Transport chiefs have revealed they hope to start drawing-up ambitious plans to expand the new Inverness Airport rail station – before it has even opened.
Scottish ministers could be asked next year to back multimillion-pound proposals to build a second platform and a “passing place” for trains at the new Dalcross stop-off.
The move emerged yesterday as the long-awaited plans for the first £2million phase of the station project – which were revealed exclusively by the Press and Journal last week – went on public display at a consultation event at the airport.
Regional transport body Hitrans is due to lodge a planning application within weeks, and an official opening of the station is pencilled-in for December 2018.
It will coincide with the introduction of a new high-speed, hourly service between Inverness and Elgin, and official forecasts have estimated that within 50 years the station will become the busiest in the north, after only Inverness city itself.
The new station will resemble the one at Dyce, with waiting sheds and 150 parking spaces, but no buildings, cafes or shops.
However, Hitrans partnership manager Frank Roach said those could be added in time.
“We are future-proofing this to be a double-platform station with a passing loop,” he said.
It is hoped that the Scottish Government will give its initial backing to the more expensive, second phase of the station project by summer 2017, with a view to having it included in the next programme of works between 2019 and 2024.
Mr Roach said: “That’s certainly what we would hope, the second platform and double-track going in there.”
The station is proposed for a site next to the C1017 airport access road, between the first and second roundabouts after leaving the existing A96, at the southern corner of the airfield.
Under the plans, every train on the Inverness-Aberdeen route will stop at the station.
The platform will be 575ft long – capable of accommodating high-speed trains with five carriages and two engine cars, as proposed by operators Abellio for the network.
There will be a waiting area, cycle park, electric car point, bus stop, taxi rank, and barrier controlled access road.
The initial development will include 50 car parking spaces, but that will later rise to 150, while new link roads and cycle paths would be built to connect it to the existing airport access road.
The station will be a mile from the airport terminal by road and while the plans are still to be finalised, it is hoped a bus connection will be introduced.
Debbie Whitelaw, from North Kessock, attended yesterday’s consultation event and was impressed by the plans.
“I think it’s an exciting development with lots of opportunity. I think it’s something people have been waiting to have for a long time,” she said.
Inverness MP Drew Hendry also dropped into the exhibition as he passed through the airport on his way back from Westminster.
He said: “I think it’s fantastic. This is something that has been needed for a long time at the airport and, combined with the new flights we have from KLM, British Airways and now Thomson, I think the airport is taking off.”
Others attending the consultation event were less enthusiastic, however, particularly those living near the level crossing by Petty Church, which will close as a condition of the planning application for safety reasons.
Alastair Wardhaugh lives at the Station House next to the crossing, where the old Dalcross rail station was located before its closure in 1965.
He said: “I want to see it kept open because it will restrict me coming to the airport and Ardersier. I’ve never seen any incident at that crossing.”
Neil Pottie, who has farmland on both sides of the rail line at Dalcross, also quizzed Hitrans and Network Rail officials about the plans yesterday.
He said: “It seems to be a foregone conclusion without any consultation.
“The station is pretty much going ahead and they say they can’t have the station and keep the crossing open.
“In all my time I’ve never seen any incident at that crossing.”