There have been three stations called "Arbroath", two of which closed in 1848. One - Arbroath Catherine Street - served the Arbroath and Forfar Railway; the other - Arbroath Lady Loan or Arbroath West - was on the Dundee and Arbroath Railway. The current station was originally opened by the Dundee and Arbroath Railway on 1 February 1848 as a link station to connect the Arbroath and Forfar Railway with the Dundee and Arbroath Railway. On 1 October 1880 the North British, Arbroath and Montrose Railway opened north towards Montrose. Jointly run by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway after the Grouping of 1923, the station then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by Scotrail until the privatisation of British Rail. Until 1990, the station had 3 active platforms and was the terminus of a regular local service from Perth and Dundee that called at all of the intermediate local stations between the latter station and here. This was mostly withdrawn at the May 1990 timetable change and the residual service that still operates now starts and terminates at Carnoustie. The former platform 3 and its associated loop has also been taken out of use and lifted. From 2018, a stopping service to Dundee is to be reintroduced as part of a major timetable improvement package backed by Transport Scotland. This will serve Carnoustie, Monifieth and Broughty Ferry stations every hour through the day. Existing services through to Glasgow and Edinburgh will also be accelerated as part of the same recast.
Services
There are generally two or three trains per hour between westbound to Dundee and eastbound to, with hourly services onwards from Dundee towards Edinburgh and. London North Eastern Railway services to London King's Cross and CrossCountry routes towards England also stop at Arbroath. On Sundays there is generally an hourly service in each direction.
