Broughty Ferry railway station
Broughty Ferry railway station is a railway station serving the suburb of Broughty Ferry in Dundee, Scotland. It is sited from the former Dundee East station, on the [Dundee–Aberdeen line|Dundee to Aberdeen railway station|Aberdeen line], between Dundee and Balmossie.
It is the oldest railway station in Scotland which is still in operation.
History
The station was opened on 8 October 1838 on the Arbroath Railway.Accidents and incidents
At 7:20 pm on 21 October 1991, a Dundee bound Aberdeen-London Intercity express destroyed two out of the four gates of the level crossing. The fifty passengers on board and five people in a passing car were fortunate to avoid collision when the train passed through the crossing at around 80 miles per hour. The gates had not been closed before the train passed the level crossing. Dundee District Council had previously postponed planning permission to modernise the gates.Facilities
The station is unstaffed, with benches and help points available on both platforms, plus a payphone and cycle racks on platform 1, although a shelter is available on platform 2. Step-free access is available to both platforms from the main road, but both platforms are also joined via the subway. As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train.Passenger volume
In recent years, passenger usage has grown phenomenally, from under 10,000 in 2011–12 to over 90,000 in 2019–20, including a 24,000 rise between 2018–19 and 2019–20. 15 years earlier, usage hovered around 5,000 passengers per year.| 2002–03 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | |
| Entries and exits | 5,237 | 4,943 | 4,996 | 6,271 | 6,277 | 5,918 | 5,570 | 5,362 | 9,288 | 23,180 | 34,970 | 41,246 | 43,276 | 40,718 | 43,330 | 57,454 | 91,678 | 21,720 | 76,182 | 84,268 |
The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services
Service frequencies at the station have varied significantly over the years - prior to 1990, there were regular local trains to Arbroath and Dundee or Perth throughout the day along with a small number of longer-distance workings. For the next twenty years, only a handful of trains stopped here, but since then there has a gradual increase in provision following a campaign by the local authority & rail user groups.As of May 2023, on weekdays and Saturdays there is an hourly service in each direction, to Dundee westbound, and eastbound to Arbroath. On Sundays, there are only 3 northbound services to Aberdeen and 4 southbound services: two to Edinburgh, one to Glasgow Queen Street and one to Perth.