General information | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Location | Polmont, Falkirk Scotland | ||||
Coordinates | 55°59′05″N3°42′54″W / 55.9846°N 3.7149°W | ||||
Grid reference | NS930781 | ||||
Managed by | ScotRail | ||||
Platforms | 2 | ||||
Other information | |||||
Station code | PMT | ||||
History | |||||
Opened | 1842 | ||||
Original company | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway | ||||
Pre-grouping | North British Railway | ||||
Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway | ||||
Passengers | |||||
2019/20 | 0.745 million | ||||
2020/21 | 69,402 | ||||
2021/22 | 0.340 million | ||||
2022/23 | 0.521 million | ||||
2023/24 | 0.649 million | ||||
|
Polmont railway station is a railway station serving the village of Polmont,Scotland as well as the other Falkirk Braes villages. It is located on the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line and is also served by ScotRail services from Edinburgh to Stirling and Dunblane. It is the nearest station to much of the town of Grangemouth.
It is situated on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway,which was the first railway to be built between the two cities. It opened with the line in 1842 and became a junction eight years later with the opening of the Stirlingshire Middle Junction Railway to Larbert via Falkirk Grahamston. This linked the E&G main line with the Scottish Central Railway route northwards to Perth via Stirling,creating a direct route from Edinburgh to Stirling &Dunblane. The SMJR was taken over by the E&GR prior to opening on 1 October 1850,with the E&GR being absorbed in turn by the North British Railway in 1865. The NBR then became part of the London and North Eastern Railway on 1 January 1923.
The station also later served as the main line interchange for the Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway's branch line to Bo'ness,access to the branch being made by a west facing chord near to the point where the Slamannan line passed beneath the E&GR. A bay platform was provided at Polmont for use by branch trains,though it wasn't until 1933 that services began running there - prior to that they had used a bi-level station further east at Manuel. The branch passenger service was withdrawn by the British Transport Commission on 7 May 1956,but it remained in use for freight until 1975 and has since been reopened as the heritage Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
The station gained a (somewhat unwanted) place in British railway history in the mid-1980s,as it was near here that the Polmont rail accident occurred in July 1984. 13 people died and more than 60 were injured when an Edinburgh to Glasgow express derailed at speed in a cutting just west of the junction,after colliding with a cow that had escaped from a field adjacent to the line (through damaged fencing) and wandered onto the track. [2]
This means there is roughly a train every 15 minutes to/from Edinburgh. [3]
Previously,there was services to Glasgow Queen Street via Cumbernauld,and a daily return peak time service to Fife (from Kirkcaldy in the morning,returning to Markinch in the evening).
The Highland Chieftain,a service operated by London North Eastern Railway from London King's Cross to Inverness passes through the station,as does the Caledonian Sleeper service between Inverness and London Euston. However neither stops here.
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Linlithgow | ScotRail Glasgow-Edinburgh via Falkirk line | Falkirk High | ||
ScotRail Edinburgh–Dunblane Line | Falkirk Grahamston | |||
Historical railways | ||||
Manuel Line open, station closed | North British Railway Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway | Falkirk High Line and station open | ||
North British Railway Stirlingshire Midland Junction Railway | Falkirk Grahamston Line and station open |
Glasgow Queen Street is a passenger railway terminus serving the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the city's two mainline railway terminals and is the third-busiest station in Scotland behind Central and Edinburgh Waverley.
Edinburgh Waverley is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. The station serves as the northern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, 393 miles 13 chains from London King's Cross, although some trains operated by London North Eastern Railway continue to other Scottish destinations beyond Edinburgh.
Perth railway station is a railway station located in the city of Perth, Scotland, on both the Glasgow to Dundee line and the Highland Main Line. It is managed by ScotRail, who provide almost all of the services.
The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station and Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh. Construction cost £1,200,000 for 46 miles (74 km). The intermediate stations were at Corstorphine, Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs. There was a ticket platform at Cowlairs. The line was extended eastwards from Haymarket to North Bridge in 1846, and a joint station for connection with the North British Railway was opened on what is now Edinburgh Waverley railway station in 1847.
