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Glenrothes with Thornton railway station

Coordinates: 56°09′44″N 3°08′33″W / 56.1623°N 3.1426°W / 56.1623; -3.1426
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Glenrothes with Thornton

Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Rathais le Thornton[1]
National Rail
General information
LocationThornton, Fife
Scotland
Coordinates56°09′44″N 3°08′33″W / 56.1623°N 3.1426°W / 56.1623; -3.1426
Grid referenceNT291972
Managed byScotRail
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeGLT
History
Opened11 May 1992
Passengers
2018/19Decrease 76,810
2019/20Decrease 71,870
2020/21Decrease 7,366
2021/22Increase 43,680
2022/23Decrease 42,604
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Glenrothes with Thornton railway station is located in Thornton in Fife, Scotland. It serves the communities of Thornton and Glenrothes. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line, 31+14 miles (50.3 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley.

History

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The station is situated on the Dunfermline branch of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, just west of its divergence from the E&NR main line via a triangular junction.[2] It is a completely new structure, having been built by British Rail with the support of Fife Regional Council to serve the two communities that it is named after. Glenrothes (as a post-war new town) has never had its own station (though Markinch station is nearby) whilst Thornton had lost its station (Thornton Junction) on the main line in October 1969 in the aftermath of the Beeching Axe (services on the line westwards to Cardenden and on the Leven branch had ended at the same time).

The successful inauguration of the Fife Circle Line service in 1989 had seen the Cardenden to Thornton Jn section reopened to passengers and this provided the catalyst for the construction of the station. It was completed in the spring of 1992 and it was opened to traffic on 11 May that year, at the summer timetable change.[citation needed]

Though it has the appearance of a standard two platform station on a double track line, it is actually sited east of Thornton West Junction, where the double line from Cardenden splits into two parallel single lines that diverge after passing through the station to join the main line. One of these runs southwards to Thornton South Junction and is used by all trains to and from Edinburgh via the coast, whilst the other curves to the north and is used by trains heading for Markinch and thence to Perth or Dundee. As a consequence of this, both platforms are bi-directional (a similar layout exists at Bare Lane in Lancashire) but the southern one (platform 1) is much busier than the northern one (2) due to the service pattern in use on the Fife Circle.

Services

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On Mondays to Saturdays, outside the morning rush, there is one train per hour to and from Edinburgh. The majority of services depart from Platform 1 and run via Dunfermline. Services via Kirkcaldy are infrequent (one per day). On Sundays, an hourly service runs to Edinburgh via Dunfermline.

There is a very limited service to/from Perth. On Monday to Saturdays, there is one train per day to Perth, while there are two trains from Perth which call here going to Edinburgh. On Sundays, there is also one train per day northbound, with one train from Perth to Edinburgh.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Cardenden   ScotRail
Fife Circle Line
  Kirkcaldy

References

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  1. ^ Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
  2. ^ "Dunfermline Branch (Edinburgh & Northern Railway)". Railscot. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
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