Kyle of Lochalsh Line
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| Kyle of Lochalsh Line |
| Principal stations (from east to west)
Inverness |
The Kyle of Lochalsh Line is a railway line in the Scottish Highlands, running from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh. The population along the route is very sparse, but the scenery is certainly very beautiful, and many of the passengers on the trains are tourists. All trains run to Inverness, running along the Far North Line from Dingwall to Inverness. Services are provided by First ScotRail.
[edit] History
The initial aim was to connect Skye to Inverness. Although Inverness was Skye's county town at the time, it was easier to get there via Glasgow. The line opened in 1870, but with its terminus at Stromeferry. Boats provided onward connection to Skye and the Outer Hebrides. The logical route for the line would taken it through Strathpeffer, a spa town, and one of the few centres of population, but disagreements with landowners meant that it bypassed the town, until 1885 when a branch line was opened. The branch closed in 1951, and the absence of revenue from the town for the Kyle line has often been noted. In 1895 the line was extended to Kyle, through some unforgiving terrain; almost all of the extension is in rock cuttings or embankments. At the time it was the most expensive railway ever built in the UK per mile, and much money was provided by the government.
The line never gained much traffic: connections with the ferries were often unreliable; much freight traffic was stolen by the West Highland Main Line upon its opening. Original ideas, including such ideas as moving fishing boats by rail across Scotland to avoid navigating around, never came to fruition. The line avoided the Beeching Axe due to social necessity, but throughout the 1970s it was variously threatened with closure, but won a reprieve until the Caledonian MacBrayne service to Lewis was moved from Kyle to Ullapool. It was eventually saved in connection with supplying goods for oil platform fabrication at the nearby Kishorn Yard. In 1989 the bridge over the River Ness was washed away, leaving both it and the Far North Line stranded, but new sprinter trains were brought over by road, and a temporary yard was built to service them at Muir of Ord. The section of line along Loch Carron is particularly troublesome, and prone to landslides, often closing that section.
