Lying a quarter-mile (0.4 km) northwest of the town centre, Kirkcaldy (Gael: Cair Chaladain) represents a busy railway station in S Fife, serving the Fife Circle, the line from Edinburgh to Perth and Inverness, and the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen via two long platforms. These lines hug the coast to the southwest of Kirkcaldy, but thereafter turn inland. The Fife Circle splits from the mainline at Thornton Junction, while the other lines diverge at Ladybank. Kirkcaldy is preceded by Kinghorn Railway Station, 3 miles (5 km) south, and followed (on the mainline) by Markinch, 6 miles (10 km) to the north northeast and (on the Fife Circle) Glenrothes with Thornton, 3¾ miles (6 km) north northeast. This station opened on the Edinburgh and Northern Railway in 1847, and a branch to Kirkcaldy Harbour was completed two years later. This branch closed in 1984. The station was rebuilt in 1964, with the southbound platform replaced in 1991 following a fire. Operated by ScotRail, it is currently staffed during the day and early evenings, the station now handles more than 1.1 million passengers per annum (2016) and has a large car park with 274 spaces. A former goods yard to the north is now used for track maintenance.
