Highland Main Line

The Highland Main Line is a railway line in Scotland. It is 118 mi (190 km) long and runs through the Scottish Highlands linking a series of small towns and villages with Perth at one end and Inverness at the other. Today, services between Inverness and Edinburgh, Glasgow and London use the line. At Inverness the line connects with the Far North Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line and services on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line. All trains are diesel-powered.

Not to be confused with the West Highland Line.

Highland Main Line
Railway map of Scotland showing the Highland line
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Perth and Kinross Highland Scotland
Termini	Perth Inverness
Stations	10
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Abellio ScotRail London North Eastern Railway Caledonian Sleeper
Rolling stock	Class 43 "HST" Class 158 "Express Sprinter" Class 170 "Turbostar" Class 73 Mark 5 Sleeping Cars Class 800 "Azuma"
Technical
Line length	Perth to Inverness: 118 miles 9 chains (190.1 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in)

Highland Main Line
Kyle of Lochalsh line & Far North Line Rose Street Junction Welsh's Bridge Junction Inverness Millburn Junction Aberdeen–Inverness line River Findhorn Slochd Summit Carrbridge Strathspey Railway Aviemore Kingussie Newtonmore River Spey Dalwhinnie Drumochter Summit River Garry Blair Atholl River Tilt Pitlochry River Tay Dunkeld & Birnam Glasgow–Aberdeen line Perth Moncrieffe Tunnel Edinburgh–Aberdeen line Ladybank Edinburgh–Aberdeen line River Earn Gleneagles Allan Water Dunblane Allan Water Bridge of Allan Allan Water Croy Line to Alloa River Forth Stirling M876 Larbert Edinburgh–Dunblane line Glasgow–Aberdeen line & Croy Line

Much of the Highland Main Line is single track, and trains coming in opposite directions are often timed to arrive at stations at the same time, where crossing loops permit them to pass. Journey times between Inverness and Edinburgh or Glasgow are approximately three and a half hours.[1]

History

Highland Main Line and A9 next to each other in Perthshire, September 2000

The vast majority of the line was built and operated by the Highland Railway with a small section of the line between Perth and Stanley built by the Scottish Midland Junction Railway, amalgamated with the Aberdeen Railway to become the Scottish North Eastern Railway in 1856, and then absorbed by the Caledonian Railway in 1866. Originally, the line between Inverness and Perth went via Forres, but the Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway was opened in 1898 to allow for a more direct routeing.

There are two significant summits on the line; Drumochter Summit (also spelled Druimuachdar) (elevation 1,484 feet (452 m)) between Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie,[2][3][4] and Slochd Summit (elevation 1,315 feet (401 m)) between Carrbridge and Inverness.[5] Other distinct features on the route include the viaducts at Culloden and Tomatin, the spectacular mountain pass at Drumochter and the severe gradients encountered in both directions, particularly the extended climb from Inverness to the Slochd summit which averages around 1 in 60 the whole way.

In the 1960s, many sections of the line were converted from double track to single track. In 1976, 23 miles from Blair Athol to Dalwhinie was redoubled.[6][7] In March 2019 Network Rail completed a program of works to increase capacity on the line and support the introduction of InterCity 125 sets on ScotRail services with passing loops and platforms extended.[8]

Stations and services

As of 2020, there are stations on the line as follows:

Places served	Ordnance Survey grid references
	and other notes
Perth	NO112230
Dunkeld and Birnam	NO030417
	Shared station
Pitlochry	NN937580
Blair Atholl	NN870653
Dalwhinnie	NN634848
Newtonmore	NN715984
Kingussie	NH756003
Aviemore	NH895123
	Connection with Strathspey Railway
Carrbridge	NH899224
Inverness	NH667454

Services on the line are provided by Abellio ScotRail and London North Eastern Railway. A roughly two-hourly Abellio ScotRail service operates between Perth and Inverness throughout the day with 11 trains in total in each direction, with all services running from either Glasgow Queen Street (via Stirling) or Edinburgh Waverley (via Kirkcaldy). The London North Eastern Railway service is titled the Highland Chieftain, which departs Inverness at 08:00 and runs to London King's Cross via the East Coast Main Line, arriving in London at 16:00. The return working leaves London at 12:00 and reaches Inverness at 20:00.

