Gretna Green is a railway station on the

Glasgow South Western Line The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway almost entirely in Scotland (the only exception being the final section into Carlisle in North West England) that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer ...

, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Carlisle, serves the town of Gretna and village of

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, close to the town of Gretna, Scotland, Gretna, on the Scottish side of the English-Scottish border. It is accessed from the A74( ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

, Scotland. It is owned by

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

and managed by

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail (), 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 as an operator of las ...

History

The station was opened by the

Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway The Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway was a railway company in Scotland, which constructed the line from near Cumnock to Gretna Junction, forming the route from Glasgow to Carlisle via Dumfries, in association with other lines. Its promot ...

on 23 August 1848 as ''Gretna''.Butt (1995), page 110 The

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was the third biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle, Cumbria, Ca ...

renamed the station ''Gretna Green'' in April 1852. On 6 December 1965, the station was closed and the station building was subsequently sold. In 1975, the site of the station became the eastern end of a single line section to , as part of the route rationalisation carried out by British Rail, following the electrification of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The station was reopened on 20 September 1993 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

, with just one platform on the northern side of the line to the west of the previous station, coinciding with the western end of the

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

marking the end of the single track section from Annan. The second platform came into use when the line to Annan was restored to

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

in August 2008. The

station was one of three serving the town of Gretna, the others being: * Gretna, built by the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

. Opened on 9 September 1847 and closed on 10 September 1951. * Gretna, built by the

Border Union Railway The Border Union Railway was a railway line which connected places in the south of Scotland and Cumberland in England. It was authorised on 21 July 1859 by the ( 22 & 23 Vict. c. xxiv) and advertised as the Waverley Route by the promoters—th ...

. Opened on 1 November 1861 and closed on 9 August 1915.

Services

Following the May 2021 timetable change, there is a mostly an uneven hourly to 2 hourly service (Monday to Saturday) heading north-west towards

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

, with seven trains of these to Glasgow Central via

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

. On Sunday, there are five trains per day to Dumfries, two of which extend to Glasgow Central. Heading south-east towards

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

, there is a mostly hourly service. All services are operated by

. Services running through Carlisle to Newcastle were stopped at the May 2022 timetable change. Rolling stock used: Class 156 ''Super Sprinter''

Gallery

File:Gretna Green railway station looking west in 2008.jpg, The station, photographed in September 2008, following completion of the doubling of the track between Annan and Gretna Green.

Notes

References

Sources

* * *
RAILSCOT on the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail Railway stations in Dumfries and Galloway Railway stations served by ScotRail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1993 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Former Glasgow and South Western Railway stations Beeching closures in Scotland Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway 1848 establishments in Scotland