Alness railway station


Alness railway station is a railway station on the Far North Line, serving the village of Alness, on the Cromarty Firth, in the Highland council area of Scotland. The station consists of one platform on the northern side of the railway, with only a small shelter available. The original station platforms can still be seen on both sides of the single line through the station.
The station is from on the Far North Line towards, and has a single platform which is long enough for a six-coach train.

History

The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway, which was to be a line between and, was authorised in 1860, and opened in stages. By the time that the last section, that between and Invergordon, opened on 25 March 1863, the I&RR had amalgamated with the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, the authorisation being given on 30 June 1862. On this last stretch, one of the original stations was that at Alness. The I&AJR in turn amalgamated with other railways to form the Highland Railway in 1865, which became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station at Alness was then closed by the British Transport Commission on 13 June 1960 and remained so for 13 years.
The station reopened on 7 May 1973 after significant housing development in the area. The initial service provision was three trains each way on weekdays and one on Sundays. When sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail.

Services

On Mondays to Saturdays, there is generally a two-hourly service southbound to Inverness with four trains per day northbound to Wick.
On Sundays, there are five trains to Inverness, three to Tain and one each to Invergordon & through to Wick.