Pitlochry railway station

Pitlochry railway station serves the town of Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is served by Abellio ScotRail trains between Glasgow or Edinburgh and Inverness, the Caledonian Sleeper to/from London Euston and the daily London North Eastern Railway service between London King's Cross and Inverness via York and the East Coast Main Line.

Pitlochry
Scottish Gaelic: Baile Chloichridh[1]
Location
Place	Pitlochry
Local authority	Perth and Kinross
Coordinates	56.7023°N 3.7353°W / 56.7023; -3.7353
Grid reference	NN938580
Operations
Station code	PIT
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.112 million
2015/16	0.121 million
2016/17	0.121 million
2017/18	0.125 million
2018/19	0.125 million
History
1863	Opened
Listed status
Listing grade	Category A
Entry number	LB39867[2]
Added to list	12 October 1994
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Pitlochry from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station is situated on the former Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) and was opened along with the line in 1863. The I&PJR amalgamated with other railways to create the Highland Railway in 1865.[3]

The station is 28 miles 21 chains (45.5 km) from Perth, and has a passing loop 25 chains (500 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the up (southbound) line could accommodate trains having eight coaches, whereas platform 2 on the down (northbound) line could hold eleven.[4] Both platforms were extended in March 2019 as part of a £57 million upgrade programme by Network Rail, which also saw the station re-signalled.[5]

Services

An Abellio ScotRail Class 170 calls with an Inverness to Edinburgh service

All Highland main line services between Perth & Inverness call here (11 departures each way per day in total), providing links to both Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley as well as the daytime and sleeper services to London (the sleeper does not run northbound on Sundays or southbound on Saturday nights). There are seven trains each way per day each way on Sundays.[6]

From 2018, this station will be one of those to benefit from a package of timetable enhancements introduced by Transport Scotland and Scotrail. The current Perth to Inverness timetable will increase to hourly each way, with trains south of there running on alternate hours to Edinburgh & Glasgow. Journey times will also be reduced by 10 minutes to both cities.[7] However, the improvements to the Highland Main Line have been pushed back to at least December 2020.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Dunkeld & Birnam or Perth		London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line		Blair Atholl or Kingussie
Dunkeld & Birnam or Perth		Abellio ScotRail Highland Line		Blair Atholl or Dalwhinnie or Newtonmore or Kingussie
Dunkeld & Birnam		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Blair Atholl
	Historical railways
Ballinluig Line open; station closed		Highland Railway Inverness and Perth Junction Railway		Killiecrankie Line open; station closed

References

1. 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Historic Environment Scotland. "Station Road, Pitlochry Station, including Down Platform Building, Footbridge, Fountain and Signal Box (LB39867)". Retrieved 7 July 2020.
3. Railscot - Inverness and Perth Junction Railway Crawford, Ewan; www.railbrit.co.uk, Retrieved 11 August 2016
4. Brailsford 2017, map 19B.
5. Glen, Louise (27 March 2019). "More trains, quicker journey times and improved station lengths all part of Highland railway improvements". The Press and Journal. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
6. Table 229 National Rail timetable, May 2019
7. "‘Rail revolution’ means 200 more services and 20,000 more seats for Scots passengers" Archived 20 August 2016 at the Wayback MachineTransport Scotland press release 15 March 2016; Retrieved 18 August 2016