The station currently standing was built by the Caledonian and the Great North of Scotland Railways as
Aberdeen Joint Station between 1913 and 1916, replacing an 1867 structure of the same name on the same site. That station and the associated Denburn Valley Line joined together routes from south and north of the city which had previously existed in isolation. In addition to the surviving main lines south towards Dundee and the Central Belt and north via Inverurie and Elgin to Inverness, there were until the Beeching era branch lines to Ballater, Fraserburgh and Peterhead plus two duplicate routes to Elgin whose closure during 1966-8 explains the station’s contraction. North-facing bays have gone, as have through suburban platforms on the west side, and the line north was singled, but in recent years double track has returned from a mile north of the station as far as Inverurie. During the 2000s adjoining goods facilities were relocated to make way for the Union Square shopping centre which provides undercover interchange with buses.
In a programme that completed in 2022, ScotRail has renewed retail units, in an award-winning scheme re-furbished the north block on Guild Street and reprovided customer facilities – a travelshop and First Class lounge in front of the stair that leads to the footbridge towards College Street multistorey carpark. The Great North of Scotland Railway war memorial is on display, and a collecting shell made locally during the Great War for the Red Cross and latterly collecting for the YMCA has been restored with funding from the Railway Heritage Trust.
Photo © David Robinson (cc-by-sa/2.0), John Yellowlees - with thanks