Kingussie railway station

The Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJ) was authorised in 1861 for a line between Forres and Dunkeld.[3] It was built quickly, and was opened in sections; the last stretch, that between Aviemore and Pitlochry, was opened on 9 September 1863; and one of the original stations was that at Kingussie.[4][5] The current station buildings date from 1893 by the architect William Roberts.[6]

The I&PJ amalgamated with other railways to form the Highland Railway (HR) in 1865,[7] and at the 1923 Grouping the HR became part of the newly formed London, Midland and Scottish Railway.[8] The adjacent stations were Kincraig to the north, and Newtonmore to the south,[9] although the former has now closed.[10]

The station was host to a LMS caravan in 1935 and 1936 followed by two caravans from 1937 to 1939.[11] A camping coach was also positioned here by the Scottish Region from 1953 to 1963, increasing to two coaches from 1964 to 1967.[12]

It is 71 miles 43 chains (115.1 km) from Perth,[13] located in Ruthven Road, Kingussie, about 200 yards south-east of the High Street. There are two platforms, both of conventional height. The Up line platform used to be at a slightly lower height, which was originally built to allow cattle to easily transfer to and from the wagons, and onto the adjacent market stance to the south of the station. This meant passengers had to be careful when alighting from a train as not all doors were given a portable step on the platform, and was not good for those with accessibility issues. In 2017, the platform was rebuilt to standard height. The station buildings are on the Down platform. A level crossing takes Ruthven Road over both tracks at the Inverness end of the station, with the local signal box at that end of the Up platform. The station is on the mainly single-track line from Inverness to Perth, and has a passing loop 33 chains (660 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the down (northbound) line can accommodate trains having twelve coaches, whereas platform 2 on the up (southbound) line can hold thirteen.[13]

Kingussie High School is close to the station, as are also the Highland Council offices serving the Badenoch and Strathspey area.

There are eleven daily departures each way from the station (Mon-Sat), plus the Caledonian Sleeper (Sun- Fri nights southbound, calls to pick up only; Mon-Sat northbound). Seven of these run to Edinburgh Waverley and the others to Glasgow Queen Street. There is a daily through service to and from London King's Cross via Edinburgh and Newcastle (the Highland Chieftain).

On Sundays there are seven departures each way including the Kings Cross train, along with the southbound sleeper.[14]

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.[15]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Newtonmore or Pitlochry		London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line		Aviemore
Newtonmore or Pitlochry or Dalwhinnie		Abellio ScotRail Highland Main Line		Aviemore
Newtonmore		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Aviemore
	Historical railways
Newtonmore Line and station open		Highland Railway Inverness and Perth Junction Railway		Kincraig Line open; station closed