- Aberdeen to Inverness Line
The Aberdeen to Inverness Line is a
railway line inScotland linkingAberdeen andInverness .Current services
Passenger services are operated by
First ScotRail . There are also freight operations on the line.The route serves the following cities, towns and villages (
Ordnance Survey grid references for stations):History
Construction
The line was built in three parts:-
*Inverness and Nairn Railway between Inverness and Nairn, opened on5 November 1855 .
*Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway between Nairn and Keith in1858
*Great North of Scotland Railway between Keith and Aberdeen on19 September 1854 , the southern portion (between Port Elphinstone and Aberdeen Waterloo) was built over the route of theAberdeenshire Canal .Grouping and nationalisation
The first two merged to form the
Highland Railway . The Highland Railway operated the line from Inverness to Keith: The Great North operated the line from there to Aberdeen. The Highland was grouped with other railways into theLondon Midland and Scottish Railway and the Great North was grouped into theLondon and North Eastern Railway by theRailways Act 1921 , before eventually becoming part ofBritish Railways in 1948.Beeching closures
Many intermediate stations were closed at various dates in the 1950s and 1960s to both passenger and goods traffic. The
Beeching Report of 1963 recommended the closure of Inverurie and Insch stations but these remain open. Dyce station was reopened to serveAberdeen Airport .Current operations
Today the tracks belong to
Network Rail . Passenger services are operated byFirst ScotRail . There is some limited freight traffic, with Elgin retaining a goods yard.Future
There are curretly plans to extend some of the services and increase the frequency of trains between Inverurie and Aberdeen. This will be part of the
Aberdeen Crossrail project.
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