In this blog post I thought I'd reflect on a wonderful ten days in Scotland, and try and summarise what we did and point out some of the highlights and some of the lowlights. First, a summary of where we went, with links to the posts about each day:
Day 1: Coventry - London - Edinburgh
Day 2: return trips from Edinburgh to Newcraighall, North Berwick, and Inverness
Day 3: tourism round Edinburgh
Day 4: Edinburgh - Glasgow - Edinburgh - Fife Circle - Inverkeithing - Aberdeen - Inverness
Day 5: Inverness - John O'Groats - Wick - Inverness
Day 6: Inverness - Kyle of Lochalsh - Skye - Armadale - Mallaig - Fort William
Day 7: Fort William - Crianlarich - Oban - Glasgow, plus an evening in Balloch
Day 8: Glasgow suburban lines, Glasgow Transport Museum, Glasgow Subway
Day 9: Glasgow - Falkirk - Polmont - Glasgow - Alloa - Stirling - Dundee - Haymarket - Milngavie - Lanark - Glasgow
Day 10: Glasgow - London - Coventry
Over the course of the eight days wholly in Scotland, we spent exactly two days on trains, buses and ferries (i.e., 48 hours and 0 minutes), and travelled 1886.25 miles. The ticket cost us each £107.80; had we had to pay walk-up singles, it would have cost us £294.25.
Including the journeys to and from Coventry, I travelled 2868.25 miles, for a total of 2 days, 11 hours, and 21 minutes out of the ten days (Ian and Matt will have travelled slightly less), and the cost each came to £235.50; walk-up fares would have meant paying £479.45, or £578.30 if we'd insisted on first class on the journey from London to Edinburgh.
This is very good value, though perhaps it isn't as much of a reduction as I've got from other such tickets: this is partially due to the very good subsidised fares in Scotland, particularly on the remote lines in the Highlands. For example, a single from Wick to Inverness, a distance of 175 miles, costs just £11.20 (with railcard), and at 6p a mile must represent one of the best-value walk-up fares in the country.
Nonetheless, we covered a huge amount of distance in ten days: we have now been on every line in Scotland north of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Indeed, outside of the Glasgow suburban area, the only major lines we didn't go on were the lines from Glasgow to Stranraer, and Glasgow to Carlisle via Kilmarnock (though both Ian and I have done Stranraer-Carlisle via Kilmarnock in the past).
At some point in the ten days we used most of the major stations in Scotland, and it's difficult to pick a favourite: I think, however, that Glasgow Central stands out as the best, with its magnificient roof, lots of space for people to circulate, and lots of shops with pretty much everything you'd need.
Neilston, however, easily stands out as the worst station we visited: well, perhaps "the worst" is the wrong way of putting it, but it was almost entirely devoid of... everything. The area around the station was completely dead, with some houses and no sight of any kind of shop, so we ended up with 26 minutes in which to do... exactly nothing.
Stemming from that, it's fairly easy to pick the least enjoyable day: Day 8 was a bit of a damp squib, in many ways. We deliberately didn't plan it, and benefitted from a good lie-in, but that meant that we didn't necessarily do the most interesting things; either we should have picked some more scenic lines (and some of the lines to the south-west of Glasgow are reputedly very nice indeed), or perhaps we should have done more things like the Transport Museum and had a day off trains entirely, like we did in Edinburgh on Day 3.
On the other hand, it's very difficult to pick which day was most enjoyable. If judged entirely on the trains, then Day 9 was very enjoyable for many reasons. For one, we went on 11 trains and thus had lots of connections to make (and we did!). More importantly, though, we got to see two of the newest additions to the railway network, and saw for ourselves that Scotland's railway network is flourishing.
If judged entirely on the scenery, on the other hand, I think Day 6 just wins: going from Inverness to Fort William, going across Skye and back to the mainland by ferry, and on over the awesome Glenfinnan Viaduct was just beautiful. That said, Day 7, going over Rannoch Moor, and spending the evening in Balloch, comes a very close second.
All things considered, however, I think the most satisfying day was Day 5: we got to John O'Groats, and back, by public transport, and saw some of the most barren scenery anywhere in the country. While the scenery further west was more lush (and personally I found it even more beautiful), the satisfaction of getting to the end of the country without a car was immense.
All told, we were very lucky indeed to get such good weather in the Highlands: aside from a shower of rain in Inverness on Day 2, we didn't get any serious rain at all until Day 8, by which time we were back in Glasgow with things to do. All of the lines in the Highlands had their own particular beauty, and in many ways there's no point in choosing a favourite; nonetheless, my favourite moment of the holiday was realising on Day 7, while atop Rannoch Moor in blazing sunshine, that it was the middle of the rush hour in London.
Our overall impression of the Scottish transport system was that it was much more holistic than the rest of the country: thought has been put in to designing a network which is well-connected and serves pretty much every community in Scotland. From the well-used Glasgow suburban network, to lines to the middle of nowhere in the Highlands, all the trains were well-used; none, however, were horribly overcrowded (though we did avoid the rush hour most of the time), except the London-Aberdeen train we used on Day 4 from Inverkeithing (never before has an HST felt small).
Here, then, is a network with capacity for growth, and, unlike the English, the Scottish government has been very willing to invest in new railway lines, such as the Alloa line and the Airdrie-Bathgate project we saw on Day 9, but they also have plans to upgrade much of the network in the central belt (see also Day 9), with the Edinburgh-Glasgow Main Line soon to be electrified, and plans afoot for extensions onwards to Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, and maybe even Inverness.
As if Scotland itself wasn't wonderful enough, it was also particularly nice to be able to do both long-distance main lines to Scotland, on Day 1 and Day 10; not since doing the All-Line Rover have I had the opportunity to travel so long on one train. Indeed, even on the All-Line Rover, going from London to Aberdeen, I changed twice: the Glasgow-London train thus represents the longest journey on a single train I've ever done.
What's next? In the immediate future, I'm planning a trip to California in September, which I hope to be blogging about as well. In terms of trains, well, we've been to John O'Groats, so I suppose a trip to Land's End is now obligatory. That said, on the subject of long journeys on a single train, one idea was floated which was even more insane than usual: there is one train a day from Aberdeen to Penzance, and it takes 13 hours; almost no-one ever does the whole journey... One of these days...
Sunday 31 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 10
On Sunday 17th, we finally said goodbye to Scotland, and headed home. We travelled the length of the West Coast Main Line, from Glasgow Central to London Euston, before going our separate ways.
1034 Glasgow Central to London Euston, arr 1515 (actual 1525)
Headcode: 1M07, operated by Virgin Trains using Pendolino 390004
Distance: 401 miles; walk-up price to Carlisle: £13.15, our advance price (from Carlisle): £25.10, walk-up price Glasgow-London: £75.05
The West Coast Main Line is the backbone of Britain's railway network, linking London to Glasgow, with branches to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. It is for that reason that the WCML was the first inter-city line to be electrified, with the line south of Liverpool and Manchester being electrified by 1965, and the line north from there to Glasgow following by 1974.
The WCML itself actually avoids most of the big cities in the southern section of the route: the largest city on the WCML proper is Preston, whose urban area has just 264,000 people. (For comparison, London has 8.27 million; the West Midlands and Greater Manchester each have about 2.25 million, and Greater Glasgow has about 1.17 million.)
The route of the WCML takes us south-east from Glasgow, through Motherwell, our first call, before following the Clyde valley as far as Abington. From there we run parallel to the A74(M) (the motorway between Carlisle and Glasgow), to the first summit at Beattock, in the Southern Uplands, after which we follow Annandale down through Lockerbie, skirting Gretna, before crossing the border and arriving at Carlisle, our second stop.