The Caledonian Sleeper travels overnight between Inverness and London Euston via the West Coast Main Line. This joins portions from Aberdeen and Fort William at Edinburgh Waverley and south of there forms the longest locomotive-hauled passenger train in the United Kingdom with 16 coaches.

All trains between Perth and Inverness call at Pitlochry, Kingussie and Aviemore. Most ScotRail services call at Dunkeld & Birnam(8 north and 10 south) and at Blair Atholl(8 north and 6 south), with the stations at Dalwhinnie(5 each way), Newtonmore and Carrbridge being served less often. On Sundays, a couple of services continue through to Elgin, calling at Nairn and Forres.[9]

Panoramic view of the Highland Line Culloden Viaduct with a First ScotRail train on it

Usage

Station usage at some stations remain stable. Overall usage on the line comparing April 2003 to April 2010 has increased 154%.

Station usage
Station name	2002–03	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19
Perth	641,822	694,527	700,509	763,415	886,748	888,586	929,282	959,310	975,364	988,795	1,077,598	1,077,598	1,146,000	1,081,000
Dunkeld and Birnam	15,406	18,810	19,339	21,897	20,856	26,010	25,436	26,178	26,506	27,862	29,924	31,050	32,022	32,878
Pitlochry	66,890	84,555	88,638	78,193	78,776	97,302	87,210	87,684	90,618	98,340	101,902	112,496	121,000	121,000
Blair Atholl	8,313	11,708	11,896	10,491	10,443	11,716	11,572	13,948	12,608	14,280	14,084	16,062	16,652	17,598
Dalwhinnie	2,066	1,619	2,013	1,774	1,975	2,644	2,208	1,894	1,984	2,172	2,472	2,460	2,392	3,188
Newtonmore	4,184	5,396	6,815	6,631	7,060	8,358	7,972	9,484	9,406	8,958	8,326	8,636	9,432	8,770
Kingussie	23,815	27,725	30,045	32,135	33,416	42,618	35,838	38,544	40,298	40,954	41,408	42,522	42,850	44,200
Aviemore	70,272	80,977	91,456	101,294	115,431	152,528	124,972	132,336	132,052	136,456	141,311	150,724	152,000	145,000
Carrbridge	1,531	1,910	2,987	3,954	5,438	4,232	4,500	5,118	5,636	4,454	5,540	6,256	6,898	5,808
Inverness	721,358	822,928	873,011	915,840	975,569	1,407,600	1,070,924	1,127,718	1,180,160	1,213,382	1,282,445	1,303,662	1,307,000	1,259,000
The annual passenger usage is based on sales of tickets in stated financial years from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. The statistics are for passengers arriving and departing from each station and cover twelve month periods that start in April. Methodology may vary year on year. Barking and Blackhorse Road are affected by usage of the ticket gates for the underground and that Gospel Oak connects to the North London Line section of the London Overground and is similarly affected. Barking is further affected by the ticket gates used to access C2C services.

References

1. Highland Main Line timetables at https://www.scotrail.co.uk/sites/default/files/assets/download_ct/edinburgh_glasgow_-_inverness_0.pdf Archived 18 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
2. Yonge, John (December 2007) [1987]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 19B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-3-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
3. Baker, Stuart K. (2015) [1977]. Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland (14th ed.). Addlestone: Oxford Publishing Co. p. 60, section B2. ISBN 978-0-86093-669-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
4. Vallance, H.A.; Clinker, C.R.; Lambert, Anthony J. (1985) [1938]. The Highland Railway (4th ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 13, 25, 115, 116, 118, 177, 197. ISBN 0-946537-24-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
5. Yonge 2007, map 19D
6. Highland doubling The Railway Magazine issue 902 June 1976 page 277
7. Highland doubling starts The Railway Magazine issue 905 September 1976 page 476
8. Highland main line upgrade work complete Network Rail 28 March 2019
9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• Route on OpenStreetMap
• Highland Main Line on Transport Scotland
• Highland Mainline Community Rail Partnership