The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation of BR in 1948, and was renamed to ScotRail in the mid-1980s.
Edinburgh Park railway station is a railway station in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, serving the Edinburgh Park business park and the Hermiston Gait shopping centre. The new station building was designed by IDP Architects, and it opened on 4 December 2003. It is the first intermediate station between Haymarket and Linlithgow since 1951. Ticket barriers came into use on 25 March 2015.
Lenzie railway station is a railway station serving Lenzie and Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located on the Croy Line, 6+1⁄4 miles (10.1 km) northeast of Glasgow Queen Street. Trains on the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line pass Lenzie by. The station is served by ScotRail.
The Edinburgh–Dunblane line is a railway line in East Central Scotland. It links the city of Edinburgh via Falkirk to the city of Stirling and the town of Dunblane.
Falkirk Grahamston railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town of Falkirk in Scotland. It is located on the Edinburgh to Dunblane Line and also the Cumbernauld Line. Train services are provided by ScotRail. The "Highland Chieftain", the daily London North Eastern Railway service from London King's Cross to Inverness and vice versa also calls here.
Larbert railway station is a railway station serving Larbert near Falkirk, Scotland.
Stirling railway station is a railway station located in Stirling, Scotland. It is located on the former Caledonian Railway main line between Glasgow and Perth. It is the junction for the branch line to Alloa and is also served by trains on the Edinburgh to Dunblane Line and long-distance services to Dundee and Aberdeen and to Inverness via the Highland Main Line.
The Polmont rail accident, also known as the Polmont rail disaster, occurred on 30 July 1984 to the west of Polmont, near Falkirk, in Scotland. A westbound push-pull express train travelling from Edinburgh to Glasgow struck a cow which had gained access to the track through a damaged fence from a field near Polmont railway station, causing all six carriages and the locomotive of the train to derail. 13 people were killed and 61 others were injured, 17 of them seriously. The accident led to a debate about the safety of push-pull trains on British Rail.
Dunblane railway station serves the town of Dunblane in central Scotland. It is located on the former Scottish Central Railway, between Stirling and Perth and opened with the line in 1848. It is the northernmost station on the National Rail network to be electrified.
Cumbernauld railway station serves the town of Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is located on the Cumbernauld Line, 14 miles (23 km) north east of Glasgow Queen Street station and the Motherwell to Cumbernauld Line, 11+3⁄4 miles (18.9 km) north of Motherwell. Trains serving the station are operated by ScotRail.
The Scottish Central Railway was formed in 1845 to link Perth and Stirling to Central Scotland, by building a railway line to join the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway near Castlecary.
The Slamannan Railway was an early mineral railway between the north-eastern margin of Airdrie and Causewayend on the Union Canal, near Linlithgow, Scotland.
The Monkland Railways was a railway company formed in 1848 by the merger of three "coal railways" that had been built to serve coal and iron pits around Airdrie in Central Scotland, and connect them to canals for onward transport of the minerals. The newly formed company had a network stretching from Kirkintilloch to Causewayend, near Linlithgow. These coal railways had had mixed fortunes; the discovery of blackband ironstone and the development of the iron smelting industry around Coatbridge had led to phenomenal success, but hoped-for mineral discoveries in the moorland around Slamannan had been disappointing. The pioneering nature of the railways left them with a legacy of obsolete track and locomotives, and new, more modern, railways were being built around them.
The Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway was a railway built in Scotland in 1848 to extend the Slamannan Railway to the harbour at Borrowstounness on the Firth of Forth, and to connect with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. It was not commercially successful, but in recent years part of it was taken over by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, which operates the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
The Glasgow–Dundee line is a railway line linking Glasgow with Dundee via Stirling and Perth.
Manuel Junction is a railway junction near the village of Whitecross, Falkirk, Scotland. It is the terminus of the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway and forms a connection between it and the Glasgow–Edinburgh via Falkirk line.