Kingussie railway station serves the town of

Kingussie Kingussie ( ; ) is a small town in the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland council area of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Inverness-shire, it lies beside the A9 road (Great Britain), A9 road, although the old route of ...

Inverness-shire Inverness-shire () or the County of Inverness, is a Counties of Scotland, historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands and s ...

in the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

Council Area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

is 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 ...

and is on the

Highland Main Line The Highland Main Line is a railway line in Scotland. It is long and runs through the central Scottish Highlands, mainly following the route of the A9 road (Scotland), A9, and linking a series of small towns and villages with Perth, Scotland, ...

, from , between

Newtonmore Newtonmore ( ) is a village of approximately 1100 inhabitants in Badenoch, within the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland. The village is only a few miles from a location that is claimed to be the exact geographical centre ...

and

Aviemore Aviemore (; ) 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 popular for skiing and ...

History

The

Inverness and Perth Junction Railway The Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) was a railway company that built a line providing a more direct route between Inverness and the south for passengers and goods. Up to the time of its opening, the only route was a circuitous way th ...

(I&PJ) was authorised in 1861 for a line between and . It was built quickly, and was opened in sections; the last stretch, that between and , was opened on 9 September 1863; and one of the original stations was that at ''Kingussie''. The current station buildings date from 1893 by the architect William Roberts. The I&PJ amalgamated with other railways to form the

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north o ...

(HR) in 1865, and at the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

the HR became part of the newly formed

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

. The adjacent stations were to the north, and to the south, although the former has now closed. The station was host to a LMS

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Caravan (trail ...

in 1935 and 1936 followed by two caravans from 1937 to 1939. A camping coach was also positioned here by the

Scottish Region 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 ...

from 1953 to 1963, increasing to two coaches from 1964 to 1967. There are two platforms, both of conventional height. The Up line platform used to be at a slightly lower height, which was originally built to allow cattle to easily transfer to and from the wagons, and onto the adjacent market stance to the south of the station. This meant passengers had to be careful when alighting from a train as not all doors were given a portable step on the platform, and was not good for those with accessibility issues. In 2017, the platform was rebuilt to standard height. The station buildings are on the Down platform.

Location

The station is located in Ruthven Road, Kingussie, about south-east of the High Street. Kingussie High School is close to the station. A

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

takes Ruthven Road over both tracks at the Inverness end of the station, with the local

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

at the same end of platform 2.

Facilities

Both platforms have benches and help points. Platform 2 has a separate waiting room, whilst shelter on platform 1 is provided by the station buildings. In the station buildings is a ticket office and toilets. Only platform 1 is step-free; platform 2 can only be accessed by the footbridge. There is a car park and cycle racks adjacent to platform 1.

Platform layout

The station is on the mainly single-track line from to Perth, and 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 o ...

long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the northbound line can accommodate trains having twelve coaches, whereas platform 2 on the southbound line can hold thirteen.

Passenger volume

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

In the May 2022 timetable, there are twelve daily departures southbound (five to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, seven to

Glasgow Queen Street Glasgow Queen Street () is a passenger railway terminus serving the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the city's two mainline railway terminals (the larger being Glasgow Central) and is the third-busiest station in Scotland ...

) and twelve departures northbound (the latter including one originating from Kingussie) on weekdays and Saturdays, including the

Caledonian Sleeper ''Caledonian Sleeper'' is the collective name for overnight Sleeping car, 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 ...

(Sun-Fri nights southbound, calls to pick up only; Mon-Sat northbound). One of these is a daily through service to and from via

and (the ''

Highland Chieftain * Sundays, Southbound only 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 Highl ...

''). On Sundays there are seven departures northbound and eight southbound, including the Kings Cross train, along with the sleeper heading southbound.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 () 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. Transport Scotland, an execut ...

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 & Glasgow. Journey times will be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities. As of May 2022, this has still not taken place. In September 2023, a new accessible footbridge received planning permission.

References

External links

{{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 B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Listed railway stations in Scotland Kingussie William Roberts railway stations