Between Carlisle and Lancaster we have the small matter of the Lake District to navigate. The railway runs parallel to the M6 for most of the way, heading first for Penrith (our third stop) before going over the beautiful summit at Shap. On our way back down, we skirt past Kendal, stopping at the nearby station of Oxenholme, before continuing south to Lancaster (our fifth stop).
Just north of Lancaster, at Hest Bank, near Morecambe, there is a remarkable sight: the coast! The West Coast Main Line is completely mis-named, but was named as a counterpart to the East Coast Main Line (which itself doesn't hit the coast until Morpeth). On a journey from London to Mallaig, via Glasgow, you meet the coast just three times in 607 miles: once at Hest Bank, once at Arisaig - two stops south of Mallaig! - and finally at Mallaig itself.
South of Lancaster, the line starts to change character: from here, we hit the industrialised north-west of England, calling at Preston, Wigan and Warrington. From there we run non-stop to London Euston, running at a relatively slow 80mph through Crewe, before continuing through Stafford, Rugby, Milton Keynes and into London.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see very much of the scenery: it rained for most of the journey, sometimes quite heavily, particularly through the Lake District. While it was a little brighter south of Crewe, it remained overcast all day. That said, it's not like you can see much out of the Pendolino windows even on a bright day, with them being so small.
The whole of the WCML - and many of its branches - was subjected to a comprehensive upgrade between 2000 and 2008, with almost every rail, sleeper, overhead wire and signal replaced and upgraded. The net effect has been a considerable increase in speed, as well as capacity: our tilting Pendolino trains (introduced in 2002) can now run at 125mph, even though the WCML is much twistier than the ECML.
In 1999, just before the upgrade started, the fastest train between London Euston and Glasgow Central took 4 hours, 54 minutes, with just three stops at Preston, Oxenholme and Carlisle; there were eight trains per direction each weekday, with all but the fastest taking over five hours. By contrast, today's timetable has 14 trains in each direction, of which nine in each direction take 4 hours, 35 minutes or less, most with about six stops; today's fastest train takes just 4 hours and 8 minutes, stopping only at Preston.
For most of the upgrade period, weekend services were horrific: they would either be subjected to lengthy diversions, adding hours to journey times, or else they would often end up with bits of line completely closed and replaced with buses. Today, however, the Saturday timetable is nearly as full as the weekday timetable, as is the Sunday afternoon timetable.
However, to ensure sufficient time for maintenance and track inspections, Saturday night and Sunday morning services are much reduced; journey times are also a little longer on Sundays to account for any necessary engineering works. Thus, our Sunday morning train was booked at 4 hours, 41 minutes, with eight stops. Whereas on weekdays and Saturdays the corresponding train would be the seventh departure for London, our train was only the second departure out of Glasgow on Sunday morning.
As a result, it was a bit busy. Four of the five coaches in standard class were completely reserved, and the fifth coach was rapidly filled. We used the final day's validity of our Freedom of Scotland ticket to get us to Carlisle; from there, we had booked advance singles from Carlisle to London, with three seats round a table reserved. Unfortunately one of three seats had also been reserved by someone else as far as Carlisle, so Ian volunteered to stand for the first hour.
Unfortunately, the timetable - particularly the length of station stops - is planned around standard weekday loadings, and couldn't quite cope with the huge loadings this Sunday morning train was taking. We left Glasgow on time, but gradually got later: 2 late at Motherwell, 3 late at Carlisle, 4 late at Penrith, and 6 late at Oxenholme (though that last one may have been due to a temporary speed restriction).
At this point, however, Preston signal box clearly had it in for us, because they put an on-time local service from Leeds out in front of us at Carnforth, when we were booked in front. Because that could only manage 75mph, we were 9 minutes late at Lancaster, while the local train had 17 minutes to reverse at Lancaster before heading to Morecambe. We made up a minute on the run to Preston, but by long stops at Wigan and Warrington put us back at about 10 minutes late.
For the purposes of punctuality statistics, most trains are counted as "late" when they arrive 5 or more minutes after their booked arrival at their final destination; for inter-city trains, they are allowed 10 minutes instead of 5. Note that this only counts the time at the final destination: thus, as we saw on the ECML, trains are subject to "public adjustment", so the public arrival time is advertised as being five minutes after the working timetable. In our case, the working timetable said we were due at Euston at 15:12, but the public arrival time is 15:15.
Unfortunately, this Public Performance Measure, or PPM, has led to particular methods of regulating trains - that is, deciding what order to run them in once one or more is running late, which is where signallers earn their money. The prevailing attitude is that, once a train is more than 5 (or 10) minutes late, it is considered as a "PPM failure" - that is, it will fail to be on time and is thus late - it is shunned in priority to anything and everything which is on time, and shoved to the back of the queue.
In other words, once we had fallen outside PPM - by being 10 minutes late out of Warrington - we were not given any kind of priority to get us back on time, because that would risk more trains being late and Virgin Trains' PPM percentage being worse. Thus, the three-minute delay due to following the local train at Carnforth may seem insignificant, but it drastically changed the way signallers treated us.
As such, we followed the 13:15 from Manchester Piccadilly - due into London Euston a full 12 minutes after us - all the way from Colwich Junction, just south of Stafford. Both trains had to slow down in order to let a train from Birmingham out in front at Rugby, meaning we crawled through Rugby instead of taking it at the full 125mph, which was disappointing.
More disappointing still, though, was that because the Manchester train was due to call at Milton Keynes, we stood for a full three minutes outside Milton Keynes to wait for it to clear the platform instead of taking that at 125mph. This was in spite of the fact that the signallers could have diverted the Manchester train into the adjacent empty platform, and given us a clear run in an attempt to get back on time; however, that would have risked the Manchester train being late.
As such, the Manchester train arrived four minutes early into Euston, at 15:23, while we followed it in, arriving at 15:25. Given that we were due in at 15:15, we were thus exactly 10 minutes late; if we had been given a clear run through Milton Keynes, it would have meant the Manchester train was at most 3 minutes late (and probably on time), and we would probably have been only 7 minutes late, and thus not counted as late by PPM.
It thus felt, in hindsight, like the it's-failed-PPM-so-shove-it-to-the-back-of-the-queue approach actually led to a worse PPM than if we'd been swapped at Milton Keynes; however, we did not have the full picture and it would be wrong of us to try and apportion blame for our delay without more information. Nonetheless, being deprived of a full 125mph pedal-to-the-metal non-stop dash from Warrington to London was rather disappointing.
In being late, the signallers swapped us from our booked arrival into platform 13, and instead we arrived in platform 1. This was rather convenient for Ian and I, since our train to Milton Keynes and Coventry was sitting in platform 2. Ian and I said our goodbyes to Matt, who was heading home to south London, and boarded our final train:
1538 London Euston to Coventry, arr 1640
Headcode: 1G32, operated by Virgin Trains using Pendolino 390021
Distance: 94 miles; walk-up return: £27.15 (price included in Day 1)
While they say that familiarity breeds indifference, the WCML at full speed never ceases to put a smile on my face, even on this, my seventh return trip from Coventry to London in a year.
Aside from the unnerving sensation of turning left at Rugby at 125mph, something impossible until the upgrade a few years ago, one of my favourite sections is the patch through Leighton Buzzard, in Buckinghamshire. Going north, the line curves right through Leighton Buzzard station, before immediately curving left, and slamming into Linslade tunnel.
The effect is magnified by the arrangement of the tunnels: when the line was widened from two-track to four-track in the 1880s, the middle two lines shared the old tunnel, while two new single-track tunnels were bored on either side. Northbound trains on the fast lines use the westernmost single-bore tunnel, so trains tilt one way, then the other, and then slam into the tight tunnel at Linslade, which is almost ear-popping.
