Scotland’s quietest railway stations are in the Highlands - but where does your local train station sit on the list?
Eight of Scotland’s 10 least used railway stations are located in the north Highlands - including several in Ross-shire.
That’s according to new annual figures from the Office of Rail and Road.
It has just published its annual list of passenger totals, with the new figures covering the financial year from April 2023 until the end of March this year.
And that time window means the station you might expect to be the least used in Scotland, actually isn’t.
For Altnabreac, which has now been temporarily closed for more than a year, was only the third least used station - and likely would have posted larger passenger numbers if it hadn’t been shut for half the period covered.
Least used station in Scotland during the 2023 to 2024 financial year was Kildonan on the Far North Line, with 240 passengers, followed close behind by Scotscalder with 242.
Altnabreac was third with 250 passengers.
Other stations on the Far North and Kyle lines which made it into the top 10 were Culrain (300), Lochluichart (374), Invershin (440), Duncraig (448) and Achanalt (506).
The only two stations outside the far north to make it into the top 10 least used stations were both on the West Highland Line between Fort William and Mallaig - with Beasdale in fourth with 260, and Locheilside in seventh with 418.
However, while all of these stations’ triple digit passenger numbers were sufficiently low enough to be the quietest stations in Scotland, they were not the least used in the UK.
The station with the least passengers in the last financial year was Denton in Greater Manchester, which only posted 54.
Indeed, Scotland's least used stations didn't even make the UK top five, with Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire (70), Ince and Elton in Cheshire (86), Polesworth in Warwickshire (118), and Reddish South in Great Manchester (128) all recording fewer passengers.
Meanwhile, the busiest stations in Scotland were Glasgow Central (25 million passengers), Edinburgh Waverley (21.3m), Glasgow Queen Street (14.5m), Paisley Gilmour Street (3.2m), Haymarket in Edinburgh (3m), Partick (2.9m), Stirling (2.4m), Aberdeen (2.3m), Dundee (1.7m) and Exhibition Centre in Glasgow (1.6m).
The most used station was London Liverpool Street with 94.5m passengers.
Feras Alshaker, Director, Planning and Performance at the Office of Rail and Road, said: 'These statistics provide crucial insights for passengers, the rail industry and its stakeholders and demonstrate clearly how travel patterns are changing across the country.
“Alongside our rail usage statistics they show that since the pandemic rail usage continues to increase.”
