Edinburgh Attractions

Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station

The City of Edinburgh in Scotland has one of the busiest railway stations in Scotland, called the Edinburgh Waverley.  It handles all the trains coming up from the East Coast Main Line and is also the terminus for the trains travelling up the West Coast Main Line.

The Waverley as it is affectionately known covers a large area of land, approximately 25 acres in all which is situated in the valley, which lies between the old medieval part of Edinburgh, the Old Town and the New Town built in the 1800’s.   The station is built on land which was formerly Nor Loch.  This loch was drained and filled around 1820 and the part of the reclaimed land formed Princess Street Gardens and the location of three railway stations, operating different routes and services. 

The stations Canal Street, North Bridge and the North British Railway General, all of which formed what was generally known as the Waverley, were all put into operation in the mid 1840’s and successfully ran rail services for the independent rail companies that owned them.  Canal Street station even operated a service through a tunnel to New Town, the Scotland Street Tunnel.  A long rope-hauled system was used in the tunnel for the Granton and Leith route, however this was later closed when the North British Railway company.

The North British Railway company bought all three stations with plans to demolish them and make way for a much larger, grander station, incorporating all their services and routes, in the late 1860’s.  A new station was built and it had two main terminals which operated trains eastbound and westbound, covering numerous routes as far as London and Wales.  The new station had up to 24 platforms but not all of these were in operation together at one time.  Over the years the platforms have been re-numbered and re-assigned with new or alternative routes and a further 3 platforms have been added as late as 2006.  In time the name of the station became Edinburgh Waverley.

Next to this magnificent new station, a hotel was built in 1902, by the rail company, to accommodate rail travellers.  This hotel was called the North British Hotel and ran a successful business until the early 1980’s when it was sold to the then prominent hotel group Forte.  The hotel was totally refurbished a few years later and re-named the Balmoral Hotel.  It still operates today and enjoys a well established upmarket clientele and an impressive reputation.

The Edinburgh Waverley station is the second largest in size in the UK and also one of the busiest.