, symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = 2018 at Aviemore station - footbridge.JPG , caption = Aviemore railway station in 2018 , borough =

Aviemore Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

, country = Scotland , coordinates = , grid_name =

Grid reference A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...

, grid_position = , owned =

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, manager =

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail ( gd, Rèile na h-Alba), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise a ...

, platforms = 3 (2 Network Rail) (1 Strathspey Railway) , code = AVM , original = Inverness & Perth Junction Railway , pregroup =

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...

, postgroup = LMS , years = 3 August 1863 , events = Station opened , years1 = 1898 , events1 = Station rebuilt and expanded , mpassengers = , footnotes = Passenger statistics from the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

, embedded = Aviemore railway station serves the town and tourist resort of

in the

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The station, which is owned by

(NR) and managed by

, is on the

Highland Main Line The Highland Main Line is a railway line in Scotland. It is long and runs through the Scottish Highlands linking a series of small towns and villages with Perth at one end and Inverness at the other. Today, services between Inverness and Edi ...

, from

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, between

Kingussie Kingussie ( ; gd, Ceann a' Ghiùthsaich ) is a small town in the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically in Inverness-shire, it lies beside the A9 road, although the old route of the A9 serves as the ...

and

Carrbridge Carrbridge ( sco, Carrbrig, gd, Drochaid Chàrr) is a village in Badenoch and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands. It lies off the A9 on the A938, west of Skye of Curr and southeast of Tomatin, near Bogroy. It has the oldest stone bridge in ...

, and is also the southern terminus of the Strathspey preserved railway.

History

Train leaving Aviemore Station - geograph

The line was opened by the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) in 1863,Butt (1995), page 21 subsequently becoming part of the

. The current station was opened in 1898, to designs by the architect William Roberts when the "direct" line to Inverness via Slochd was built, making Aviemore an important junction and replacing the original 1863 building. William Roberts also provided an engine shed to the north of the station in 1896. It became part of the

London, Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

after the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923, then passed on to the

Scottish Region of British Railways The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation o ...

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. The original I&PJR line to fell victim to the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

, closing to passengers in October 1965. When Sectorisation was introduced by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in the 1980s, the station was served by

Scotrail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail ( gd, Rèile na h-Alba), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise a ...

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

. In 1998 the station was restored and refurbished, and the Strathspey Railway was finally allowed to use the island platform. Following the moving of services, the Strathspey Railway closed their

Aviemore (Speyside) railway station Aviemore (Speyside) railway station is an old station in Aviemore, Scotland that closed in July 1998. It was the main terminus on the Strathspey Railway which is still open as a heritage railway and tourist attraction. The station was built in ...

. The platform remains, as fears over asbestos contamination have stalled its removal. The original footbridge also still stands but is unsafe.

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. 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 A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

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. The junction between the Strathspey Railway and Network Rail lies to the south of the station and was controlled from the station

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, which also controlled a large portion of the main line either side of here (from all the way to

Culloden Moor Culloden ( ; from Scottish Gaelic ', "back of the small pond"; modern Gaelic ') is the name of a village east of Inverness, Scotland and the surrounding area. east of the village is Drumossie Moor, site of the Battle of Culloden. History ...

since 1979) as well as the immediate station area. The station was resignalled and the loop extended in 2019, which also saw the signal box closed with control transferring to Inverness.

Passenger volume

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

Services are provided by

Caledonian Sleeper ''Caledonian Sleeper'' is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom, the other b ...

, and

London North Eastern Railway London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the London and North Eastern Railway, one of the Big Four ...

on the

, and Strathspey Railway on the former Inverness & Perth Junction Railway to

Boat of Garten Boat of Garten ( gd, Coit a' Ghartain; originally: Garten) is a small village and post town in Badenoch and Strathspey, Highland, Scotland. In 1951, the population was less than 400; in 1971, it was almost 500; in 1981, it was almost 700, and the ...

and Broomhill. In the May 2022 timetable, there are five trains each weekday to

Edinburgh Waverley Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...

(including the ''

Highland Chieftain The ''Highland Chieftain'' is a named British passenger train operated by London North Eastern Railway. It operates daily in each direction between London King's Cross and Inverness via the East Coast and Highland Main Line. It is one of ...

'' to ) and seven to southbound, plus the overnight sleeper to

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

(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.eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 213

Future proposals

In the future, this station will be one of those to benefit from a package of timetable enhancements introduced by

Transport Scotland Transport Scotland ( gd, Còmhdhail Alba) is the national transport agency of Scotland. It was established by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, and began operating on 1 January 2006 as an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. Organisat ...

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. As of May 2022, this has still not taken place.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Station on navigable O.S. map

Video footage of Aviemore Railway Station
{{Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway Railway stations in Highland (council area) Former Highland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Railway stations served by ScotRail Railway stations served by Caledonian Sleeper Railway stations served by London North Eastern Railway Category A listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed railway stations in Scotland William Roberts railway stations Heritage railway stations in Highland (council area) 1863 establishments in Scotland Aviemore