Stirling railway station, Scotland

Stirling railway station is a railway station located in Stirling, Scotland. It is located on the former Caledonian Railway main line between Glasgow and Perth. It is the junction for the branch line to and Dunfermline via Kincardine and is also served by trains on the Edinburgh to Dunblane Line and long distance services to Dundee & Aberdeen and to Inverness via the Highland Main Line.HistoryStirling was first connected to the Scottish Central Railway in 1848. Lines were subsequently opened by the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway in 1853, and by the Forth and Clyde Junction Railway to three years later. Through services to/from the Callander and Oban Railway also served the station from 1870. The current station buildings were opened in 1916 following a major rebuild by the Caledonian Railway. They have undergone several refurbishments (with minor layout changes), the most recent change being the installation of lifts to enable better access to the footbridge linking Platform 2 with Platforms 3 to 8. The line to Balloch lost its passenger services in 1934 and closed as a through route in 1942, although the section from Stirling to Port of Menteith remained open for freight until 1959. The main line from Stirling to Dunfermline was not scheduled for closure under the Beeching Axe, but it was nevertheless closed in 1968. It has since been partly reopened as far as Alloa (see below). Oban services via the C&O line ended with the Beeching cuts in 1965, and the main terminus in Glasgow for services from Stirling changed from the former C.R. station at to Queen Street the following year.