Aviemore railway station

Aviemore railway station serves the town and tourist resort of Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland. The station, which is owned by Network Rail (NR) and managed by ScotRail, is on the Highland Main Line, 83 miles 31 chains (134.2 kilometres) from Perth, between Kingussie and Carrbridge, and is also the southern terminus of the Strathspey preserved railway.^[5]

Aviemore Scottish Gaelic: An Aghaidh Mhòr[1]
Aviemore railway station in 2018
General information
Location	Aviemore, Highland Scotland
Coordinates	57.1886°N 3.8288°W / 57.1886; -3.8288
Grid reference	NH895123
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	3 (2 National Rail, 1 Strathspey Railway)
Other information
Station code	AVM[2]
History
Original company	Inverness & Perth Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Highland Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
Key dates
3 August 1863	Station opened[3]
Passengers
2019/20	0.133 million
Interchange	177
2020/21	25,492
Interchange	8
2021/22	92,240
Interchange	147
2022/23	0.112 million
Interchange	69
2023/24	0.130 million
Interchange	79
Listed Building – Category A
Designated	18 August 1986
Reference no.	LB257[4]
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Strathspey railway services have operated from this station since 1998.

The station was opened by the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) on 3 August 1863,^[3] to designs by the engineer William Roberts,^[6] when the "direct" line to Inverness via Slochd was built,^[7] making Aviemore an important junction.

The original I&PJR line to Forres fell victim to the Beeching cuts, closing to passengers in October 1965.^[8]

In 1998 the station was restored and refurbished, and the Strathspey Railway was allowed to use the island platform.^[9] Following the moving of services, the Strathspey Railway closed their Aviemore (Speyside) railway station.

Facilities

The new building on the northbound platform of the main line comprises a ticket hall, booking office and shop, and the three original buildings are waiting rooms (with historical displays), staff offices, and toilets. Parking is on the station's west side, and passenger access to the Strathspey part of the station is via a foot-crossing across the junction spur. This foot crossing also provides disabled access to platform 2.^[10] As there are no ticket machines, if the ticket office is closed, passengers must buy one in advance.

Platform layout

The station has a passing loop 40 chains (800 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the down (northbound) line can accommodate trains having fourteen coaches, whereas platform 2 on the up (southbound) line can hold fifteen.^[11] The junction between the Strathspey Railway and Network Rail lies to the south of the station and was controlled from the station signal box, which also controlled a large portion of the main line either side of here (from Kingussie all the way to Culloden Moor since 1979) as well as the immediate station area.^[12] The station was resignalled and the loop extended in 2019, which also saw the signal box closed with control transferring to Inverness.^[13]

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Aviemore^[14]

	2002–03	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23
Entries and exits	70,272	80,977	91,456	101,294	115,431	121,090	124,972	132,336	132,052	136,456	141,311	150,724	152,082	145,200	147,964	138,490	132,618	25,492	92,240	112,090
Interchanges	–[nb 1]	36	58	45	113	86	72	72	14	59	82	37	56	50	44	52	177	8	147	69

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

Services are provided by ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, and London North Eastern Railway on the Highland Main Line, and Strathspey Railway on the former Inverness & Perth Junction Railway to Boat of Garten and Broomhill.

In the May 2022 timetable, there are five trains each weekday to Edinburgh Waverley (including the Highland Chieftain to London King's Cross) and seven to Glasgow Queen Street southbound, plus the overnight sleeper to London Euston (the latter does not run southbound on Saturday nights or northbound on Sundays). Northbound there are eleven departures to Inverness.

On Sundays there are five trains to Edinburgh (including the King's Cross service) and two to Glasgow, along with seven to Inverness, two of which extend to Elgin.^[15]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Kingussie		ScotRail Highland Main Line		Carrbridge or Inverness
Kingussie		London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line		Carrbridge or Inverness
Kingussie		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Carrbridge or Inverness
	Heritage railways
Terminus		Strathspey Railway		Boat of Garten
	Historical railways
Kincraig Line open; station closed		Highland Railway Inverness & Perth Junction Railway		Boat of Garten Line and station open
		Highland Railway Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway		Carrbridge Line and station open

Accidents and incidents

On 29 September 2023, 60103 Flying Scotsman collided with stationary carriages at 6:05pm. Two people were injured.^[16][17]

Future proposals

In the future,^[when?] this station will be one of those to benefit from a package of timetable enhancements introduced by Transport Scotland and Scotrail. The current Perth to Inverness timetable will increase to hourly each way, with trains south of there running on alternate hours to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Journey times will be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities.^[18] As of May 2022, this has still not taken place.^[15]

Notes

1. No data available.