Dunblane railway station

Dunblane
265px The Dunblane station pedestrian overpass
Location
Place	Dunblane
Local authority	Stirling
Coordinates
Grid reference	NN780009
Operations
Station code	DBL
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.399 million
2005/06	0.458 million
2006/07	0.466 million
2007/08	0.512 million
2008/09	0.516 million
2009/10	0.497 million
2010/11	0.498 million
2011/12	0.495 million
2012/13	0.504 million
2013/14	0.509 million
History
Original company	Scottish Central Railway and Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway
Pre-grouping	Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	LMSR
22 May 1848	Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Dunblane from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

File:Dunblane1.jpg

Southbound train in SPT colours

Dunblane railway station serves the town of Dunblane in central Scotland. It is located on the former Scottish Central Railway, between Stirling & Perth and opened with the line in 1848.

Facilities

It has three platforms, one which serves as a terminus for trains from Glasgow (Queen Street) and Edinburgh, one which serves trains heading north to Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen & Inverness and the third that serves trains heading south to Glasgow and Edinburgh. These include those that terminate at Dunblane, which travel up the northbound line to the signal box to reverse & cross over to the southbound track before heading back down to the station. The signal box in question now operates only the points and signals here.

The station is staffed by one person who runs the ticket office and does most jobs around the station. Several plants have been placed around the station by a voluntary group known as 'Dunblane in Bloom'.

• Passenger information system
• Automatic ticket machine (on Platform 1)
• Ticket office and waiting room (Mondays - Saturdays, a.m.)
• CCTV
• Waiting shelters and benches
• Limited car parking
• Help point

Services

The train operating company that serves Dunblane station is Abellio ScotRail. Trains generally leave for Edinburgh at 28 and 58 minutes past the hour, and for Glasgow Queen Street at 13 minutes past the hour, though this is supplemented by trains from the north. These trains serve all intermediate stations en route, whereas the services from further afield serve principal stations only.

Four trains each way between Glasgow Queen Street and Inverness, 146 miles (235 km) away, stop here along with a number of services to either Dundee or Aberdeen.

Additionally, the Virgin Trains East Coast service between Inverness and London Kings Cross stops here.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Bridge of Allan		Abellio ScotRail Edinburgh–Dunblane Line		Gleneagles
Bridge of Allan		Abellio ScotRail Croy Line		Terminus
Stirling		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper		Gleneagles
Stirling		Virgin Trains East Coast East Coast Main Line		Gleneagles
	Historical railways
Bridge of Allan Line and Station open		Scottish Central Railway Caledonian Railway		Kinbuck Line open; Station closed
Terminus		Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway Caledonian Railway		Doune Line and Station closed

Train types

Abellio ScotRail trains serving Dunblane are all DMUs. These consist mainly of Class 158 and Class 170 sets. Some services are still operated by a Class 156. The only exception to this is the Caledonian Sleeper service from Inverness to London Euston, which is a loco hauled rake of Mk2 and Mk3 coaches.

The Virgin Trains East Coast that stops here is operated by HST sets, made up of a pair of Class 43 power cars and nine Mk3 coaches.

Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway

Dunblane used to be a junction where the present line and the Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway diverged. This connected at Callander to the Callander and Oban Railway. The line was axed in the Beeching cuts, being formally closed on 1 November 1965 (although traffic beyond Callander had ended five weeks earlier due to a landslide in Glen Ogle).

Parts of the trackbed from near Dunblane to Doune and from Callander to Killin are now cycle paths.

A short section of track remains on the branch, and is used for storing track maintenance machines, or sometimes even a DMU.