Beauly railway station
Beauly railway station is a railway station in the village of Beauly, in the Highland council area of Scotland. Located on the Far North Line, it is down the line from , and it is the first intermediate station on the line, before reaching Muir of Ord. History. Original station. The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway, which was to be a line between and , was authorised in 1860, and opened in stages. The first section, between Inverness and , opened on 11 June 1862, and Beauly was one of the stations built for the original line. It had two  platforms, a passing loop and a goods shed with sidings that was equipped with a 1½-ton crane. The station was host to a LMS caravan from 1936 to 1939. The station closed a nearly a century later, on 13 June 1960, along with all other stations between Inverness and . This was due to increasing competition from motorbuses, particularly those of Highland Omnibuses Ltd. The original station building, located on the opposite side from the reopened platform, remains closed to the public; it is now used for offices and housing. 2002 reopening. Following a local campaign, the station was reopened in  2002. A new single platform, shelter and car park were built in a £250,000 project. The platform is the shortest in Great Britain: at the length of , it is shorter than a single carriage of a train that is usually used on this line. As a result, there is only one train door in operation at the station; announcements are made on the train as to which door this will be. Plans to reopen nearby Conon Bridge railway station in a similar style were fulfilled on 8 February 2013. The platform at Conon Bridge is long, just longer than  that at Beauly. Facilities. There is a small car park at the station, in which there is are cycle racks and lockers. On the platform, ther eis a modern waiting shelter, in which there is a payphone. As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train. Passenger volume. The reopening of the station led to 75% of local commuters switching from road to rail. Beauly has therefore provided a boost to campaigns to open small basic local stations. In 2007/8, with its population of just 1,164, Beauly's  usage-to-population ratio (36 annual journeys per head) ranked as one of the highest in Britain. Services. As of the December 2021 timetable, on weekdays and Saturdays, the station sees 11 trains northbound (3 to Wick via Thurso, 4 to Kyle of Lochalsh, 1 to Dingwall, 1 to Invergordon, 1 to Ardgay and 1 to Tain), and 13 trains southbound to Inverness. On Sundays, the station sees 6 trains northbound (1 to Wick, 1 to Kyle of Lochalsh, 1 to Invergordon and 3 to Tain), and 6 trains southbound.