Dyce railway station

For the station in Manitoba, Canada, see Dyce railway station (Manitoba).

Dyce railway station is a railway station serving the suburb of Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland. The station is managed by 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. It is sited 6.25 miles (10.06 kilometres) from Aberdeen.^[3]

Dyce Scottish Gaelic: Deis[1]
Dyce Railway Station (2009)
General information
Location	Dyce, Aberdeen City Council Scotland
Coordinates	57.2056°N 2.1926°W / 57.2056; -2.1926
Grid reference	NJ884128
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	DYC[2]
Key dates
20 September 1854	Opened
6 May 1968	Closed
15 September 1984	Reopened
Passengers
2019/20	0.356 million
2020/21	86,520
2021/22	0.216 million
2022/23	0.260 million
2023/24	0.302 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station here was opened (along with the line) in 1854 by the Great North of Scotland Railway. It later became a junction for the Formartine and Buchan Railway, which diverged here and headed north to Peterhead and 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 but the station remained open until 6 May 1968.^[4] 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 on 15 September 1984.^[5]

Signalling

Dyce signal box (2005)

Dyce signal box, which opened in 1880, was 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.

The signal box was demolished in August 2019 as part of upgrades to the Inverness to Aberdeen line that saw the track between Inverurie and Aberdeen be doubled.^[6] The box had been offered for sale but due to its close proximity to a working line, no use could be found for it and nobody wanted to remove the box to another location.

Raiths Farm

Raith's Farm railfreight terminal (2009)

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.

Location

Although Dyce station is located next to the runway of Aberdeen Airport, and aircraft can be seen landing and taking off from the station platform, there is no direct link between Dyce station and the airport, as the passenger terminal is the other side of the runway.

Facilities

The station has two platforms connected by a new fully accessible footbridge, implemented in 2014. The station is unstaffed and there is no ticket office, but automatic ticket vending machines are provided. Other facilities include car park, taxi rank, cycle storage, seating and a simple shelter on each platform. Automated announcements, customer help points, timetable posters and train information displays offer running information. Both platforms are fully accessible for disabled passengers, with lifts in the footbridge and level access from the main car park to platform 2.^[7]

Passenger volume

Passenger volume at Dyce^[8]

	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	238,949	269,263	334,731	401,021	453,635	487,972	515,524	579,660	677,860	759,898	810,678	823,866	664,396	517,586	466,700	358,670	356,388	86,520	216,102	260,000

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

The typical service in trains per hour is:^[9]

• 2 tph to Inverurie, of which 1 train per hour 2 hours continues to Inverness
• 2 tph to Aberdeen, of which 1 continues to Montrose

On Sundays, the service to Inverurie is reduced to 1 tph, of which 5 trains per day continue to Inverness, the service to Aberdeen reduces to 1 train per hour, and these trains do not continue to Montrose.

These services were largely introduced in 2018, as part of the Aberdeen Crossrail project, which saw the introduction of hourly services from Inverurie to Montrose, as well as half hourly trains between Inverurie and Aberdeen, consequently requiring the track to be largely redoubled.^[10]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Aberdeen		ScotRail Aberdeen to Inverness Line		Kintore
Aberdeen Towards Montrose		ScotRail Aberdeen Crossrail		Kintore Towards 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

Connections

Until May 2017 Stagecoach Bluebird's operated an 80 Jet Connect bus shuttle service between Dyce station and Aberdeen Airport, but this service was discontinued due to low passenger numbers.^[11][12] In 2019, First Aberdeen launched its X27 service which connects the railway station to the airport, heliports, and the P&J Live.^[13][14][15]

A more frequent bus connection to Dyce airport, the 727, runs from Aberdeen railway station, the next stop south of Dyce.