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Laurencekirk railway station

Laurencekirk National Rail
Laurencekirk Station - geograph.org.uk - 1314429.jpg
Laurencekirk station after restoration and reopening
Location
Place Laurencekirk
Local authority Aberdeenshire
Coordinates 56°50′12″N 2°27′55″W / 56.8368°N 2.4653°W / 56.8368; -2.4653Coordinates: 56°50′12″N 2°27′55″W / 56.8368°N 2.4653°W / 56.8368; -2.4653
Grid reference NO717718
Operations
Station code LAU
Managed by Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12 Increase 86,142
2012/13 Increase 92,470
2013/14 Increase102,770
2014/15 Increase112,914
2015/16 Decrease104,488
History
Original company Aberdeen Railway
Pre-grouping Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping LMS
1 November 1849 Opened
4 September 1967 Closed
18 May 2009 Re-opened
National RailUK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Laurencekirk from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
170433 at Edinburgh Waverley.JPG

Laurencekirk railway station is a railway station serving the communities of Laurencekirk and The Mearns in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The station was reopened on 18 May 2009 at a cost of £3 million.

The station was opened on 1 November 1849 by the Aberdeen Railway, which ran from Aberdeen in the north to Guthrie (just outside Arbroath) to the south. The line joined the North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway north of Montrose at Kinnaber Junction and Arbroath and Forfar Railway at the triangular junctions at Friockheim and Guthrie.

The station was closed in September 1967 by British Railways, at a time when they were looking to cut costs across their network, this despite the line on which the station stands being a busy main-line with frequent, direct services to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and a number of major destinations in England.

The residents of Laurencekirk, many of whom now commute to Aberdeen and Dyce had successfully campaigned for the station to be reopened – the official announcement being made during December 2006 that the station would open in December 2007, to be funded by Transport Scotland and the Regional Transport Partnership Nestrans. The announcement of December 2007 for the re-commencement of services to and from Laurencekirk was ultimately overly ambitious and it was announced in early 2008 that the station would be finished and ready for the December 2008 timetable change. However, in a New Release from Transport Scotland, the opening date was given at Spring 2009. The station was reopened by the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure & Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson on 18 May 2009.

The station building, which had fallen into poor overall condition was refurbished during Spring 2008, and a new car park with 70 parking spaces was built by Aberdeenshire Council and Nestrans, across the railway line from the station building, together with a small number of disabled parking spaces next to the station building.First ScotRail made provisional plans for 19 trains to serve the station each day, made up of 10 northbound services and 9 southbound services, with southbound services serving both Edinburgh and Glasgow. ScotRail will also be responsible for gritting and snowclearing at the station. On the first anniversary of the reopening of the station, it was revealed that almost double the expected number of passengers had used it – 64,000 people as opposed to a projection of 36,000. By 2014/15, passenger numbers exceeded 112,000.


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