Burntisland railway station

Burntisland Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Loisgte[1]
Burntisland original terminus building
General information
Location	Burntisland, Fife Scotland
Coordinates	56.0573°N 3.2335°W / 56.0573; -3.2335
Grid reference	NT232856
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BTS
Passengers
2019/20	0.211 million
2020/21	26,548
2021/22	0.133 million
2022/23	0.151 million
2023/24	0.181 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Burntisland railway station is a railway station in the town of Burntisland, Fife, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line.

History

The station was designed by Grainger & Miller engineers.^[2] Originally it was the southern terminus of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, with tracks and trainshed stretching away behind the imposing terminus building. The railway opened its main line north across Fife to Lindores & Cupar (branch line) in September 1847. These were extended by the following summer to Hilton Junction, near Perth, and Tayport. From Burntisland, a ferry service ran across the River Forth to Granton in the northern suburbs of Edinburgh, from where trains could be taken to various destinations across central and south-west Scotland.

The current station, which bypasses the site of the original station, dates from 1890 when the Forth Rail Bridge and associated connecting lines were opened to provide a direct route across the Forth estuary to Edinburgh Waverley.

Accidents and incidents

The accident to the Flying Scotsman in 1914

On 14 April 1914, an express passenger train hauled by NBR H class locomotive 872 Auld Reekie was in collision with a freight train that was being shunted. The cause of the accident was an error by the signalman.^[3] Two people were killed.^[4]

Services

Two trains per hour call at the station off peak (Mon-Sat), running southbound to Inverkeithing and Edinburgh and northbound to Kirkcaldy & Glenrothes with Thornton. One of the latter then continues along the western side of the Fife Circle line back to Edinburgh via Cowdenbeath. Evenings see an hourly service, with some through trains beyond Kirkcaldy to Dundee or Perth, whilst on Sundays the first northbound diagram of the day is a semi-fast service to Aberdeen, with an hourly service each way around the Circle thereafter.^[5]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Aberdour		ScotRail Fife Circle Line		Kinghorn

References

1. Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
2. Buildings of Scotland: Fife by John Gifford
3. Hoole, Ken (1983). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 4. Redruth: Atlantic Books. p. 30. ISBN 0-906899-07-9.
4. "Accident at Burntisland on 14th April 1914 :: The Railways Archive".
5. Table 242 National Rail timetable, May 2016