Helmsdale railway station is a railway station serving the village of Helmsdale in the Highland council area, northern Scotland. It is located on the Far North Line, between Brora and Kildonan, 101 miles 40 chains (163.3 km) from Inverness. ScotRail, who manage the station, operate all services.

History

The Duke of Sutherland's Railway had opened between Dunrobin and West Helmsdale (near Gartymore) on 1 November 1870. Extensions of this line southward to Golspie and northward to Helmsdale were opened on 19 June 1871. The station buildings were designed by the architect William Fowler.

Another company, the Sutherland and Caithness Railway (S&CR), was authorised on 13 July 1871 to take over the powers of the projected Caithness Railway and link Helmsdale with that line at Georgemas Junction, and the S&CR opened on 28 July 1874.

The station master's house on the platform was abandoned in the 1980s. In 2013 it was refitted as self-catering holiday accommodation.

Accidents and incidents

On 29 April 1891 there was a collision between a down mixed train from Inverness which ran into an engine which had arrived earlier. Major Marindin of the Board of Trade investigated and found that the driver Robert Lindsay deliberately ignored the signals as he would have had difficulty in restarting the train on the rising gradient of 1 in 59.

Facilities

Both platforms have waiting areas and benches, whilst platform 2 also has a help point. Bike racks and a car park are adjacent to platform 2. There is step free access to platform 2 only; platform 1 can only be accessed via the footbridge.

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Helmsdale

	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	3,972	3,513	3,514	4,456	5,348	5,646	5,680	5,656	6,086	5,828	5,778	5,096	6,204	5,768	4,636	5,044	5,086	564	3,168	3,484

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

Mondays to Saturdays, there are four train each way that call here - southbound to Dingwall & Inverness and northbound to Wick via Thurso. Sundays see a single departure each way.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Brora		ScotRail Far North Line		Kildonan
	Historical railways
West Helmsdale Line open, station closed		Highland Railway Duke of Sutherland's Railway Sutherland and Caithness Railway		Salzcraggie Platform Line open, station closed