Inside UK's smallest railway station where people can barely get off the train
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Make sure you're in the right carriage when stopping at this tiny railway station, otherwise you will not be able to disembark. Despite having an infamous reputation due to long delays and last-minute cancellations, millions of people in the UK rely on trains to get from A to B.
Data from Office Of Rail and Road (ORR) also shows that there were a whopping 433 million rail journeys from July 1 to September 30, 2024, a nine per cent increase from the same quarter in the previous year. A total of 16.7 billion passenger kilometres were travelled in the quarter too, a 10 per cent spike from the previous year.
While you might not give much thought about the station you frequent itself (and more about how hellish your morning commute is) you could be passing the UK's smallest station without even realising it. According to Cross Country, Beauly station is officially the smallest of its kind in the UK - coming in at just 15m long. To put that into perspective, that's smaller than a single carriage of any train passing through. "As a result, only one train door opens when it arrives," the operator explained. "Here is an announcement to passengers to ensure that anybody hoping to alight at Beauly is standing in the right place.".
The unstaffed station has car parking and cycle racks/ storage - but don't expect any free Wi-Fi, toilets, taxi ranks, ticket vending machines, or car charging points. Situated in the Scottish Highlands, some 10 miles from Inverness, the tiny railway station consists of just one platform and yet still sees thousands of commuters and tourists passing through every year. The main routes include travelling towards Inverness or away from the city, over to Kyle of Lochalsh.
