include car park, taxi rank, cycle storage, seating and a simple shelter on each platform, and train information displays. A fish-and-chip shop and pub are located next to the station.

Station usage

Dyce is a popular station with commuters into Aberdeen. There were almost 20,000 season ticket holders using the station in 2004–2005, increasing to 43,000 in 2006–2007. Dyce also serves the airport, although up to now it does not seem to have been utilised very much by tourists (which may be due to the fact that the station is on the other side of the airport from the terminal, and previously lacked a direct bus link) but it does appear to be popular with oil workers returning from the rigs. In addition to the 80 Dyce Airlink shuttle bus, a taxi rank also provides a means of transport to the airport terminal.

Signalling

Dyce signal box

Dyce signal box, which opened in 1880, is a tall structure located at the south (Aberdeen) end of the station, on the east side of the railway. In 1928, the box was provided with a new frame of 46 levers, subsequently reduced in size to 26 levers.

Dyce lost its semaphore signals in October 2007 when new colour light signals were brought into use. The lever frame was removed from the signal box (renamed from "Dyce Junction" to "Dyce") and a new relay interlocking and 'NX' (entrance-exit) panel was installed, initially housed inside a temporary signal box.

Raiths Farm

A new freight terminal, named "Raiths Farm", has been built to the north of Dyce station, in a field on the west side of the railway. Construction of the terminal was completed in November 2007. The Raiths Farm facility replaced the Guild Street yard at Aberdeen, allowing the latter site, which occupied valuable land close to the city centre, to be redeveloped.

The Raiths Farm layout comprises arrival and departure lines to the north and south, a run-round loop and four sidings. The facility began operations in 2009.

Services

There is an hourly service in each direction Mondays to Saturdays to Aberdeen and Inverurie, with eleven of the latter trains continuing to Inverness.^[3]. Seven Aberdeen trains run through to Edinburgh and one (two on Saturdays) to Glasgow, along with an evening commuter service to Stonehaven.^[4]

There are nine southbound and eleven northbound departures on Sundays, five of the latter running to Inverness.

References

External Links

Railscot - Dyce

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Aberdeen		First ScotRail Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line		Inverurie
Aberdeen		First ScotRail Aberdeen to Inverness Line		Inverurie
	Historical railways
Stoneywood Line open; Station closed		Great North of Scotland Railway GNoSR Main Line		Pitmedden Line open; Station closed
Terminus		Great North of Scotland Railway Formartine and Buchan Railway		Parkhill Line closed; Station closed

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