Glenrothes with Thornton railway station

Glenrothes with Thornton Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Rathais le Thornton[1]
General information
Location	Thornton, Fife Scotland
Coordinates	56°09′44″N 3°08′33″W / 56.1623°N 3.1426°W / 56.1623; -3.1426
Grid reference	NT291972
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	GLT
History
Opened	11 May 1992
Passengers
2018/19	76,810
2019/20	71,870
2020/21	7,366
2021/22	43,680
2022/23	42,604
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Glenrothes with Thornton railway station is located in Thornton in Fife, Scotland. It serves the communities of Thornton and Glenrothes. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line, 31+1⁄4 miles (50.3 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley.

The station is situated on the Dunfermline branch of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, just west of its divergence from the E&NR main line via a triangular junction.^[2] It is a completely new structure, having been built by British Rail with the support of Fife Regional Council to serve the two communities that it is named after. Glenrothes (as a post-war new town) has never had its own station (though Markinch station is nearby) whilst Thornton had lost its station (Thornton Junction) on the main line in October 1969 in the aftermath of the Beeching Axe (services on the line westwards to Cardenden and on the Leven branch had ended at the same time).

The successful inauguration of the Fife Circle Line service in 1989 had seen the Cardenden to Thornton Jn section reopened to passengers and this provided the catalyst for the construction of the station. It was completed in the spring of 1992 and it was opened to traffic on 11 May that year, at the summer timetable change.^{[citation needed]}

Though it has the appearance of a standard two platform station on a double track line, it is actually sited east of Thornton West Junction, where the double line from Cardenden splits into two parallel single lines that diverge after passing through the station to join the main line. One of these runs southwards to Thornton South Junction and is used by all trains to and from Edinburgh via the coast, whilst the other curves to the north and is used by trains heading for Markinch and thence to Perth or Dundee. As a consequence of this, both platforms are bi-directional (a similar layout exists at Bare Lane in Lancashire) but the southern one (platform 1) is much busier than the northern one (2) due to the service pattern in use on the Fife Circle.

It has long been recognised that the station name causes confusion for arriving passengers unfamiliar with the area. Visitors alight at Thornton not realising they still have 3.4 miles to travel by road to reach Glenrothes town centre.

An active campaign is underway to have Scotrail rename the station to reflect its actual location - Thornton. A petition is live to collect public support for this change. Read more about the campaign and access the petition here

On Mondays to Saturdays, outside the morning rush, there is one train per hour to and from Edinburgh. The majority of services depart from Platform 1 and run via Dunfermline. Services via Kirkcaldy are infrequent (one per day). On Sundays, an hourly service runs to Edinburgh via Dunfermline.

There is a very limited service to/from Perth. On Monday to Saturdays, there is one train per day to Perth, while there are two trains from Perth which call here going to Edinburgh. On Sundays, there is also one train per day northbound, with one train from Perth to Edinburgh.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Cardenden		ScotRail Fife Circle Line		Kirkcaldy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenrothes with Thornton railway station.

• Train times and station information for Glenrothes with Thornton railway station from National Rail