The station was first opened in 1855 by the Inverness and Nairn Railway. In 1857, the line was extended eastwards to Dalvey. The route from Aberdeen to Inverness was merged into one company, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, in 1861. Many of the local stations either side of here succumbed to the Beeching Axe between 1965 & 1968, though Nairn was one of those that survived the cutbacks. The station is from , and has a passing loop long, flanked by two platforms which can each accommodate an eight-coach train. The station was notable for being the last working example of Highland Railway signalling principles, where a signal box was provided at each end to work the signals & points whilst the key token instruments for working the single line were located in the main building. The distance between the boxes was such that a bicycle was officially provided by BR for the signaller to use. The practice came to an end in April 2000, when the station was resignalled with colour lights and control shifted to a panel in the station building - as a result, most passenger services use the northern platform in both directions. Control of the signalling at the station has since transferred to a new workstation in the Inverness signalling centre, following a 10-day line closure that also saw the loop at Elgin lengthened and a new station and loop commissioned at Forres. A replacement bus service ran whilst the work was in progress, with the line reopening on schedule on 17 October 2017.
Services
There is approximately one service per two hours in each direction, with some additional trains at weekday peak-times. The first morning eastbound service runs to and Edinburgh Waverley, whilst the last evening service in the opposite direction comes from there; certain peak hour trains only run to/from, including one through working from. On Sundays, there are five trains each way between Aberdeen & Inverness, plus a pair of services from the latter that run only as far as Elgin. Transport Scotland and Scotrail intend to improve the service frequencies from here to Elgin & Inverness to hourly from 2018.
