Dundee railway station

History

The station is the rebuilt Dundee Tay Bridge railway station, which had been built by the North British Railway in 1878 as part of the Tay Rail Bridge project. It was originally one of three main stations in Dundee, along with Dundee West station, the Caledonian Railway station for Perth which was rebuilt in 1889-1890 and closed in the 1960s, and Dundee East station on the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway which closed in 1959. It is located in cutting at the south end of Camperdown tunnel, which passes beneath the town's former docks (now filled in) and required permanent pumping to keep dry. The station is consequently sited below sea level.

In the nineteenth century plans were put forward to concentrate all Dundee's railway facilities in a new central station, with the idea first being mooted by John Leng in 1864 in his role as editor of the Dundee Advertiser. The idea re-emerged in 1872 following the start of work on the Tay Rail Bridge and again in 1896. Various sites for the scheme were suggested including building it between the High Street and the harbour and between the Murraygate and the Meadows. However, none of these proposals were ever realised and the three distinct stations survived as independent entities.

Today, the only other remaining station within Dundee City boundaries is . Both and stations are located very close to the city's boundaries, but lie in Angus and Perth and Kinross.

As part of the redevelopment of Dundee city centre in the 1960s the original public entrance of Dundee Tay Bridge station was demolished to accommodate the new Tay Road Bridge offramps, with a new smaller structure replacing it. A footbridge connected the new station building to the city's Union Street to allow pedestrians to cross the busy inner ring road safely. In 2005, the footbridge was demolished in two phases as part of a regeneration project called the Dundee Central Waterfront Development Plan. This project, which has included removal of the 1970s public entrance to the station, will attempt to restructure the approach roads to the Tay Road Bridge and create a new civic space, as well as making way for the new railway station.

New station

A new £38m railway station was built in 2018; it replaced the old station as part of the Dundee waterfront regeneration project. The designer of the station was Dundee-based architecture firm Nicoll Russell Studios in collaboration with Jacobs Engineering Group; construction work was carried out by Balfour Beatty. Construction began in late 2015 and a temporary entrance was established on Riverside Drive. The new station was built over the site of the demolished old station. It includes a five-storey, curved building that houses the new station entrance, concourse and access points on the first and underground floors as well as a 120-room Sleeperz Hotel occupying the upper floors.

Construction of the new railway station was completed in early June and it was opened alongside the new Sleeperz Hotel on 9 July 2018 by Dundee West MSP & then Minister for Public Health and Sport Joe FitzPatrick, Lord Provost Ian Borthwick and representatives from Dundee City Council.

Facilities

There is a taxi stand immediately outside of the station building, and the main bus interchange is ½-mile walk from the station in the city centre. There is a "Travel Office" for information and ticket purchasing, as well as an automatic ticket machine outside the office. The office often closes well before the last trains have departed.

There is also a café adjacent to the automatic ticket gates on the concourse. The café, operated by WHSmith, mainly serves cold food such as sandwiches and hot and cold drinks. Like the ticket office, the café does not open in the late evening. A Costa Coffee branch opened in 2020, located in the former Tay Bar.

A Tesco Express opened next to the entrance of the station in 2022.

Platform layout

The station is based on an island platform, with two through platforms on the outer sides, and two west-facing bay platforms:

• Platform 1 is the westbound through platform. It is used for trains from Arbroath and Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley.
• Platform 2 and 3 are the bay platforms, used for terminating trains from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• Platform 4 is the eastbound through platform, used for trains towards Arbroath and Aberdeen.

Passenger volume

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

There are 3 direct services to London King's Cross per day, plus 1 CrossCountry service per day along the Cross Country Route between and Plymouth via , Sheffield, Derby, , Bristol Temple Meads, and Plymouth. Additionally, one LNER service per day will operate between Aberdeen and Leeds. More frequent services run to , Edinburgh and . Caledonian Sleeper provides overnight services to .

Off-peak services that operate from the station are:

:

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

1. "Railway Codes".
2. Butt (1995), page 85
3. "Estimates of station usage {{!}} Office of Rail and Road".
4. (2013). "Lost Dundee. Dundee's Lost Architectural Heritage". Birlinn.
5. (2013). "Lost Dundee. Dundee's Lost Architectural Heritage". Birlinn.
6. "Broughty Ferry {{!}} ScotRail".
7. "Invergowrie {{!}} ScotRail".
8. (3 August 2016). "Welcoming the world – Dundee's grand new railway station {{!}} netMAGmedia Ltd".
9. "Dundee Station Redevelopment, Scotland".
10. (2018-07-09). "New £38m Dundee railway station opens".
11. "Dundee's New £38m railway station opened".
12. "State-of-the-art Dundee station opened after 20 years of planning".
13. "Estimates of station usage {{!}} ORR Data Portal".
14. eNRT May 2022 Edition, Tables 20, 50, 214, 215, 220