Leuchars railway station
Leuchars railway station (/ˈljuːxərs/ (
listen) LEW-khərs) serves the towns of Leuchars and St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The station is the last northbound stop before Dundee.
 | |
|---|---|
 (2014) | |
| Location | Leuchars, Fife Scotland |
| Coordinates | 56.3751°N 2.8936°W |
| Grid reference | NO449206 |
| Managed by | Abellio ScotRail |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | LEU |
| Passengers | |
| 2015/16 |  0.561 million |
| 2016/17 |  0.557 million |
| 2017/18 | 0.613 million |
| 2018/19 | 0.644 million |
| 2019/20 | 0.595 million |
| Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | |
The station was built as Leuchars Junction station for the route over the Tay Bridge to Dundee, the previous Leuchars station being on the line to Tayport.
There are buses and taxis available to transfer passengers to nearby St. Andrews, which does not have its own railway station; integrated tickets with the destination "St Andrews Bus" are sold.
The station is located near Leuchars Station, a British Army installation, formerly RAF Leuchars airbase.
Station operator First ScotRail announced plans during March 2008 to erect a wind turbine to meet the electricity requirements of the station, and hope to generate a small surplus of electricity which they can sell back to the National Grid. Leuchars will be the first station to be powered this way, and if the project, which was funded by Transport Scotland proves successful, it may be rolled out across other stations.[2]
History
The original station for Leuchars was some 45 chains (910 m) north of the current station and was opened on 17 May 1848. It became the junction for St Andrews on 1 July 1852. It was closed to passengers when Leuchars Junction opened on 1 June 1878 but reopened as "Leuchars (old)" six months later. It finally closed to passengers on 3 October 1921 and to goods on 6 November 1967.[3]
Leuchars Junction opened on the current site, just south of the junction for the Tay Bridge, on 1 June 1878. It consisted of an island platform with a south facing bay for branch line trains for St Andrews, and a north facing bay for trains on the old main line to Tayport.[4]
On 30 June 1913, the station buildings at Leuchars Junction burnt to the ground. This was widely believed to be arson by suffragettes.[5] The current buildings are those of the 1913 rebuilding. After the closure of the Tayport line in 1967 and the St Andrews branch on 6 January 1969 the station ceased to be a junction and the two bays were filled in. The station was subsequently renamed "Leuchars (for St Andrews)".
Services
- Weekday timetable[6]
- Intercity trains
3 trains per day (tpd) to London King's Cross. These trains are from Aberdeen.
4 tpd to Aberdeen. Three of these trains are from London King's Cross and the other, an early-morning service, is from Leeds.
CrossCountry operate two daily services out of Dundee (one starts from Aberdeen), one of which goes to Plymouth and the other continues to Penzance.
They also operate one train per day to Aberdeen and one to Dundee.
They operate one train a day each way between Edinburgh and Aberdeen - early morning northbound and late evening southbound.
1 tpd to London Euston via Edinburgh, Preston and Crewe.
1 tpd to Aberdeen.
- Local trains
2 tph to Edinburgh.
1 tph to Aberdeen. 1 tpd extended to Inverness.
1 tph to Arbroath.
See also
References
- Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
- "Turbine plan 'to power station'". BBC News Online. BBC. 24 March 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
- Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.278
- Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.73
- Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.92
- GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Tables 26, 51, 229 & 402 (Network Rail)
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leuchars railway station. |
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkcaldy | London North Eastern Railway Northern Lights (London – Aberdeen) |
Dundee | ||
| Cupar | CrossCountry Cross Country Network |
Dundee | ||
| Cupar | Abellio ScotRail Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line |
Dundee | ||
| Kirkcaldy | Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper |
Dundee | ||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Guardbridge | North British Railway St Andrews Railway |
Terminus | ||
| Dairsie | North British Railway Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway |
Leuchars (Old) | ||
| Dairsie | North British Railway Edinburgh Perth and Dundee Railway/Tay Bridge |
St Fort | ||