All this is done at the full 125mph, and I rarely get to do it in broad daylight, since I'm usually heading home from London late in the evening; on this occasion, even though it was overcast, it still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Ian headed off at Milton Keynes, and half an hour later I arrived in Coventry, and caught a bus home, after 5 hours, 43 minutes and 495 miles on trains, beating by eight miles my first day going from Coventry to Edinburgh via London. Stay tuned for one final blog post summarising what we did, and looking back at the highs and lows of our ten days in Scotland.
1034 Glasgow Central to London Euston, arr 1515 (actual 1525)
Headcode: 1M07, operated by Virgin Trains using Pendolino 390004
Distance: 401 miles; walk-up price to Carlisle: £13.15, our advance price (from Carlisle): £25.10, walk-up price Glasgow-London: £75.05
The West Coast Main Line is the backbone of Britain's railway network, linking London to Glasgow, with branches to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. It is for that reason that the WCML was the first inter-city line to be electrified, with the line south of Liverpool and Manchester being electrified by 1965, and the line north from there to Glasgow following by 1974.
The WCML itself actually avoids most of the big cities in the southern section of the route: the largest city on the WCML proper is Preston, whose urban area has just 264,000 people. (For comparison, London has 8.27 million; the West Midlands and Greater Manchester each have about 2.25 million, and Greater Glasgow has about 1.17 million.)
The route of the WCML takes us south-east from Glasgow, through Motherwell, our first call, before following the Clyde valley as far as Abington. From there we run parallel to the A74(M) (the motorway between Carlisle and Glasgow), to the first summit at Beattock, in the Southern Uplands, after which we follow Annandale down through Lockerbie, skirting Gretna, before crossing the border and arriving at Carlisle, our second stop.
Between Carlisle and Lancaster we have the small matter of the Lake District to navigate. The railway runs parallel to the M6 for most of the way, heading first for Penrith (our third stop) before going over the beautiful summit at Shap. On our way back down, we skirt past Kendal, stopping at the nearby station of Oxenholme, before continuing south to Lancaster (our fifth stop).
Just north of Lancaster, at Hest Bank, near Morecambe, there is a remarkable sight: the coast! The West Coast Main Line is completely mis-named, but was named as a counterpart to the East Coast Main Line (which itself doesn't hit the coast until Morpeth). On a journey from London to Mallaig, via Glasgow, you meet the coast just three times in 607 miles: once at Hest Bank, once at Arisaig - two stops south of Mallaig! - and finally at Mallaig itself.
South of Lancaster, the line starts to change character: from here, we hit the industrialised north-west of England, calling at Preston, Wigan and Warrington. From there we run non-stop to London Euston, running at a relatively slow 80mph through Crewe, before continuing through Stafford, Rugby, Milton Keynes and into London.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see very much of the scenery: it rained for most of the journey, sometimes quite heavily, particularly through the Lake District. While it was a little brighter south of Crewe, it remained overcast all day. That said, it's not like you can see much out of the Pendolino windows even on a bright day, with them being so small.
The whole of the WCML - and many of its branches - was subjected to a comprehensive upgrade between 2000 and 2008, with almost every rail, sleeper, overhead wire and signal replaced and upgraded. The net effect has been a considerable increase in speed, as well as capacity: our tilting Pendolino trains (introduced in 2002) can now run at 125mph, even though the WCML is much twistier than the ECML.
In 1999, just before the upgrade started, the fastest train between London Euston and Glasgow Central took 4 hours, 54 minutes, with just three stops at Preston, Oxenholme and Carlisle; there were eight trains per direction each weekday, with all but the fastest taking over five hours. By contrast, today's timetable has 14 trains in each direction, of which nine in each direction take 4 hours, 35 minutes or less, most with about six stops; today's fastest train takes just 4 hours and 8 minutes, stopping only at Preston.
For most of the upgrade period, weekend services were horrific: they would either be subjected to lengthy diversions, adding hours to journey times, or else they would often end up with bits of line completely closed and replaced with buses. Today, however, the Saturday timetable is nearly as full as the weekday timetable, as is the Sunday afternoon timetable.
However, to ensure sufficient time for maintenance and track inspections, Saturday night and Sunday morning services are much reduced; journey times are also a little longer on Sundays to account for any necessary engineering works. Thus, our Sunday morning train was booked at 4 hours, 41 minutes, with eight stops. Whereas on weekdays and Saturdays the corresponding train would be the seventh departure for London, our train was only the second departure out of Glasgow on Sunday morning.
As a result, it was a bit busy. Four of the five coaches in standard class were completely reserved, and the fifth coach was rapidly filled. We used the final day's validity of our Freedom of Scotland ticket to get us to Carlisle; from there, we had booked advance singles from Carlisle to London, with three seats round a table reserved. Unfortunately one of three seats had also been reserved by someone else as far as Carlisle, so Ian volunteered to stand for the first hour.
Unfortunately, the timetable - particularly the length of station stops - is planned around standard weekday loadings, and couldn't quite cope with the huge loadings this Sunday morning train was taking. We left Glasgow on time, but gradually got later: 2 late at Motherwell, 3 late at Carlisle, 4 late at Penrith, and 6 late at Oxenholme (though that last one may have been due to a temporary speed restriction).
At this point, however, Preston signal box clearly had it in for us, because they put an on-time local service from Leeds out in front of us at Carnforth, when we were booked in front. Because that could only manage 75mph, we were 9 minutes late at Lancaster, while the local train had 17 minutes to reverse at Lancaster before heading to Morecambe. We made up a minute on the run to Preston, but by long stops at Wigan and Warrington put us back at about 10 minutes late.
For the purposes of punctuality statistics, most trains are counted as "late" when they arrive 5 or more minutes after their booked arrival at their final destination; for inter-city trains, they are allowed 10 minutes instead of 5. Note that this only counts the time at the final destination: thus, as we saw on the ECML, trains are subject to "public adjustment", so the public arrival time is advertised as being five minutes after the working timetable. In our case, the working timetable said we were due at Euston at 15:12, but the public arrival time is 15:15.
Unfortunately, this Public Performance Measure, or PPM, has led to particular methods of regulating trains - that is, deciding what order to run them in once one or more is running late, which is where signallers earn their money. The prevailing attitude is that, once a train is more than 5 (or 10) minutes late, it is considered as a "PPM failure" - that is, it will fail to be on time and is thus late - it is shunned in priority to anything and everything which is on time, and shoved to the back of the queue.
In other words, once we had fallen outside PPM - by being 10 minutes late out of Warrington - we were not given any kind of priority to get us back on time, because that would risk more trains being late and Virgin Trains' PPM percentage being worse. Thus, the three-minute delay due to following the local train at Carnforth may seem insignificant, but it drastically changed the way signallers treated us.
As such, we followed the 13:15 from Manchester Piccadilly - due into London Euston a full 12 minutes after us - all the way from Colwich Junction, just south of Stafford. Both trains had to slow down in order to let a train from Birmingham out in front at Rugby, meaning we crawled through Rugby instead of taking it at the full 125mph, which was disappointing.
More disappointing still, though, was that because the Manchester train was due to call at Milton Keynes, we stood for a full three minutes outside Milton Keynes to wait for it to clear the platform instead of taking that at 125mph. This was in spite of the fact that the signallers could have diverted the Manchester train into the adjacent empty platform, and given us a clear run in an attempt to get back on time; however, that would have risked the Manchester train being late.
As such, the Manchester train arrived four minutes early into Euston, at 15:23, while we followed it in, arriving at 15:25. Given that we were due in at 15:15, we were thus exactly 10 minutes late; if we had been given a clear run through Milton Keynes, it would have meant the Manchester train was at most 3 minutes late (and probably on time), and we would probably have been only 7 minutes late, and thus not counted as late by PPM.
