Nairn railway station is a railway station serving the town of Nairn in Scotland. The station is managed and served by ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line, between Forres and Inverness Airport, measured from Perth via the former Dava route. It is a category B listed building.
History
The station was first opened on 7 November 1855 by the Inverness and Nairn Railway.Thomas and Turnock, pages 225 and 226 In 1857, the line was extended eastwards to Dalvey. The route from Aberdeen to Inverness was merged into one company, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, in 1861.Thomas and Turnock, pages 169 and 170
In 1885 the Highland Railway Company agreed to improve the facilities at Nairn, including:
Replacing the station buildings with improved accommodation for passenger and staff; Masonry work, completed by Mr. Squair of Nairn; Erecting a new station master's house; Extending the platforms to around and raising them in height to the level of the carriages; Installing a new iron foot bridge over the line to connect the platforms, meaning passengers avoid using a foot crossing over the running lines
The bridge over Cawdor Road was also widened at the same time. The work was completed in 1886.
The station was notable for being the last working example of Highland Railway signalling principles, where a signal box was provided at each end to work the signals & points whilst the key token instruments for working the single line were located in the main building. The distance between the boxes was such that a bicycle was officially provided by BR (and later Railtrack) for the signaller to use.Section C - 2000The Signal Box; Retrieved 2013-10-09
Control of the signalling at the station has since transferred to a new workstation in the Inverness signalling centre, following a 10-day line closure that also saw the loop at Elgin lengthened and a new station and loop commissioned at Forres. The signalbox itself closed in October 2017.
Facilities The station has a ticket office, ticket machine and accessible toilet on platform 1, adjacent to some bike racks and one of the car parks. The other is adjacent to platform 2, which is equipped with a flower shop and a help point. There is step-free access to both platforms, but not between them, as the bridge linking them does not have lifts.
Platform layout The station is from (measured via ), and has a passing loop long, flanked by two platforms which can each accommodate an eight-coach train.
Passenger volume +Passenger Volume at Nairn2004–052005–062006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–202020–212021–222022–232023–242024–25Entries and exits80,62685,48875,35370,45475,49083,980101,182111,748112,014116,768127,180130,174120,504112,142117,780134,51846,324100,752101,642133,760137,890 The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services As of May 2026, there are seventeen daily departures from the station each way on weekdays and Saturdays. Most are through trains between Aberdeen and Inverness, but some trains start from or terminate at Elgin. One departure runs through to Edinburgh in the morning. On Sundays there are five through trains each way.eNRT May 2026 Edition, Table 214
References
Bibliography
Thomas, John and Turnock, David (1989) A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 15: North of Scotland, David St John Thomas (publisher), Newton Abbot, ISBN 0946537 03 8, page 154
Further reading
External links
Railscot - Nairn