Accessibility Improvements at Dunkeld & Birnam Railway Station

5 February 2026

Train at The Hermitage, approaching Dunkeld and Birnam on 14 November 2024 at 1036hrs

Summary

Congratulations and thank-you to the Station Group (working with John Swinney, our local MSP) who have been instrumental in securing lighting and accessibility improvements, as part of a continuing process. Work will begin in late February and completed by the end of March.

Network Rail have an announcement - Work begins this week on platform at Dunkeld and Birnam station - on their website.

Work Details

"The main actual work involved is to construct a path suitable for wheelchair access, but owing to the site limitations it will not be to full disabled access standards at and around the railway bridge, and on the part of the path leading from the bridge to where it turns onto railway property. The latter part of the route will be to a proper width, but cannot meet the full gradient and rest standards, although the remainder of the route on NR land can meet these.

The construction work will start later in February, with initially a site office to be constructed in the Network Rail sidings area. Initial work will be concentrated in that area covered by the plan as far as the bridge underneath the railway. Once that is complete, sufficient to allow a walkable route to be opened, work will then move to the Birnam Glen road area. The path under the bridge will have an improved surface suitable for smaller wheelchairs, albeit the pathway width cannot be increased. The path below the bridge will be improved, and finally the Birnam Glen road surface will be improved down to its junction with Perth Road. There will be some new/additional lighting, both on Birnam Glen, and for the new pathway between railway bridge and station.

This latter (resurfacing) work will necessarily involve periods of road closure during March, between the hours of 9am and 3pm, Monday to Friday, as agreed between Network Rail and the residents accessed via the Glen Road. All the work has to be completed by the end of March (end of financial year). This also meant very limited time between the contractor being appointed and work starting. The contractor is CPR, one of NR's main contractors for this kind of work in Scotland, very experienced and good with the public."