Dyce railway station

Dyce
Dyce Railway Station
Location
Place	Dyce
Local authority	Aberdeen City Council
Coordinates	57°12′20″N 2°11′33″W / 57.2056°N 2.1926°WCoordinates: 57°12′20″N 2°11′33″W / 57.2056°N 2.1926°W
Grid reference	NJ884128
Operations
Station code	DYC
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.580 million
2011/12	0.678 million
2012/13	0.760 million
2013/14	0.811 million
2014/15	0.824 million
History
20 September 1854	Opened
6 May 1968	Closed
15 September 1984	Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Dyce from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Dyce railway station is a railway station serving the town of Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line, with some trains operating on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line and Glasgow to Aberdeen Line also extended to call at Dyce and Inverurie. This gives direct service from Dyce to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and intermediate stations.

It is the closest station to Aberdeen Airport, whose runway is located next to the station. Aircraft can frequently be seen landing and taking off. However, the passenger terminal is the other side of the runway so a bus or taxi journey is required to reach it. Bus services to the airport terminal are provided by Stagecoach Bluebird's 80 Jet Connect route. However, for those travelling between the airport and Aberdeen city centre, direct bus services to/from the bus station at Union Square, such as route 727, are usually more convenient.

History

The station here was opened (along with the line) in 1854 by the Great North of Scotland Railway.^[1] It later became a junction for the Formartine and Buchan Railway, which diverged here and headed north to Peterhead & Fraserburgh; this opened to traffic in 1861 and had its own platforms alongside the main line ones. Passenger services over both branches ended as a result of the Beeching Axe on 4 October 1965 but the station remained open until 6 May 1968.^[2] Freight continued to Peterhead until 1970 and to Fraserburgh until October 1979. There is still evidence on the ground of the old branch platforms which sat on the site of the station car park. The former branch lines are now a long distance cycle path, accessible from the western end of the car park.

The station was reopened by British Rail in September 1984.^[3]

Station facilities

The station has two platforms connected by a new fully accessible footbridge, implemented in 2014. The station is unstaffed and there is no ticket office, but automatic ticket vending machines are provided. Other facilities include car park, taxi rank, cycle storage, seating and a simple shelter on each platform, and train information displays. A pub, the Spider's Web, is located next to the station.

Station usage

Dyce is a popular station with airport passengers, business travellers and commuters, both to and from Aberdeen. There has been massive growth of Dyce station from 239,000 passengers in 2002-03 to more than three times that number, 824,000, in 2014-15.

In addition to Dyce and the many businesses in the area, the station also serves the airport and is popular with oil workers returning from the rigs. In addition to the 80 DyceJet Connect shuttle bus, a taxi rank provides a different means of transport to the airport terminal. A bus-only turning circle was constructed in 2015 to provide quick links between the station and airport.

Signalling

Dyce signal box

Dyce signal box, which opened in 1880, is a tall structure located at the south (Aberdeen) end of the station, on the east side of the railway. In 1928, the box was provided with a new frame of 46 levers, subsequently reduced in size to 26 levers.

Dyce lost its semaphore signals in October 2007 when new colour light signals were brought into use. The lever frame was removed from the signal box (renamed from "Dyce Junction" to "Dyce") and a new relay interlocking and 'NX' (entrance-exit) panel was installed, initially housed inside a temporary signal box.

Raiths Farm

A new freight terminal, named "Raiths Farm", has been built to the north of Dyce station, in a field on the west side of the railway. Construction of the terminal was completed in November 2007. The Raiths Farm facility replaced the Guild Street yard at Aberdeen, allowing the latter site, which occupied valuable land close to the city centre, to be redeveloped.

The Raiths Farm layout comprises arrival and departure lines to the north and south, a run-round loop and four sidings. The facility began operations in 2009.

Services

There is an hourly service in each direction Mondays to Saturdays to Aberdeen and Inverurie, with eleven of the latter trains continuing to Inverness.^[4] Seven Aberdeen trains run through to Edinburgh and one (two on Saturdays) to Glasgow, along with an evening commuter service to Stonehaven.^[5]

There are nine southbound and eleven northbound departures on Sundays, five of the latter running to Inverness.

Future Improvements

Service frequencies are to be improved here from 2018 as part of a timetable recast funded by Transport Scotland. An "Aberdeen Crossrail" commuter service is to be introduced between Montrose and Inverurie, which will call here and the other intermediate stations en-route once per hour in each direction.^[6] The Aberdeen to Inverurie frequency will also be upped to every 30 minutes, with several of the existing Inverness trains combined with Aberdeen to Glasgow & Edinburgh express services to maintain through journey opportunities. A £170 million project to upgrade the Aberdeen to Inverness line will also see the track through here redoubled by 2019.^[7]

References

1. Railscot - Great North of Scotland Railway Railscot; Retrieved 2014-02-07
2. Daniels, Gerald David; Dench, Leslie Alan (May 1973) [1964]. Passengers No More (2nd ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 47. ISBN 0-7110-0438-2. OCLC 2554248. 1513 CEC 573.
3. Scot-Rail Station Openings since 1960 www.scot-rail.co.uk; Retrieved 2014-02-07
4. GB National Rail Timetable May 2016, Table 240 (Network Rail)
5. GB National Rail Timetable 2016, Table 229
6. "‘Rail revolution’ means 200 more services and 20,000 more seats for Scots passengers"Transport Scotland press release 15 March 2016; Retrieved 19 August 2016
7. "Aberdeen to Inverness Rail Improvement Project, Scotland"Railway-technology.com article; Retrieved 19 August 2016

External links

• Railscot - Dyce