It thus felt, in hindsight, like the it's-failed-PPM-so-shove-it-to-the-back-of-the-queue approach actually led to a worse PPM than if we'd been swapped at Milton Keynes; however, we did not have the full picture and it would be wrong of us to try and apportion blame for our delay without more information. Nonetheless, being deprived of a full 125mph pedal-to-the-metal non-stop dash from Warrington to London was rather disappointing.
In being late, the signallers swapped us from our booked arrival into platform 13, and instead we arrived in platform 1. This was rather convenient for Ian and I, since our train to Milton Keynes and Coventry was sitting in platform 2. Ian and I said our goodbyes to Matt, who was heading home to south London, and boarded our final train:
1538 London Euston to Coventry, arr 1640
Headcode: 1G32, operated by Virgin Trains using Pendolino 390021
Distance: 94 miles; walk-up return: £27.15 (price included in Day 1)
While they say that familiarity breeds indifference, the WCML at full speed never ceases to put a smile on my face, even on this, my seventh return trip from Coventry to London in a year.
Aside from the unnerving sensation of turning left at Rugby at 125mph, something impossible until the upgrade a few years ago, one of my favourite sections is the patch through Leighton Buzzard, in Buckinghamshire. Going north, the line curves right through Leighton Buzzard station, before immediately curving left, and slamming into Linslade tunnel.
The effect is magnified by the arrangement of the tunnels: when the line was widened from two-track to four-track in the 1880s, the middle two lines shared the old tunnel, while two new single-track tunnels were bored on either side. Northbound trains on the fast lines use the westernmost single-bore tunnel, so trains tilt one way, then the other, and then slam into the tight tunnel at Linslade, which is almost ear-popping.
All this is done at the full 125mph, and I rarely get to do it in broad daylight, since I'm usually heading home from London late in the evening; on this occasion, even though it was overcast, it still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Ian headed off at Milton Keynes, and half an hour later I arrived in Coventry, and caught a bus home, after 5 hours, 43 minutes and 495 miles on trains, beating by eight miles my first day going from Coventry to Edinburgh via London. Stay tuned for one final blog post summarising what we did, and looking back at the highs and lows of our ten days in Scotland.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 9
Our final full day in Scotland, Saturday 16th, was planned so we could complete everything outside the Glasgow suburban network; we thus had a busy day of no fewer than 11 trains, with our attention focussed on the network of lines in central Scotland, through Falkirk and Stirling.
0921 Glasgow Queen Street to Falkirk Grahamston (via Cumbernauld), arr 1010
Headcode: 2J44, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158782
Distance: 24 miles; walk-up price: £4.35
There are two routes from Glasgow to Falkirk: one is the Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line via Falkirk High, and the other is the line to Falkirk Grahamston via Cumbernauld. We started Saturday with the latter, a route cobbled together out of a number of different lines, with the mileposts jumping around from 1, to 103, down to 97, then back up to 109, before falling from 26 to 24. This route, along with the shuttle to Anniesland we used on Thursday, are pretty much the only two genuine suburban routes which still operate out of Glasgow Queen Street high level.
The train was lightly used, but it was a Saturday morning, and we were heading out of Glasgow rather than into Glasgow, so that is to be expected. The line was rather scenic, though relatively slow; it functions as the main diversionary route for Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street trains, but otherwise sees a relatively light service.
At Falkirk, there are two stations: Falkirk High lives up to its name by being on a hill to the south of the station, and is served by trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line every 15 minutes. The second is Falkirk Grahamston, which is rather closer to the city centre, but is served only by the half-hourly Edinburgh-Dunblane service, and by our stopping service via Cumbernauld (although it does see one train a day to and from London King's Cross, the Highland Chieftain, which runs all the way to Inverness and back).
1024 Falkirk Grahamston to Polmont, arr 1030
Headcode: 2P80, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158732
Distance: 3.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.30
On arrival at Falkirk Grahamston, we hopped on a Dunblane-Edinburgh stopping service for precisely one stop, in order to get to Polmont and back onto the main line. The conductor on the service was impressed by our tickets, and how good value they were; I was impressed by the fact that she knew about the ticket, since these kinds of rover tickets are not normally well-advertised. We were pleased, therefore, to discover that Scotrail do, in fact, produce a leaflet about their rover tickets - the only other company to do so is Northern Rail.
1039 Polmont to Glasgow Queen Street, arr 1105
Headcode: 1R61, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170406
Distance: 25 miles; walk-up price: £5.10
The Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line - usually the E&G - is Scotrail's flagship service, with trains between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street taking just 50 minutes, and running every 15 minutes all day on weekdays and Saturdays, with a half-hourly service in the evenings and on Sundays. The train was very well-used, with the three-car Turbostar having very few seats left by the time we got on at Polmont. What's more, the trolley service - not something we expected on a relatively short journey - was well-used as well.
Scotland's next big railway investment programme is EGIP, or Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme. Under the £1bn programme, the line between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh will be electrified, as well as the lines to Falkirk, Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa, with completion due for December 2016. From then, trains on the E&G will run every 10 minutes, contributing to a total of 13 trains per hour between the two cities (up from 7tph at present).
Clearly, the benefits of electrification have not been lost on the Scots as they have the English and the Welsh; while London's suburban network is almost all electrified, and the two principal InterCity lines (the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines) are electrified, the rest of the network is still largely the kingdom of diesel trains. However, Glasgow's suburban network is the most dense pocket of electrification outside London, and EGIP looks set to increase that still further.
While the Department for Transport is starting to wake up to the idea of electrification - with a triangle of lines between Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool to be electrified by 2016, and the Great Western Main Line from London to Oxford, Newbury, Bristol and Cardiff to be electrified by 2017, we still lag way behind the rest of Europe, largely thanks to decades of underinvestment.
When everyone else started building new electric high-speed lines in the 1970s, we built the High-Speed Train (HST): the world's fastest diesel train. It is no coincidence that we still hold the world speed records for steam and diesel trains: we kept using them long after everyone else had moved on! Just 32.9% of our network was electrified as of 2005 (and that number has changed little since), compared to 50% in France, 56% in Germany, 69% in Italy and 73% in the Netherlands. Only the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Albania and the Baltic states lag behind us.
Put it this way: all of our first five trains today would be electric if we were doing this journey in six years' time. I can only hope the same kind of thinking eventually makes its way south of Hadrian's Wall.
We returned to Glasgow Queen Street less than two hours after leaving it, only to head back out on a train to Alloa:
1118 Glasgow Queen Street to Alloa, arr 1213
Headcode: 2N67, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170395
Distance: 29 miles; walk-up price: £5.15
The line between Stirling and Alloa was reopened just three years ago, in May 2008, for two reasons. One of the reasons was to provide a new route for freight trains: Longannet power station, in south Fife, was previously only accessible via the Forth Bridge; however, with the line from Stirling through Alloa to Kincardine re-opened, freight trains were able to be diverted via Stirling instead of via the Forth Bridge, thus releasing capacity on the Forth Bridge.
Secondly, and more importantly for us, it provided Alloa with a train service for the first time since 1968, with an hourly service running between Glasgow, Stirling and Alloa. The services are well-used: passenger numbers on the line have far exceeded all estimates, and the line is one of a number of success stories on the Scottish rail network.
We had 20 minutes in Alloa to grab a newspaper and marvel at the over-complicated automatic door system in Alloa station - the buttons to open the door were nowhere near the doors! - before heading back to Stirling:
1236 Alloa to Stirling, arr 1245
Headcode: 2N58, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170395
Distance: 6.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.90
The trains on this line provide a much-needed passenger service between Alloa, Stirling and Glasgow, but they also provide good onward connections at Stirling to Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness - well, pretty much all of Scotland really (north of the central belt, anyway). In our case, we headed on to Dundee:
1307 Stirling to Dundee, arr 1400
Headcode: 1A63, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170426
Distance: 54.75 miles; walk-up price: £11.05
The line from Stirling to Perth forms part of the grandly-named Scottish Central Main Line, which connected Carlisle and Motherwell to Perth and points beyond without passing through Edinburgh or Glasgow. In fact, the southern part of the Scottish Central Main Line passes through Cumbernauld, and was part of the route we used earlier in the day between Glasgow and Falkirk.
There are no longer any passenger services which avoid Glasgow and Edinburgh - in fact, all the services between England and the northern parts of Scotland pass through Edinburgh, since Glasgow Central is a terminus and trains would have to reverse. However, the whole of the Scottish Central Main Line is still used by freight trains, and Mossend Yard, near Coatbridge, is the nexus of all freight in Scotland, being a major container terminal.
North from Stirling, the line runs through open countryside, but once we hit Perth the line curves sharply through the city, over the River Tay on a long, curved viaduct. We hug the north bank of what is by now the Firth of Tay for the twenty miles to Dundee. On approach to Dundee, the line joins with the line over the Tay Bridge from Edinburgh, and we got very good views of the viaduct itself.
1417 Dundee to Haymarket, arr 1522
Headcode: 1B32, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170429
Distance: 58 miles; walk-up price: £14.15
After a short change of trains at Dundee, we got to head back over the Tay Bridge. The original Tay Bridge was subject to one of the oldest and most infamous railway disasters: the original bridge collapsed in high winds on the evening of December 28th, 1879, and a passenger train fell into the firth below, with all 75 people on board losing their lives; the event was the subject of William McGonagall's most (in)famous poem, which starts
The bridge was reconstructed to a much sturdier design, using the original foundations; it was completed in 1887, and the bridge, over two miles long, stands today as one of the finest bridges in the country. A little further downstream is the Tay Road Bridge, which while a little shorter is still one of the longest road bridges in Europe.
We headed back to Edinburgh via Kirkcaldy, Inverkeithing, and back over one of the other spectacular bridges: the Forth Bridge. The designer of the original Tay Bridge, Sir Thomas Bouch, had got as far as laying the foundations for a similar bridge over the Firth of Forth before the Tay Bridge disaster occurred; after that incident, he was sacked from the job. Instead, Sir Benjamin Baker designed the current magnificent cantilevered bridge we have today, spanning 1.6 miles and over 100m tall; the structure has stood the test of time as one of our great engineering marvels.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the nearby Forth Road Bridge, a 1.5 mile-long suspension bridge built in 1964 to the west of the rail bridge. The planned capacity of 30,000 vehicles per day is routinely exceeded these days, with 40,000 being about average and 60,000 being not uncommon, which has, unfortunately, taken its toll on the structure of the bridge itself.
Moreover, the cables holding the Forth Road Bridge up have been found to be subject to corrosion: a study in 2005 showed the bridge had lost about 10% of its strength. As a result, it is predicted that traffic and weight restrictions will need to be in place by 2014, and the bridge could need to be closed as early as 2020.
This would be a disaster for transport in the local area, since commuters from Fife are all but dependent on the Forth Road Bridge, as the next crossing upstream is the Kincardine Bridge, a full 13 miles upstream. Closure of the Forth Road Bridge would mean that a typical 19-mile commute from Dunfermline to Edinburgh would be more than doubled to 40 miles. Hopefully something will be done - but probably not soon enough.
Our route to Edinburgh took us past Edinburgh Airport, with the railway line running right beside the end of the runway, with tripwires set up to protect trains in case a plane runs off the end of the runway. We saw planes landing at very close quarters indeed, and it beggars belief that, as yet, there is no railway station at Edinburgh Airport.
An ambitious plan to divert all train services in the area via a new station, known as the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (or EARL), was cancelled by the SNP government in 2007. However, a new tram line between Edinburgh Airport and the city centre is under construction, but has run massively over-budget and is in a state of limbo, awaiting either further funding or cancellation - though the latter would involve ripping tram rails up out of the ground. Hopefully, the tram line will be completed, but a final decision has yet to be taken; if it is, an interchange is planned at Gogar, which would permit swift interchange between tram and train not far from the airport.
Instead of changing at Edinburgh, we turned back at Haymarket, on the western edge of Edinburgh city centre, to head onto Britain's newest railway line:
1542 Haymarket to Milngavie, arr 1707
Headcode: 2M33, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 334001 + 334002
Distance: 52 miles; walk-up price: £8.85
Until last year, this line was two completely unconnected bits of track: the Edinburgh to Bathgate line, and the Airdrie branch of the North Clyde commuter lines through Glasgow Queen Street. The A2B project reopened the 14-mile stretch in between, from Airdrie to Bathgate. As a result, Edinburgh is now part of the Glasgow suburban network!
Remarkably, the Scottish government prioritised the reopening of Airdrie-Bathgate - and the general improvement of Edinburgh-Glasgow services - as more important than completing the last missing link in the M8: the motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow is complete but for a short nine-mile stretch of A8 dual carriageway near Coatbridge; this is just one example of the Scottish government repeatedly prioritising public transport over road investment.
The new line was due to open in full in December 2010, but the snow caused a few teething problems; combined with late deliveries of the class 380 trains, this led to the full service only being introduced in May 2011. The class 380s have now been put into full service on the Ayrshire coast lines, permitting the class 334s to be redeployed to the Airdrie-Bathgate line.
Both ends of the line feel like commuter lines, but the new middle section still feels quite rural, with a number of stretches of open land between the stations. However, new railway lines inevitably change the pattern of housing in the area, and I have no doubt that within a few years the stations on the route will be the focus of much development, since they have the enviable position of having direct, frequent, electric commuter services to both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
As with all services through Glasgow Queen Street low-level station, the trains from Edinburgh via Bathgate run through to destinations on the north bank of the River Clyde, usually either to Helensburgh Central or to Milngavie. Our train took us to the latter, where we had a quick change to the other platform to head back the other way:
1713 Milngavie to Hyndland, arr 1726
Headcode: 2F40, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318264
Distance: 5.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.70
Between Hyndland and Partick, fourteen trains an hour run in each direction: this section of line is the only part shared by all the services running through the low-level stations at Central and Queen Street, and is thus the busiest in Scotland, and one of the busiest in the whole of the UK. We took advantage of this to change between the North Clyde services via Queen Street, and the Argyle line services via Central.
1737 Hyndland to Lanark, arr 1842
Headcode: 2B62, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318255 + 318262
Distance: 32.75 miles; walk-up price: £3.95
The Argyle Line re-opened in 1979, having been closed for 15 years, to divert suburban services from Motherwell and Hamilton away from the high-level platforms at Glasgow Central and into the low-level platforms. Trains run on a number of routes serving Hamilton, Larkhall, Motherwell, Wishaw, and Lanark.
The Lanark branch is particularly curious: it is a two-mile long single-track branch line off the West Coast Main Line, and it's very weird to be sharing track with Pendolinos and other long-distance trains on a commuter train: unlike at the London end, where the WCML is six-track to Watford and four-track thence to Rugby, the Glasgow end is still largely two-track.
However, there are enough loops and branches to ensure that commuter trains don't tend to stay on the WCML itself for very long. The Argyle Line joins the WCML at Rutherglen; our train then followed the WCML for five miles, before heading off to serve Bellshill, coming back on at Motherwell. We then proceeded along the WCML for just two miles before turning off again to serve Wishaw; our final spell on the WCML of seven miles then took us to Lanark Junction.
