ROBIN Brown hits a bulls-eye when he questions whether Abellio ScotRail meets the needs of us rail passengers (Letters, November 5).
Abellio has made a very bad start indeed on its ScotRail franchise, and is selling the nation short. We passengers are let down through imposition of a byzantine and expensive fares system, the operation of trains never designed for the job, the cancelling of services at shortest notice, and the substitution of existing stock by even shorter trains. Little wonder that Mr Brown experienced crowded trains and standing passengers on his journeys. One has to wonder whether either Abellio or Transport Scotland actually cares.
All this – and Scotland remains stuck with third-rate trains that are the poorest-quality long-distance rolling stock in Europe.
When Abellio gained the ScotRail franchise a year ago, the company trumpeted the news that it would introduce cheaper fares and InterCity trains. The first hasn’t happened and the second bears all the hallmarks of a long delay building up.
The roots of the problem faced by Mr Brown in his Milngavie-Edinburgh safari possibly lie deeper. The word on the street is that Abellio gained the ScotRail franchise on a basis of a cheaper bid based on using or having fewer trains. Is this right? Given Abellio’s parlous record in its first six months of the franchise, I’m nearly prepared to bet my shirt on it.
Gordon Casely,
Westerton Cottage, Crathes, Kincardineshire.
I WAS sorry to hear about Robin Brown’s experience of train travel between Milngavie and Edinburgh (Letters, November 5). However, if had he been more familiar with the complex and sometimes confusing world of railway routes and fares he would have known that there are now direct semi-fast trains between Milngavie and Edinburgh via Bathgate until early evening. If convenient, he could have paid less and avoided a rush-hour change at Queen Street by catching the 16.27 from Milngavie to Edinburgh, due Waverley 18.03.
As off-peak fares are available until 16.30 and resume their validity later in the evening, he could have paid £18.30 for an off-peak day return. Perhaps his delayed return journey would have been less of a trial with that fare. I agree with him that having to pay £30.80 for a peak-hour return ticket to Edinburgh is unlikely to persuade potential passengers to transfer from car to train.
Dave Stewart,
6 Blairatholl Avenue, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel