Stations and Services
As of 2004, there are stations on the line as follows:
| Places served | Ordnance Survey grid references |
| and other notes | |
| Perth | NO112230 |
| Dunkeld and Birnam | NO030417 |
| Shared station | |
| Pitlochry | NN937580 |
| Blair Atholl | NN870653 |
| Dalwhinnie | NN634848 |
| Newtonmore | NN715984 |
| Kingussie | NH756003 |
| Aviemore | NH895123 |
| Connection with Strathspey Railway | |
| Carrbridge | NH899224 |
| Inverness | NH667454 |
Services on the line are provided by First ScotRail and East Coast. A roughly two-hourly First ScotRail service operates between Perth and Inverness throughout the day, with all services running from either Glasgow Queen Street (via Stirling) or Edinburgh Waverley (via Kirkcaldy). The East Coast service is titled 'The Highland Chieftain'. Formed of a HST unit, it departs Inverness at around 8am and runs to London Kings Cross, via Perth, Stirling, Falkirk, Edinburgh and the East Coast Main Line, arriving in London at about 4pm. The return working leaves London at midday and reaches Inverness in the late evening.
There is also a First ScotRail-operated sleeping car service that travels overnight between Inverness and London Euston via Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh Waverley and the West Coast Main Line, under the title 'The Caledonian Sleeper'. This joins portions from Aberdeen and Fort William at Edinburgh Waverley and south of there becomes the longest locomotive-hauled passenger train in the UK - regularly loading to 17 Mark 2/3 coaches.
Reliability on the route is variable, due to many areas being single line. Also, because ScotRail are not fined for the late running or cancellation of trains in extreme weather, it means that a high number of trains on this route are allowed to run late or are cancelled in comparison to the rest of Scotland, as weather here is often snow for many weeks during winter.
Read more about this topic: Highland Main Line
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)