1853 Lanark to Glasgow Central, arr 1956
Headcode: 2F15, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318262 + 318255
Distance: 33.25 miles; walk-up price: £3.85
Having stretched our legs in Lanark, we headed straight back on the same train. However, it wasn't going back the same way; oh, no, that would be too easy. Half the services to Lanark run via Bellshill, as detailed above. The other half, however, run via Hamilton, Motherwell, and Holytown.
We ran back to Wishaw, but instead of rejoining the WCML we proveeded round a different loop through Holytown, then passed through Motherwell in the "wrong" direction - i.e., the same way we passed through it less than an hour earlier! We then ran round the loop through Hamilton and Newton, and rejoined the standard route just north of Newton.
After 8 hours, 9 minutes on 11 trains, covering 324.5 miles, we were pretty hungry for some dinner. On arrival at Glasgow Central, we walked the short distance to the Bella Italia round the corner, and reflected on an excellent final day in Scotland, before heading back to the hotel to get packed and ready for the journey back to London on Sunday.
0921 Glasgow Queen Street to Falkirk Grahamston (via Cumbernauld), arr 1010
Headcode: 2J44, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158782
Distance: 24 miles; walk-up price: £4.35
There are two routes from Glasgow to Falkirk: one is the Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line via Falkirk High, and the other is the line to Falkirk Grahamston via Cumbernauld. We started Saturday with the latter, a route cobbled together out of a number of different lines, with the mileposts jumping around from 1, to 103, down to 97, then back up to 109, before falling from 26 to 24. This route, along with the shuttle to Anniesland we used on Thursday, are pretty much the only two genuine suburban routes which still operate out of Glasgow Queen Street high level.
The train was lightly used, but it was a Saturday morning, and we were heading out of Glasgow rather than into Glasgow, so that is to be expected. The line was rather scenic, though relatively slow; it functions as the main diversionary route for Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street trains, but otherwise sees a relatively light service.
At Falkirk, there are two stations: Falkirk High lives up to its name by being on a hill to the south of the station, and is served by trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line every 15 minutes. The second is Falkirk Grahamston, which is rather closer to the city centre, but is served only by the half-hourly Edinburgh-Dunblane service, and by our stopping service via Cumbernauld (although it does see one train a day to and from London King's Cross, the Highland Chieftain, which runs all the way to Inverness and back).
1024 Falkirk Grahamston to Polmont, arr 1030
Headcode: 2P80, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158732
Distance: 3.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.30
On arrival at Falkirk Grahamston, we hopped on a Dunblane-Edinburgh stopping service for precisely one stop, in order to get to Polmont and back onto the main line. The conductor on the service was impressed by our tickets, and how good value they were; I was impressed by the fact that she knew about the ticket, since these kinds of rover tickets are not normally well-advertised. We were pleased, therefore, to discover that Scotrail do, in fact, produce a leaflet about their rover tickets - the only other company to do so is Northern Rail.
1039 Polmont to Glasgow Queen Street, arr 1105
Headcode: 1R61, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170406
Distance: 25 miles; walk-up price: £5.10
The Edinburgh and Glasgow Main Line - usually the E&G - is Scotrail's flagship service, with trains between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street taking just 50 minutes, and running every 15 minutes all day on weekdays and Saturdays, with a half-hourly service in the evenings and on Sundays. The train was very well-used, with the three-car Turbostar having very few seats left by the time we got on at Polmont. What's more, the trolley service - not something we expected on a relatively short journey - was well-used as well.
Scotland's next big railway investment programme is EGIP, or Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme. Under the £1bn programme, the line between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh will be electrified, as well as the lines to Falkirk, Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa, with completion due for December 2016. From then, trains on the E&G will run every 10 minutes, contributing to a total of 13 trains per hour between the two cities (up from 7tph at present).
Clearly, the benefits of electrification have not been lost on the Scots as they have the English and the Welsh; while London's suburban network is almost all electrified, and the two principal InterCity lines (the West Coast and East Coast Main Lines) are electrified, the rest of the network is still largely the kingdom of diesel trains. However, Glasgow's suburban network is the most dense pocket of electrification outside London, and EGIP looks set to increase that still further.
While the Department for Transport is starting to wake up to the idea of electrification - with a triangle of lines between Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool to be electrified by 2016, and the Great Western Main Line from London to Oxford, Newbury, Bristol and Cardiff to be electrified by 2017, we still lag way behind the rest of Europe, largely thanks to decades of underinvestment.
When everyone else started building new electric high-speed lines in the 1970s, we built the High-Speed Train (HST): the world's fastest diesel train. It is no coincidence that we still hold the world speed records for steam and diesel trains: we kept using them long after everyone else had moved on! Just 32.9% of our network was electrified as of 2005 (and that number has changed little since), compared to 50% in France, 56% in Germany, 69% in Italy and 73% in the Netherlands. Only the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Albania and the Baltic states lag behind us.
Put it this way: all of our first five trains today would be electric if we were doing this journey in six years' time. I can only hope the same kind of thinking eventually makes its way south of Hadrian's Wall.
We returned to Glasgow Queen Street less than two hours after leaving it, only to head back out on a train to Alloa:
1118 Glasgow Queen Street to Alloa, arr 1213
Headcode: 2N67, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170395
Distance: 29 miles; walk-up price: £5.15
The line between Stirling and Alloa was reopened just three years ago, in May 2008, for two reasons. One of the reasons was to provide a new route for freight trains: Longannet power station, in south Fife, was previously only accessible via the Forth Bridge; however, with the line from Stirling through Alloa to Kincardine re-opened, freight trains were able to be diverted via Stirling instead of via the Forth Bridge, thus releasing capacity on the Forth Bridge.
Secondly, and more importantly for us, it provided Alloa with a train service for the first time since 1968, with an hourly service running between Glasgow, Stirling and Alloa. The services are well-used: passenger numbers on the line have far exceeded all estimates, and the line is one of a number of success stories on the Scottish rail network.
We had 20 minutes in Alloa to grab a newspaper and marvel at the over-complicated automatic door system in Alloa station - the buttons to open the door were nowhere near the doors! - before heading back to Stirling:
1236 Alloa to Stirling, arr 1245
Headcode: 2N58, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170395
Distance: 6.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.90
The trains on this line provide a much-needed passenger service between Alloa, Stirling and Glasgow, but they also provide good onward connections at Stirling to Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness - well, pretty much all of Scotland really (north of the central belt, anyway). In our case, we headed on to Dundee:
1307 Stirling to Dundee, arr 1400
Headcode: 1A63, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170426
Distance: 54.75 miles; walk-up price: £11.05
The line from Stirling to Perth forms part of the grandly-named Scottish Central Main Line, which connected Carlisle and Motherwell to Perth and points beyond without passing through Edinburgh or Glasgow. In fact, the southern part of the Scottish Central Main Line passes through Cumbernauld, and was part of the route we used earlier in the day between Glasgow and Falkirk.
There are no longer any passenger services which avoid Glasgow and Edinburgh - in fact, all the services between England and the northern parts of Scotland pass through Edinburgh, since Glasgow Central is a terminus and trains would have to reverse. However, the whole of the Scottish Central Main Line is still used by freight trains, and Mossend Yard, near Coatbridge, is the nexus of all freight in Scotland, being a major container terminal.
North from Stirling, the line runs through open countryside, but once we hit Perth the line curves sharply through the city, over the River Tay on a long, curved viaduct. We hug the north bank of what is by now the Firth of Tay for the twenty miles to Dundee. On approach to Dundee, the line joins with the line over the Tay Bridge from Edinburgh, and we got very good views of the viaduct itself.
