Dumfries railway station

Dumfries

Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Phris
National Rail
Station with station hotel behind
General information
LocationDumfries, Dumfries and Galloway
Scotland
Coordinates55°04′22″N 3°36′16″W / 55.0728°N 3.6045°W / 55.0728; -3.6045
Grid referenceNX976765
Managed byScotRail
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeDMF
Key dates
1848Opened
1850Line to Glasgow opened
Passengers
2018/19Increase 0.403 million
2019/20Decrease 0.389 million
2020/21Decrease 44,712
2021/22Increase 0.232 million
Interchange 119
2022/23Increase 0.291 million
InterchangeIncrease 540
Listed Building – Category B
Designated6 March 1981
Reference no.LB26343
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Dumfries railway station serves the town of Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the Glasgow South Western Line. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by ScotRail who provide all passenger train services. It is staffed on a part-time basis throughout the week.

History

Opened by the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway in 1848, the line serving it was extended northwards to Kilmarnock and Glasgow two years later (the GD&CR became part of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at the same time). It subsequently became the junction for branches to Castle Douglas and Stranraer (opened between 1859 and 1861), Lockerbie (opened in 1863 and taken over in 1865 by the Caledonian Railway) and latterly to Moniaive (Cairn Valley Railway, opened in 1905). All of these later lines have now closed (the Port Road to Stranraer being the last to go in June 1965), leaving only the original G&SWR main line open to serve the town. The Beeching Axe cutting the Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway and Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railway has resulted in adverse mileage to connect Stranraer with a longer line via Kilmarnock and Ayr. The journey by railway and ferry via Stranraer to Larne Harbour or since the line closed to the Port of Belfast is much longer.

Historic Scotland have designated the station and separately the adjacent station hotel as category B listed buildings.

Carnation built an evaporated milk factory in Dumfries that opened in 1935, eventually constructing three units producing tin cans, evaporated milk and latterly Coffeemate. The original factory had private siding access to the station's goods yard, which gave access for milk trains to the facility, in both delivering raw product as well as distribution to London. Milk trains stopped in the mid-1970s. The United States parent company was bought by Nestle in 1985, after which a decline in the facility began. CoffeeMate production ceased in 2000, after which the site was fully redeveloped as an industrial estate.

Future

In 2023 it was confirmed that step-free access to both platforms would be added.

In fiction

The station features in the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) by John Buchan. Richard Hannay, fleeing from German secret agents, travels from London St Pancras to Galloway, changing trains at Dumfries. In 1939, T.S. Eliot included Dumfries in his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat, speaks with the police at Dumfries Station during the night.

Services

ScotRail

The service from the station is somewhat infrequent with trains running to different patterns during the day, these are as follows:

On Monday to Saturdays, There is a regular hourly service southbound to/from Carlisle with extra trains running at peak times. There is 9 trains per day northbound to Kilmarnock and Glasgow which run every 2 hours. On Sundays, There is a 2 hourly service southbound to Carlisle (5 in total) but a very limited service of 2 trains per day northbound to Kilmarnock and Glasgow. There was a direct service to Stranraer via Kilmarnock but this ceased in 2009. Services running through Carlisle to Newcastle were stopped at the May 2022 timetable change.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Annan   ScotRail
Glasgow South Western Line
  Sanquhar
  Historical railways  
Maxwelltown
Line and station closed
  Glasgow and South Western Railway
Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway
  Terminus

Gallery

1960

2009


This page was last updated at 2024-01-12 14:55 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari