Laurencekirk railway station

Laurencekirk
265px Laurencekirk station after restoration and reopening
Location
Place	Laurencekirk
Local authority	Aberdeenshire
Coordinates
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*
2009/10	56,496
2010/11	73,594
2011/12	86,142
2012/13	92,470
2013/14	102,770
2014/15	112,914
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 Rail – UK railway stations
* 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.
UK Railways portal

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.

History

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.

Closure

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.

Re-opening

File:Laurencekirk railway station in 2008.jpg

Laurencekirk station in 2008 before re-opening

The residents of Laurencekirk, many of whom now commute to Aberdeen and Dyce had successfully campaigned for the station to be re-opened – the official announcement being made during December 2006 that the station would open in December 2007. 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 building, which had fallen into poor overall condition was refurbished during Spring 2008, and a new car park with 70 parking spaces was built 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 re-opening 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.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Montrose		Abellio ScotRail Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line		Stonehaven
	Historical railways
Marykirk Line open; station closed		Caledonian Railway Aberdeen Railway		Fordoun Line open; station closed