1417 Dundee to Haymarket, arr 1522
Headcode: 1B32, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170429
Distance: 58 miles; walk-up price: £14.15
After a short change of trains at Dundee, we got to head back over the Tay Bridge. The original Tay Bridge was subject to one of the oldest and most infamous railway disasters: the original bridge collapsed in high winds on the evening of December 28th, 1879, and a passenger train fell into the firth below, with all 75 people on board losing their lives; the event was the subject of William McGonagall's most (in)famous poem, which starts
"Beautiful railway bridge of the silv'ry Tay
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last sabbath day of 1879
Which shall be remembered for a very long time."
The bridge was reconstructed to a much sturdier design, using the original foundations; it was completed in 1887, and the bridge, over two miles long, stands today as one of the finest bridges in the country. A little further downstream is the Tay Road Bridge, which while a little shorter is still one of the longest road bridges in Europe.
We headed back to Edinburgh via Kirkcaldy, Inverkeithing, and back over one of the other spectacular bridges: the Forth Bridge. The designer of the original Tay Bridge, Sir Thomas Bouch, had got as far as laying the foundations for a similar bridge over the Firth of Forth before the Tay Bridge disaster occurred; after that incident, he was sacked from the job. Instead, Sir Benjamin Baker designed the current magnificent cantilevered bridge we have today, spanning 1.6 miles and over 100m tall; the structure has stood the test of time as one of our great engineering marvels.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the nearby Forth Road Bridge, a 1.5 mile-long suspension bridge built in 1964 to the west of the rail bridge. The planned capacity of 30,000 vehicles per day is routinely exceeded these days, with 40,000 being about average and 60,000 being not uncommon, which has, unfortunately, taken its toll on the structure of the bridge itself.
Moreover, the cables holding the Forth Road Bridge up have been found to be subject to corrosion: a study in 2005 showed the bridge had lost about 10% of its strength. As a result, it is predicted that traffic and weight restrictions will need to be in place by 2014, and the bridge could need to be closed as early as 2020.
This would be a disaster for transport in the local area, since commuters from Fife are all but dependent on the Forth Road Bridge, as the next crossing upstream is the Kincardine Bridge, a full 13 miles upstream. Closure of the Forth Road Bridge would mean that a typical 19-mile commute from Dunfermline to Edinburgh would be more than doubled to 40 miles. Hopefully something will be done - but probably not soon enough.
Our route to Edinburgh took us past Edinburgh Airport, with the railway line running right beside the end of the runway, with tripwires set up to protect trains in case a plane runs off the end of the runway. We saw planes landing at very close quarters indeed, and it beggars belief that, as yet, there is no railway station at Edinburgh Airport.
An ambitious plan to divert all train services in the area via a new station, known as the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (or EARL), was cancelled by the SNP government in 2007. However, a new tram line between Edinburgh Airport and the city centre is under construction, but has run massively over-budget and is in a state of limbo, awaiting either further funding or cancellation - though the latter would involve ripping tram rails up out of the ground. Hopefully, the tram line will be completed, but a final decision has yet to be taken; if it is, an interchange is planned at Gogar, which would permit swift interchange between tram and train not far from the airport.
Instead of changing at Edinburgh, we turned back at Haymarket, on the western edge of Edinburgh city centre, to head onto Britain's newest railway line:
1542 Haymarket to Milngavie, arr 1707
Headcode: 2M33, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 334001 + 334002
Distance: 52 miles; walk-up price: £8.85
Until last year, this line was two completely unconnected bits of track: the Edinburgh to Bathgate line, and the Airdrie branch of the North Clyde commuter lines through Glasgow Queen Street. The A2B project reopened the 14-mile stretch in between, from Airdrie to Bathgate. As a result, Edinburgh is now part of the Glasgow suburban network!
Remarkably, the Scottish government prioritised the reopening of Airdrie-Bathgate - and the general improvement of Edinburgh-Glasgow services - as more important than completing the last missing link in the M8: the motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow is complete but for a short nine-mile stretch of A8 dual carriageway near Coatbridge; this is just one example of the Scottish government repeatedly prioritising public transport over road investment.
The new line was due to open in full in December 2010, but the snow caused a few teething problems; combined with late deliveries of the class 380 trains, this led to the full service only being introduced in May 2011. The class 380s have now been put into full service on the Ayrshire coast lines, permitting the class 334s to be redeployed to the Airdrie-Bathgate line.
Both ends of the line feel like commuter lines, but the new middle section still feels quite rural, with a number of stretches of open land between the stations. However, new railway lines inevitably change the pattern of housing in the area, and I have no doubt that within a few years the stations on the route will be the focus of much development, since they have the enviable position of having direct, frequent, electric commuter services to both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
As with all services through Glasgow Queen Street low-level station, the trains from Edinburgh via Bathgate run through to destinations on the north bank of the River Clyde, usually either to Helensburgh Central or to Milngavie. Our train took us to the latter, where we had a quick change to the other platform to head back the other way:
1713 Milngavie to Hyndland, arr 1726
Headcode: 2F40, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318264
Distance: 5.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.70
Between Hyndland and Partick, fourteen trains an hour run in each direction: this section of line is the only part shared by all the services running through the low-level stations at Central and Queen Street, and is thus the busiest in Scotland, and one of the busiest in the whole of the UK. We took advantage of this to change between the North Clyde services via Queen Street, and the Argyle line services via Central.
1737 Hyndland to Lanark, arr 1842
Headcode: 2B62, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318255 + 318262
Distance: 32.75 miles; walk-up price: £3.95
The Argyle Line re-opened in 1979, having been closed for 15 years, to divert suburban services from Motherwell and Hamilton away from the high-level platforms at Glasgow Central and into the low-level platforms. Trains run on a number of routes serving Hamilton, Larkhall, Motherwell, Wishaw, and Lanark.
The Lanark branch is particularly curious: it is a two-mile long single-track branch line off the West Coast Main Line, and it's very weird to be sharing track with Pendolinos and other long-distance trains on a commuter train: unlike at the London end, where the WCML is six-track to Watford and four-track thence to Rugby, the Glasgow end is still largely two-track.
However, there are enough loops and branches to ensure that commuter trains don't tend to stay on the WCML itself for very long. The Argyle Line joins the WCML at Rutherglen; our train then followed the WCML for five miles, before heading off to serve Bellshill, coming back on at Motherwell. We then proceeded along the WCML for just two miles before turning off again to serve Wishaw; our final spell on the WCML of seven miles then took us to Lanark Junction.
1853 Lanark to Glasgow Central, arr 1956
Headcode: 2F15, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318262 + 318255
Distance: 33.25 miles; walk-up price: £3.85
Having stretched our legs in Lanark, we headed straight back on the same train. However, it wasn't going back the same way; oh, no, that would be too easy. Half the services to Lanark run via Bellshill, as detailed above. The other half, however, run via Hamilton, Motherwell, and Holytown.
We ran back to Wishaw, but instead of rejoining the WCML we proveeded round a different loop through Holytown, then passed through Motherwell in the "wrong" direction - i.e., the same way we passed through it less than an hour earlier! We then ran round the loop through Hamilton and Newton, and rejoined the standard route just north of Newton.
After 8 hours, 9 minutes on 11 trains, covering 324.5 miles, we were pretty hungry for some dinner. On arrival at Glasgow Central, we walked the short distance to the Bella Italia round the corner, and reflected on an excellent final day in Scotland, before heading back to the hotel to get packed and ready for the journey back to London on Sunday.
