Leuchars railway station

Leuchars railway station (/ˈljuːxərs/ (listen) LEW-khərs) serves the towns of Leuchars and St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. Outside of Edinburgh, it is the only station on the Edinburgh-Dundee line at which all trains stop, including the Caledonian Sleeper. The station is the last northbound stop before Dundee.

Leuchars
Scottish Gaelic: Luacharas[1]
Location
PlaceLeuchars
Local authorityFife
Coordinates56.3751°N 2.8936°W / 56.3751; -2.8936
Grid referenceNO449206
Operations
Station codeLEU
Managed byAbellio ScotRail
Number of platforms2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.514 million
2015/16 0.561 million
2016/17 0.557 million
2017/18 0.613 million
2018/19 0.644 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Leuchars from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

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

London North Eastern Railway

3 trains per day (tpd) to London King's Cross. These trains are from Aberdeen.

1 tpd to Leeds 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:

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.

Caledonian Sleeper:

1 tpd to London Euston via Edinburgh, Preston and Crewe.

1 tpd to Aberdeen.

Local trains

Abellio ScotRail:

2 tph to Edinburgh.

1 tph to Aberdeen. 1 tpd extended to Inverness.

1 tph to Arbroath.

See also
  • St Andrews rail link

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. "Turbine plan 'to power station'". BBC News Online. BBC. 24 March 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
  3. Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.278
  4. Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.73
  5. Hajducki et al., The St Andrews Railway (The Oakwood Press, 2008), p.92
  6. GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Tables 26, 51, 229 & 402 (Network Rail)
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
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