Aberdeen to Inverness Line

The Aberdeen to Inverness Line is a railway line in Scotland linking Aberdeen and Inverness.

Current services

Passenger services are operated by First ScotRail. There are also freight operations on the line.

The route serves the following cities, towns and villages (Ordnance Survey grid references for stations):

History

Construction

The line was built in three parts:-
* Inverness and Nairn Railway between Inverness and Nairn, opened on 5 November 1855.
* Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway between Nairn and Keith in 1858
* Great North of Scotland Railway between Keith and Aberdeen on 19 September 1854, the southern portion (between Port Elphinstone and Aberdeen Waterloo) was built over the route of the Aberdeenshire Canal.

Grouping and nationalisation

The first two merged to form the Highland Railway. The Highland Railway operated the line from Inverness to Keith: The Great North operated the line from there to Aberdeen. The Highland was grouped with other railways into the London Midland and Scottish Railway and the Great North was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway by the Railways Act 1921, before eventually becoming part of British Railways in 1948.

Beeching closures

Many intermediate stations were closed at various dates in the 1950s and 1960s to both passenger and goods traffic. The Beeching Report of 1963 recommended the closure of Inverurie and Insch stations but these remain open. Dyce station was reopened to serve Aberdeen Airport.

Current operations

Today the tracks belong to Network Rail. Passenger services are operated by First ScotRail. There is some limited freight traffic, with Elgin retaining a goods yard.

Future

There are curretly plans to extend some of the services and increase the frequency of trains between Inverurie and Aberdeen. This will be part of the Aberdeen Crossrail project.