| Fort William | |
| Native Name: | Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: An Gearasdan |
| Symbol Location: | gb |
| Symbol: | rail |
| Borough: | Fort William, Highland |
| Country: | Scotland |
| Coordinates: | 56.8207°N -5.1047°W |
| Grid Name: | Grid reference |
| Manager: | ScotRail |
| Platforms: | 2 |
| Code: | FTW[1] |
| Original: | British Rail |
| Years: | 7 August 1894 |
| Events: | First station opened |
| Years1: | 9 June 1975 |
| Events1: | First station closed |
| Years2: | 13 June 1975 |
| Events2: | Present station opened |
| Footnotes: | Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
Fort William railway station serves the town of Fort William, in the Highland region of Scotland. It is on the West Highland line, between Spean Bridge and Banavie, measured 99miles from Craigendoran Junction, at the southern end of the line near Helensburgh.[2] The station is managed by ScotRail, who operate most services from the station; Caledonian Sleeper and The Jacobite, an excursion operated by West Coast Railways, also use the station.
The first station was constructed by the West Highland Railway which was later absorbed by the North British Railway. They chose a site for the station alongside the town shipping pier, which required the purchase of a strip of the foreshore. The railway company bought this for £25 an acre.[3] Purchase of this land displaced some people from their houses and the railway company was obliged to provide replacement housing. Other residents realised too late that the railway line cut the town off from the shore and the company responded by providing some wicket gate crossings.
It was opened by the Marchioness of Tweedale, Candida Louisa Bartolucci, wife of the chairman of the North British Railway, William Hay, 10th Marquess of Tweeddale[4] on 7 August 1894. They had departed by special train comprising two locomotives and eleven carriages from Glasgow at 8.15am, and arrived in Fort William at 1.30pm. It was sited to the west of the present station on what is now the A82 town bypass, alongside Loch Linnhe at Station Square, at the time in close proximity to then location of the former Caledonian MacBrayne bus station. The old station was a stone built construction featuring a turret and a double arched entranceway and had three platforms. Two of the platforms terminated under the platform canopy, but the third continued past the station, crossing the MacBrayne pier and terminated at the jetty just beyond.[5]
In 1970 the British Railways Board put forward proposals to re-site the station 700yd north of its location to allow the improvements to the A82 to be implemented.[6] The last train from the old station departed on 7 June 1975[7] and the station closed on 9 June. It was demolished immediately afterwards to permit construction of the bypass.[8]
The present Fort William station of grey concrete construction was opened on 13 June 1975.[8] The current station lies in the shadow of Ben Nevis.
During high winds in February 1980 a brick wall at the station collapsed onto the track and blocked a platform.[9]
Since its opening in 1975, the present Fort William station has been equipped with colour light signals. The signalling is controlled from an 'NX' (entrance-exit) panel in Fort William Junction signal box. The single line between the junction and the station is worked by the Track Circuit Block system, so no tokens are needed for that part of the route.
Refurbishment of the facilities at Fort William railway station was completed in 2007 thanks to a £750,000 investment.[10] The refurbishment includes new shower facilities and refurbished toilets. The shower facilities include two showers for ladies, two for gentlemen and one unisex shower facility for disabled people.
The island platform is also equipped with a few shops and restaurants, a ticket office, bike racks, a car park and a taxi rank, and some benches. All areas of the station are step-free.[11]
| Entries and exits | 115,510 | 120,333 | 121,920 | 134,302 | 135,488 | 138,870 | 135,556 | 145,504 | 144,106 | 139,808 | 138,514 | 155,856 | 160,418 | 139,722 | 22,316 | 114,230 | 145,564 | |
| Interchanges | 192 | 211 | 247 | 295 | 365 | 414 | 458 | 440 | 387 | 339 | 355 | 393 | 414 | 377 | 39 | 197 | 204 |
Fort William has three daytime trains per day in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays, running between and . There is also a daily early morning service to Mallaig that starts at Fort William, with a similar return service in the evening, which connects with the Caledonian Sleeper. The regular Sunday service consists of two train per day each way between Glasgow and Mallaig, with the schedule in the peak season supplemented by one service between Fort William and Mallaig.
The Caledonian Sleeper operates six nights per week (not Saturday nights) to and from, starting and terminating at Fort William. The sleeper also carries seated coaches and can thus be used as a regular service train to/from Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley.
The Jacobite operates non-stop between Fort William and Mallaig. This runs all year round, with a maximum of two trains per day Monday to Saturday and one on Sunday. A reduced Jacobite timetable is operated later in the summer.[13] [14] [15]