Inverness railway station

Inverness
Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Nis
Inverness railway station
Location
Place	Inverness
Local authority	Highland
Coordinates	57°28′48″N 4°13′23″W / 57.4800°N 4.2230°W / 57.4800; -4.2230Coordinates: 57°28′48″N 4°13′23″W / 57.4800°N 4.2230°W / 57.4800; -4.2230
Grid reference	NH667454
Operations
Station code	INV
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Owned by	Network Rail
Number of platforms	7
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12	1.180 million
2012/13	1.213 million
2013/14	1.282 million
2014/15	1.304 million
– Interchange	72,055
2015/16	1.307 million
– Interchange	64,364
History
Original company	Inverness and Nairn Railway
Pre-grouping	Highland Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
5 November 1855	Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Inverness from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Inverness railway station is the railway station serving the Scottish city of Inverness.

History

Inverness railway panorama in 1948

Opened on 5 November 1855^[1] as the western terminus of the Inverness and Nairn Railway to designs by the architect, Joseph Mitchell.^[2] The platform roofs were extended in 1876 by Murdoch Paterson. Between 1966 and 1968 under British Rail the station buildings were replaced, the new design by Thomas Munro and Company.

It is now the terminus of the Highland Main Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line (of which the Inverness and Nairn Railway is now a part), the Kyle of Lochalsh Line and the Far North Line.

A revamp of the station's frontage, forecourt and concourse is planned to be completed by 2018.^[3]

Description

The main circulation area

Inverness is owned by Network Rail. However, it is operated by Abellio ScotRail who run most of the services using the station. Caledonian Sleeper and Virgin Trains East Coast run the only non-ScotRail services.

The station itself sits at one apex of a triangular junction in the centre of Inverness, with each half of the station connected to one line. The Highland Main and Aberdeen Lines both approach the station from the east and use Platforms 1-4, while the Far North Line (which also carries traffic heading for the Kyle Line) approach from the north-west and use Platforms 5-7. Platform 5 also has a connection from the east side, but it is only usable by a two car train, and even then, it must not be in passenger service and movements from Platform 5 to the east line are not allowed.

A single parliamentary train is run along the third chord of the triangle each weekday, as part of a through Kyle-Elgin service, which runs across the chord before reversing into the station. In the 2013 timetable, this is currently the 1714 Kyle-Elgin service.

The third chord runs between Rose Street Junction on the Far North Line and Welsh's Bridge Junction on the Aberdeen/Perth line. The Aberdeen and Perth lines diverge at Millburn Junction a short distance beyond Welsh's Bridge. Signalling for the entire area is controlled from a panel box near the station built in 1988. This supervises the station area & approaches and also houses the Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) control desk that monitors the full length of the Kyle & Far North lines. RETB was installed by British Rail.

Platform destination LED screens are installed, along with a main departures and arrivals information board. Each of Platforms 1-7 has its own screen showing departures from that platform. Screens are also present behind the wall for all platforms from 3-6. In addition, several other screens are also visible for general information.

Inverness approaches
Far North Line and Kyle of Lochalsh Line Inverness station Ness Viaduct over River Ness Platforms 6 & 7 Rose Street Junction Platform 5 Inverness TMD on both sides of line Platforms 1 to 4 Welsh's Bridge Junction Millburn Junction Highland Main Line Aberdeen–Inverness line

Services

Air

Stagecoach North Scotland route 11 runs every 30 minutes between Inverness city centre and Inverness Airport. The bus leaves from Strothers Lane, just around the corner from the station. Journey time to the airport is 25 minutes.

Bus

The main coach and bus station is located in Margaret Street, 150 m northwest of and just around the corner from the railway station. Many services can also be joined at the stop on Milburn Street outside Marks and Spencer, closer to the station.

Aside from local buses, there are also long-distance coach services which allow rail passengers to continue their journey to areas of the Highlands not on the rail network:

• Scottish Citylink route 961 operates two daily return services to Ullapool to connect with Caledonian MacBrayne ferry sailings to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. (Rail passengers may also connect with this bus at Garve on the Kyle of Lochalsh line, but the timings are not so convenient.)
• Scottish Citylink route 919 operates six daily return services down the Great Glen to Fort William, calling at Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus and intermediate points. Two of these services allow onward connections with Citylink route 918 from Fort William to Oban.

Rail

Current services

As of May 2016:

• 7 trains per day to Edinburgh Waverley via Perth.^[4]
• 4 trains per day to Glasgow Queen Street.
• 11 trains per day to Aberdeen - one of these continues to Edinburgh via Dundee. An additional evening service runs to Elgin (which operates through from the Kyle line).^[5]
• 12 trains per day (13 on Fridays and Saturdays) via Dingwall, of which:
  • 4 trains per day to Wick and Thurso.
  • 4 trains per day to Kyle of Lochalsh.
  • Other services terminate at Invergordon, Tain or Ardgay.^[6]
• 1 train per day to London King's Cross via, Falkirk Grahamston, Edinburgh, Newcastle and York (the "Highland Chieftain").^[7]
• 1 sleeper train per day to London Euston via Preston and Crewe (the Highland Caledonian Sleeper - doesn't operate on Saturday nights).^[8]

Future Planned Improvements

From 2018, this station will be one of those to benefit from a package of timetable enhancements to be introduced by Transport Scotland and Scotrail. The current Perth to Inverness timetable will be increased to hourly each way, with trains south of there running on alternate hours to Edinburgh & Glasgow. Journey times will be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities. The service to Nairn, Forres & Elgin will also be enhanced to hourly and some Aberdeen trains extended through to Dundee and beyond.^[9]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Aviemore		Virgin Trains East Coast East Coast Main Line (Highland Chieftain)		Terminus
Carrbridge		Abellio ScotRail Highland Line		Terminus
Nairn		Abellio ScotRail Aberdeen to Inverness Line		Terminus
Terminus		Abellio ScotRail Far North Line Kyle of Lochalsh Line		Beauly
Aviemore		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Terminus
	Historical railways
Culloden Moor Line open; station closed		Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway		Terminus
Allanfearn Line open; station closed		Inverness and Nairn Railway		Terminus
Terminus		Inverness and Ross-shire Railway		Clachnaharry Line open; station closed

References

Sources

• 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

• Inverness Station Information

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