Montrose railway station

Montrose
Scottish Gaelic: Mon Rois
Montrose railway station
Location
Place	Montrose
Local authority	Angus
Coordinates	56°42′46″N 2°28′20″W / 56.7129°N 2.4722°WCoordinates: 56°42′46″N 2°28′20″W / 56.7129°N 2.4722°W
Grid reference	NO711579
Operations
Station code	MTS
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.319 million
2005/06	0.346 million
2006/07	0.348 million
2007/08	0.369 million
2008/09	0.366 million
2009/10	0.356 million
2010/11	0.378 million
2011/12	0.387 million
2012/13	0.390 million
2013/14	0.396 million
2014/15	0.404 million
History
1883	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 Montrose from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Montrose railway station serves the town of Montrose in Angus, Scotland. The station overlooks the Montrose Basin and is situated on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line, 90 miles (144 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley.

History

The town of Montrose had initially been served by a short branch line from the Aberdeen Railway at Dubton Junction, which ran to a modest terminus close to the centre of the town and opened in 1848.^[1]

The current station was opened in 1883 by the North British Railway on their North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway route linking Arbroath with the Scottish North Eastern Railway main line through Strathmore at Kinnaber Junction. This was essentially a continuation of the NBR main line from Edinburgh via the Tay Rail Bridge and allowed the company to accelerate its services between the Scottish capital and Aberdeen by an hour. Though the line received parliamentary approval in 1871, it wasn't until 1881 that the line was opened for goods traffic, progress having been delayed by the need to rebuild the iron South Esk viaduct south of the station. The original had been built to the design of Sir Thomas Bouch, which was considered suspect after the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879 - upon testing under heavy loads, several of the piers failed and so it had to be replaced. Passenger traffic subsequently began on the line on 1 May 1883.^[2]

To the north of the station a chord line was laid in by the NBR to give access to the Montrose and Bervie Railway at Broomfield Junction; this 13 mile branch had been opened in 1865 and initially worked by the Scottish North Eastern Railway (whose Montrose East station it originally shared) but taken over by the NBR in 1881 when the main NBA&MR was opened. After a period of joint operation by both companies, the NBR worked all services from 1899 until the 1923 Grouping, when the London and North Eastern Railway took over. Passenger services were subsequently withdrawn by British Railways in 1951, though freight traffic continued until 1966. From 30 April 1934, services from the Dubton branch also operated to and from here with the closure of the former Caledonian terminus to passenger traffic. Passenger traffic on this route ended in August 1952, with complete closure following in 1963.^[1]

The section of line across the viaduct and on to Usan is the only single track section on the entire line between Edinburgh & Aberdeen - though the rest of the route was doubled by the NBR in the years after opening, the cost of widening or rebuilding the viaduct to accommodate double track was deemed prohibitive and so it remained single. Until recently, the section was worked by signal boxes at each end (Usan and Montrose South) using tokenless block regulations, but a 2010 resignalling scheme saw both boxes closed and control transferred to the former Montrose North box - this now supervises the entire area including the single line over the viaduct. The work also made the southbound platform at the station bi-directional.^[3]

Services

The station receives regular calls by Abellio ScotRail trains on both the Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen routes throughout the week. Certain Aberdeen trains are extended to either Dyce (for Aberdeen Airport) or Inverurie.

There are also three through trains Virgin Trains East Coast to and from London Kings Cross and one to/from Leeds (Mon-Sat only) via the East Coast Main Line that call, along with a single through train to/from Penzance via Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St Davids operated by CrossCountry. The overnight Caledonian Sleeper service to/from London Euston also stops here (except on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings).^[4]

From 2018, a new "Aberdeen Crossrail" service will be introduced from the station, running northbound to Inverurie every hour and serving all intermediate stops either side of Aberdeen. This will also allow the current Aberdeen to Glasgow & Edinburgh services to be accelerated by removing some of their existing calls north of Dundee and forms part of an extensive timetable improvement package backed by Transport Scotland.^[5]

References

Notes

1. Railscot - Aberdeen Railway www.railbrit.co.uk; Retrieved 2014-02-03
2. Railscot - North British, Arbroath & Montrose Railway Railscot; Retrieved 2014-02-03
3. Signal Boxes to closeMontrose Review news article 28-01-2010; Retrieved 2014-02-03
4. Table 229 National Rail timetable, May 2016
5. "‘Rail revolution’ means 200 more services and 20,000 more seats for Scots passengers"Transport Scotland press release 15 March 2016, Retrieved 18 August 2016

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 1-8526-0508-1. 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 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137.