Highland Main Line

Perth – Inverness
The Culloden Viaduct over the Nairn
Route length:	190 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	Perth - Stanley Junction Blair Atholl - Dalwhinnie Culloden Moor - Inverness
Legend from Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley 151 m 25 ch Perth to Dundee on the Tay Coast Line after Crieff Luncarty Strathord according to Bankfoot 158m 34ch / 7m 07ch Stanley Junction after Forfar 10m 15ch Murthly Kingswood Crossing Raw allion 15m 31ch Dunkeld and Birnam Inchmagranachan Crossing 20m Dalguise 21m 29ch Guay Ballinluig to Aberfeldy Moulinearn Crossing 28m 21ch Pitlochry Killiecrankie 35m 09ch Blair Atholl Black Island Platform Struan Dalnaspidal Drum Jungs Summit (452 ​​m) 58m 53ch Dalwhinnie Inchlea Crossing Etteridge Crossing 68m 62ch Newtonmore 71m 43ch Kingussie 77m 23ch Kincraig Dalraddy Crossing 83m 51ch Aviemore Aviemore Speyside 88m 40ch Boat of garden to Dufftown 92m 59ch Broomhill Grantown-on-Spey West Castle Grant Platform Dava Dunphail Rafford from / to Aberdeen Forres Brodie abandoned in 1965 Auldearn abandoned in 1965 Nairn Gollanfield Junction abandoned in 1965 Dalcross abandoned in 1965 Castle Stuart Platform abandoned 1965 Allanfearn abandoned in 1965 90m 00ch Carrbridge Slochd Crossing Slochd Summit 98m 60 ch Tomatin 102m 70ch Moy Daviot Culloden Viaduct 111m 30ch Culloden Moor from / to Thurso / Wick and Kyle of Lochalsh 118m 03ch Inverness

The Highland Main Line is a mostly single track, non-electrified railway line in Scotland . It runs from Perth to Inverness and is therefore part of the three and a half hour long-distance route from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the Highlands . The line extends over a length of 190 kilometers. While the administration of the infrastructure is the responsibility of Network Rail , the scheduled passenger traffic is carried out by ScotRail , LNER and Serco . LNER and Serco offer (as of October 2019) a daily continuous connection to London . In the medium to long term, electrification of the line is being considered.

History and description

A train to Inverness near the top of the Drumocher Summit pass, 1957

The client for most of the route was the Highland Railway , only a small section in the Perth area was built by the Scottish Midland Junction Railway , which was merged with the Aberdeen Railway in 1856 to form the Scottish North Eastern Railway . The previous route between Inverness and Perth led via Forres and then on the Aberdeen – Inverness route via Nairn , but the trains to / from Perth have been running on a more direct connection via Carrbridge since 1898 .

On the Drumochter- Pass (Pass of Drumochter) the route crosses the border between the northern and the southern Highlands . At 452 meters, the top of the pass at Drumochen Summit is the highest point in the standard-gauge British railway network. The River Nairn is crossed near Inverness on the 549 meter long Culloden Viaduct .

The Aviemore – Forres connection is only in operation as far as Broomhill . It is operated as a museum railway by the Strathspey Railway . In the 1960s, this section of the old Highland Main Line fell victim to the Beeching ax , as did all the branch lines.

business

ScotRail

ScotRail runs the entire route every two hours from Inverness to Perth, then these trains are connected either via Stirling to Glasgow Queen Street station or via Kirkcaldy to Edinburgh Haymarket and Edinburgh Waverley stations . Until the end of March 2015, the ScotRail franchise belonged to the FirstGroup , after the reallocation, Abellio ScotRail took over operations on April 1, 2015 .

Serco

The company Serco operates every night except Saturdays to from Inverness to London Euston trains running overnight train Caledonian Sleeper . The route runs from Inverness via Perth and Stirling to Edinburgh Waverley , where the train heads and merges with the other two Caledonian Sleeper trains from Aberdeen and Fort William (via West Highland Line ) and continues on the West Coast Main Line to be the longest conventional train after London. Until the end of March 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper was still part of First.

London North Eastern Railway

LNER runs a daily high-speed train composition as InterCity from Inverness via Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh and the East Coast Main Line to London Kings Cross . The total travel time is around 8 hours.

Problems

The Highland Main Line is mostly single-track, only the line between Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie over the Drum Jungs pass and a few kilometers north of Perth and south of Inverness are double-tracked. Accordingly, the trains have to meet on the double-track sections or in the few crossing stations. In addition, in winter, especially in the area of ​​the pass route, there are always obstructions due to snow drifts, which leads to train cancellations or at least severe delays.

gallery

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  Perth Railway Station from the south, on the right the line to Dundee , 1989

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  Concourse in Perth

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  Boat of Garten station with museum vehicles, 1989

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.railbrit.co.uk/Inverness_and_Nairn_Railway/frame.htm
2. ↑ Global rail news: Abellio ScotRail franchise launched, April 1, 2015 , accessed on April 23, 2015
3. ↑ http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/map.php?file=maps/british-isles/british-isles.gif Map of the British rail network