Montrose railway station

Montrose railway station serves the town of Montrose in Angus, Scotland. The station overlooks the Montrose Basin and is situated on the Dundee–Aberdeen line, 90 miles (144 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley, between Arbroath and Laurencekirk. There is a crossover at the north end of the station, which can be used to facilitate trains turning back if the line south to Arbroath is blocked.

History

File:170406 at Montrose 220523 (52918572838).jpg

A Class 170 calling at the northbound platform

The town of Montrose had initially been served by a short branch line from the Aberdeen Railway at Dubton Junction, which ran to a modest terminus close to the centre of the town and opened in 1848.

The current station was opened on 1 May 1883 by the North British Railway on their North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway route linking Arbroath with the Scottish North Eastern Railway main line through Strathmore at Kinnaber Junction. This was essentially a continuation of the NBR main line from Edinburgh via the Tay Rail Bridge and allowed the company to accelerate its services between the Scottish capital and Aberdeen by an hour.

The station has been through several renamings in the past: it was renamed to Montrose Central in the early days of British Rail, before being renamed to Montrose East in 1952, and finally reverting to just Montrose again in 1961.Template:Sfn

The station was host to a LMS caravan in 1936 followed by three caravans from 1937 to 1939.

The section of line across the viaduct and on to Usan is the only single track section on the entire line between Edinburgh & Aberdeen - though the rest of the route was doubled by the NBR in the years after opening, the cost of widening or rebuilding the viaduct to accommodate double track was deemed prohibitive and so it remained single. Until recently, the section was worked by signal boxes at each end (Usan and Montrose South) using tokenless block regulations, but a 2010 resignalling scheme saw both boxes closed and control transferred to the former Montrose North box - this now supervises the entire area including the single line over the viaduct. The work also made the southbound platform at the station bi-directional.

In 2024, disused land that previously housed railway sidings was listed for sale.

Facilities

The station is equipped with a ticket office, toilets, a car park, bike racks and a payphone adjacent to platform 1. Both platforms have benches and help points, whilst platform 2 has a shelter, and are linked by a step-free access footbridge.

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Montrose

	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	274,458	319,072	345,974	348,029	369,377	365,922	355,978	378,284	386,600	390,140	396,209	404,136	388,864	354,190	350,126	337,860	333,808	35,086	188,344	243,796

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

The station is served by four train operating companies:

• ScotRail trains stop here regularly on both the Template:Stnlnk and Edinburgh Waverley to Template:Stnlnk routes throughout the week. Certain Aberdeen trains are extended to either Template:Rws (for Aberdeen Airport) or Inverness. Hourly trains run from Montrose to Inverurie, as part of an Aberdeen Crossrail plan to see hourly trains through the city.
• London North Eastern Railway operate three trains to London King's Cross, as well as one train per day to Leeds.
• CrossCountry operate two southbound trains: one to Plymouth and one to Edinburgh; however, Aberdeen-bound trains do not stop here.
• Scottish Rail Holdings operate the daily overnight Caledonian Sleeper service to/from London Euston, although they do not stop here on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings.

Preceding station	National Rail National Rail			Following station
Template:Stnlnk	style="background:#Template:XC colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	CrossCountry Cross Country Route Southbound only	style="background:#Template:XC colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Template:Stnlnk
Template:Stnlnk	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 Dundee–Aberdeen 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;" |	Template:Stnlnk
Terminus	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 Aberdeen Crossrail	style="background:#Template:ScotRail colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Template:Stnlnk To Template:Stnlnk
Template:Stnlnk	style="background:#Template:CS color; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper	style="background:#Template:CS color; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Template:Stnlnk
Template:Stnlnk	style="background:#Template:NXEC colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	London North Eastern Railway East Coast Main Line	style="background:#Template:NXEC colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Template:Stnlnk
Template:Stnlnk Line open; Station closed	style="background:#Template:Temporary rail colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway	style="background:#Template:Temporary rail colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |	Hillside Line open; Station closed
Terminus		Montrose and Bervie Railway		Template:Stnlnk Line closed; Station closed References Bibliography Template:Butt-Stations Template:Jowett-Atlas External links Train times and station information for Montrose railway station from National Rail