Trains to Edinburgh Waverley - Station Details and further Information on the Edinburgh Area
Edinburgh Waverley train station, commonly called "Waverley", is the main train station in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. Covering an area of over 25 acres in the centre of the city, it is the second-largest main line train station in the United Kingdom in terms of area, the largest being London Waterloo. It is the northern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, and the terminus of the Edinburgh branch of the West Coast Main Line. It is the second-busiest train station in Scotland, with only Glasgow Central handling more passengers.
It is in a steep, narrow valley between the medieval Old Town and the 18th century New Town. Princes Street, the premier shopping street, runs along one side. The valley is bridged by the 1897 North Bridge, a three-span iron and steel bridge, which passes high above the station's eastern section, and Waverley Bridge, which, by means of ramps, affords one of the main entrances to the station. The valley was formerly filled by a freshwater loch, the Nor Loch, drained in the early 19th century.
Trains leave Waverley in two directions:
Eastbound: following a series of closures culminating in that of the Waverley Route in 1969, the only services departing from the east end of Waverley were East Coast Main Line expresses (primarily to London King's Cross and Birmingham New Street), and local trains to North Berwick and (until 1989) Dunbar. Recently, the Edinburgh Crossrail scheme has seen a short stub of the Waverley Route reopened to Newcraighall, and the forthcoming partial reopening of the Waverley Route proper will see trains running to Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders.
Westbound: the line passes through Princes Street Gardens to Haymarket station. From here, lines lead north over the Forth Bridge, to Fife, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness; west to Glasgow Queen Street, Falkirk, Stirling and Dunblane, and south-west to Glasgow Central and the West Coast Main Line via Carlisle. A short branch line runs westward from Newbridge Junction to Bathgate, which was re-opened in 1986 after being closed in 1956. This is currently the subject of an extension project to reconnect it with the Glasgow suburban network at Airdrie, opening up another route between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The City of Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437; it is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas.
Located in the south-east of Scotland, Edinburgh lies on the east coast of the Central Belt, along the Firth of Forth, near the North Sea. Owing to its rugged setting and vast collection of Medieval and Georgian architecture, including numerous stone tenements, it is often considered one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. |
