Huntly railway station

Not to be confused with Huntly railway station, Victoria; Huntly railway station, Waikato; or Huntley station.

Huntly Scottish Gaelic: Hunndaidh[1]
Looking south towards Insch from the footbridge
General information
Location	Huntly, Aberdeenshire Scotland
Coordinates	57.4445°N 2.7758°W / 57.4445; -2.7758
Grid reference	NJ535396
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	HNT[2]
History
Original company	Great North of Scotland Railway
Pre-grouping	Great North of Scotland Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
Key dates
20 September 1854	Opened[3]
Passengers
2019/20	72,090
2020/21	12,612
2021/22	44,894
2022/23	49,568
2023/24	60,956
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Huntly railway station is a railway station serving the town of Huntly in Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line, between Insch and Keith, 40 miles 67 chains (65.7 km) from Aberdeen.^[4]

A small goods yard is located adjacent to the station and operated by DB Schenker. A goods shed remains standing within the yard.

History

The station seen circa 1971

The station was opened by the Great North of Scotland Railway on 20 September 1854,^[3] with the commissioning of the line from the original Waterloo terminus in Aberdeen. The route onwards to Keith followed on 11 October 1856,^[5] with the through link to the new joint station at Aberdeen completed in November 1867 to connect the GNSR to the Aberdeen Railway.^{[citation needed]} The track was doubled in 1896, when a non-stop train from Aberdeen was speeded up to a 45-minute schedule for the 40+3⁄4 mi (65.6 km), though it ceased when the overnight London express was slowed later that year.^[5]

The original station building, which had an overall roof^[5] and was described in 1898 as, "a decent structure of the old fashioned 'roofed-over' type",^[6] was later demolished and replaced.

Facilities

The station's ticket office is staffed six days per week from early morning until early afternoon (06:50 – 13:50, Mon-Sat). A self-service ticket machine is provided for use outside of these times and for collecting advance purchase tickets. A pay phone and post box are available, along with shelters on each platform and toilets in the booking hall (the latter open only when the station is staffed). Train running information is offered via customer help points, CIS displays, automatic announcements and timetable posters. Step-free access is available to both platforms via ramps, though the footbridge linking them has steps.^[7]

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Huntly^[8]

	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	62,001	69,533	70,430	75,708	84,223	87,894	84,300	90,010	93,796	94,026	98,276	104,534	105,846	94,904	92,956	77,782	72,090	12,612	44,894	49,568

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

As of May 2022, there is a basic two-hourly frequency in each directions (with peak extras), to Inverness northbound and Aberdeen southbound (12 trains southbound, 11 northbound). The first departure to Aberdeen each weekday and Saturday continues south to Edinburgh Waverley, and another continues to Stonehaven in the evening. On Sundays there are five trains each way.^[9]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Insch		ScotRail Aberdeen to Inverness Line		Keith
	Historical railways
Rothiemay Line open; Station closed		Great North of Scotland Railway		Gartly Line open; Station closed

References

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Deaves, Phil. "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
3. Butt (1995), p. 125
4. Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 978-1909431-26-3.
5. Vallance, H. A. (January 1954). "The Great North of Scotland Railway". Railway Magazine pp. 43–51. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
6. Scott, W. J. (January 1898). "Little and Good". Railway Magazine p. 22. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
7. "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Huntly". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
8. "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
9. eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 214

Bibliography

• Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

External links

• Train times and station information for Huntly railway station from National Rail
• RAILSCOT on the Great North of Scotland Railway