Ladybank railway station serves the town of

Ladybank Ladybank () is a village and former burgh of Fife, Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh, southwest of Cupar, close to the River Eden. Its 2006 population was estimated at 1,582. History Before the 18th century, this area was mostly marshl ...

in Fife,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

History

The station was opened in 1847 by the

Edinburgh and Northern Railway The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was a railway company authorised in 1845 to connect Edinburgh to both Perth and Dundee. It relied on ferry crossings of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, but despite those disadvantages it proved extreme ...

on their line from , being the point at which the line divided into two branches to and

Lindores Lindores is a small village in Fife, Scotland, in the parish of Abdie, about 2 miles south-east of Newburgh. It is situated on the north-east shore of Lindores Loch, a 44 ha freshwater loch. A possible derivation of the name ''Lindores'' is 'c ...

. The latter branch was subsequently extended to Hilton Junction, near

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 i ...

the following year. On 8 June 1857, the Fife and Kinross Railway opened, providing a link to

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are conn ...

. This line was closed to passengers on 5 June 1950, with the line between Auchtermuchty and Ladybank closing to freight on 29 January 1957. Passenger trains were also withdrawn on the Perth branch (as far as ) on 19 September 1955 by the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

, the route having been reduced to single track (with a loop at ) by the London and North Eastern Railway in 1933. The line was retained for freight traffic and was subsequently reopened to passengers in 1975 to provide a shorter route between Perth & Edinburgh than that via Stirling (the direct route from via Kinross having been closed in 1970 to free up part of the alignment for the planned

M90 motorway The M90 is a motorway in Scotland. It runs from Junction 1A of the M9 motorway, south of the Queensferry Crossing, to Perth. It is the northernmost motorway in the United Kingdom. The northern point goes to the western suburbs of Perth at ...

Facilities

The station has a ticket office on platform 2, but this is only staffed on a limited basis (mornings only, Mondays to Saturdays). At other times tickets must be purchased on board the train. The main building on platform 1 is now used as an art studio. Standard shelters are available on both platforms, along with a waiting room on platform 1. Train running information is provided via CIS displays, automatic announcements and customer help points. The station subway has steps and is not therefore accessible to wheelchair or mobility-impaired users, but there are step-free access routes to each side via public roads. All trains on the route to and from Perth use platform 1 in both directions, so this should be taken into account if changing trains here.

Services

In the current (summer 2017) timetable, the station is served by two trains per hour to/from Edinburgh - one of these is the hourly semi-fast service to and the other runs to Perth. The

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nature of this line limits the frequency of services possible to and from Perth, though track upgrades & replacement work has improved matters somewhat by reducing the end-to-end journey time between here and Hilton Junction. A few Perth trains continue north along the Highland Main Line to . On Sundays, most trains run between Edinburgh & Perth, though a few Aberdeen services call in the morning & evening.GB National Rail Timetable 2017 Edition, Table 229 (Network Rail) Ladybank Junction is signalled from Edinburgh IECC.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * {{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail Railway stations in Fife Former North British Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations served by ScotRail Listed railway stations in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Fife 1847 establishments in Scotland Ladybank