Helmsdale railway station

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Template other Helmsdale railway station is a railway station serving the village of Helmsdale in the Highland council area, northern Scotland. It is located on the Far North Line, between Brora and Kildonan, from Inverness. ScotRail, who manage the station, operate all services.

History

File:Helmsdale railway station, Highland (geograph 4421212).jpg

Looking south from Helmsdale in 2015

The Duke of Sutherland's Railway had opened between Dunrobin and West Helmsdale (near Gartymore) on 1 November 1870. Extensions of this line southward to Golspie and northward to Helmsdale were opened on 19 June 1871.Template:Sfn The station buildings were designed by the architect William Fowler.

Another company, the Sutherland and Caithness Railway (S&CR), was authorised on 13 July 1871 to take over the powers of the projected Caithness Railway and link Helmsdale with that line at Georgemas Junction, and the S&CR opened on 28 July 1874.Template:Sfn

The station master's house on the platform was abandoned in the 1980s. In 2013 it was refitted as self-catering holiday accommodation.

On 7 August 2024, King Charles III visited Helmsdale Railway Station to mark the 150th anniversary of the Sutherland and Caithness railway line. The King, met railway workers, representatives of Helmsdale Community Council and members of Sutherland Schools Pipe Band. He afterwards laid flowers at Helmsdale War Memorial to mark its Centenary and met veterans and members of the local community.

Accidents and incidents

On 29 April 1891 there was a collision between a down mixed train from Inverness which ran into an engine which had arrived earlier. Major Marindin of the Board of Trade investigated and found that the driver Robert Lindsay deliberately ignored the signals as he would have had difficulty in restarting the train on the rising gradient of 1 in 59.

Facilities

Both platforms have waiting areas and benches, whilst platform 2 also has a help point. Bike racks and a car park are adjacent to platform 2. There is step free access to platform 2 only; platform 1 can only be accessed via the footbridge.

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Helmsdale

	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	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23
Entries and exits	3,972	3,513	3,514	4,456	5,348	5,646	5,680	5,656	6,086	5,828	5,778	5,096	6,204	5,768	4,636	5,044	5,086	564	3,168	3,484

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

Mondays to Saturdays, there are four train each way that call here - southbound to Template:Rws & Template:Rws and northbound to Template:Rws via Thurso. Sundays see a single departure each way.

Preceding station	National Rail National Rail			Following station
Brora	style="background:#Template:ScotRail colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	ScotRail Far North Line	style="background:#Template:ScotRail colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Kildonan
	Historical railways
West Helmsdale Line open, station closed		Highland Railway Template:Rmri Duke of Sutherland's Railway Sutherland and Caithness Railway Template:Rmri		Salzcraggie Platform Line open, station closed

External links

• Train times and station information for Helmsdale railway station from National Rail

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