Sunday 24 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 8
After a good lie-in on Friday to recover from a few early starts and late nights, we headed for Glasgow Central station with a simple plan: look at the departure board, and get on whatever the first train was, as long as it wasn't going too far afield. So we did:
1045 Glasgow Central to Newton, arr 1114
Headcode: 2M90, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314216
Distance: 10 miles; walk-up price: £1.80
The Cathcart Circle Lines form one of the younger parts of Glasgow's commuter network, opening between 1886 and 1894, but were among the earliest to be electrified, with the wires going up in 1962. The Cathcart Circle itself is, in fact, pear-shaped, with trains running from Glasgow Central round the loop (either clockwise or anticlockwise) back to Glasgow Central.
In addition, there are two branches, one to Newton and one to Neilston. All trains to Neilston run along the eastern side of the loop, via Mount Florida (surely one of the most interesting names of any station in the country!), while trains to Newton can go along either the eastern side or the western side to reach the triangle at Cathcart, where they proceed on to Newton. Our train headed via the western side, via Langside, to Newton.
The arrangement of the triangle at Cathcart is such that trains to and from Newton cannot call at Cathcart - no matter whether they run via the east or the west side of the loop - but we passed within metres of the platforms at Cathcart while traversing the triangle. (Cathcart station itself is served by the circle trains, and trains to and from Neilston.)
If you're not already confused enough, you may wish to look at the diagram here, which may help explain the topology of the lines.
1123 Newton to Hamilton Central, arr 1133
Headcode: 2S38, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318265
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up return Newton-Lanark: £2.45
1150 Hamilton Central to Larkhall, arr 1200
Headcode: 2L22, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up price included above
1207 Larkhall to Blantyre, arr 1222
Headcode: 2L01, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 8 miles; walk-up price included above
1234 Blantyre to Newton, arr 1238
Headcode: 2F11, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318259
Distance: 2.5 miles; walk-up price included above
After arriving in Newton, we headed for Larkhall; trains to Larkhall pass through Newton but do not stop, thus necessitating a change at Hamilton Central. Trains to and from Hamilton continue along the Argyle Line, the low-level line through Glasgow Central.
From Hamilton Central we headed onto the Larkhall branch, which reopened in 2005. The line is mostly single-track, partly due to a tunnel near Hamilton and partly due to the low level of service on a short branch line, with trains running to Larkhall every half an hour from Glasgow Central low level and beyond. We got to Larkhall, stayed right on the same train, and headed back to Newton, changing at Blantyre on the way back for variety's sake.
1250 Newton to Mount Florida, arr 1304
Headcode: 2P03, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314210
Distance: 5.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.70
Once back at Newton, we headed back onto the Cathcart Circle Lines: we first headed to Mount Florida, on the eastern side of the loop, along the other route trains take between Newton and Glasgow Central.
1315 Mount Florida to Neilston, arr 1334
Headcode: 2N08, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 8.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.90
At Mount Florida, we changed and headed down the branch to Neilston. What is now a short branch line to Neilston originally extended all the way to the Ayrshire coast at Ardrossan, but "rationalisation" - i.e., removal of effectively duplicate lines - led to the line beyond Neilston being closed shortly after the electrification to Neilston was completed in 1962.
With a 26-minute gap between each train arriving at Neilston and departing again to head back to Glasgow, we had hoped to find somewhere to grab some lunch, but the area around the station in Neilston was decidedly lacking in almost everything, so we waited patiently on the platform for our train back to Glasgow.
1400 Neilston to Glasgow Central, arr 1429
Headcode: 2N13, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 11.75 miles; walk-up price: £2.10
We headed back to Glasgow, via Mount Florida and the eastern side of the loop. Most of the trains so far today had been quite quiet, but this was well-used with people going into Glasgow for a Friday afternoon. Amusingly, in going to Newton and back and Neilston and back in the manner which we did, we found that we had actually covered all the track on which the Cathcart Circle trains run, without ever actually travelling on the Cathcart Circle!
1437 (actual 1443) Glasgow Central (low level) to Partick, arr 1444 (actual 1450)
Headcode: 2L09, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318260
Distance: 2.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.05
Having each grabbed some lunch from different places and reconvened at Glasgow Central low level platforms, we headed to Partick. The rain was threatening coming down quite heavily, so we headed for the Riverside Museum, Glasgow's museum of transport.
The Riverside Museum contains a wide variety of old cars, motorbikes, bicycles, trams, trolleybuses, train locomotives, and much else besides. The trouble is that, while each item is interesting in its own right, the organisation of the museum is rather haphazard, with train locomotives right next to bicycles right next to trams.
The layout means that people are forced to look around the whole museum instead of being able to, say, just look at the trains or the cars. I can see why they've done what they've done, and it certainly meant I saw more than I might otherwise have seen, but it did make it very difficult to find any particular item that you wanted to see.
Nonetheless, the museum is very interesting and has many enjoyable interactive exhibits. It has a mock-up of a Sinclair C5, Clive Sinclair's ill-fated electric tricycle, where you can "ride" one on a computer-simulated course. The museum also makes considerable use of touch-screen computers to display information, as well as for games designed for you to learn about the various exhibits, including one game of "top trumps" for the collection of motorcycles.
One of the best exhibits was about the Glasgow Subway and its construction. The subway, a single circular line under the city centre, was originally cable-hauled: the train driver would use a "gripper" to, effectively, grip or release the cable in order to move or stop. While the subway is now powered by more conventional third-rail electric trains, the subway retains its unusual four-foot gauge track - that is, the rails are just 4ft (1.22m) apart instead of the conventional 4ft 8.5in (1.435m) apart - to this day.
Having spent a good two hours seeing the exhibits, we then experienced the subway for ourselves:
Glasgow Subway: Partick to Cowcaddens (outer rail, one complete loop)
We went clockwise round a full one-and-a-half loops of the subway circuit, from Partick, all the way round back to Partick, and on to Cowcaddens (the nearest stop to our hotel). The subway, lovingly known to locals as the Clockwork Orange thanks to circular nature and colourful livery, operates with just three-carriage trains, and even though it was a Friday evening at 5pm there was room for everyone to sit down.
Admittedly it is the summer holidays, but the subway - with trains in each direction every 3-4 minutes - seems rather underused. One of the reasons may be its lack of connections: aside from Partick, which is fully integrated with the mainline station, the only "connection" to Scotrail services is a travelator from Buchanan Street subway station to Queen Street station. St Enoch station is a five-minute walk from Glasgow Central station, but its name belies that it originally served the station at St Enoch which was closed in the 1960s.
After a brief rest in the hotel, we dined at Wagamama in the city centre: it was nice to return to Wagamama in Glasgow, my first ever visit to Wagamama having been to that in Glasgow in 2007, since when I have been an instant convert to their brand of clean, crisp, oriental-influenced food.
After dinner, we wandered down to the Clyde, where we could see the bridge carrying the lines into and out of Glasgow Central station: even at 10pm they were remarkably busy with trains (although there are seven parallel tracks!). We ambled slowly up Buchanan Street back to our hotel, ready for our final packed day in Scotland on Saturday.
1045 Glasgow Central to Newton, arr 1114
Headcode: 2M90, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314216
Distance: 10 miles; walk-up price: £1.80
The Cathcart Circle Lines form one of the younger parts of Glasgow's commuter network, opening between 1886 and 1894, but were among the earliest to be electrified, with the wires going up in 1962. The Cathcart Circle itself is, in fact, pear-shaped, with trains running from Glasgow Central round the loop (either clockwise or anticlockwise) back to Glasgow Central.
In addition, there are two branches, one to Newton and one to Neilston. All trains to Neilston run along the eastern side of the loop, via Mount Florida (surely one of the most interesting names of any station in the country!), while trains to Newton can go along either the eastern side or the western side to reach the triangle at Cathcart, where they proceed on to Newton. Our train headed via the western side, via Langside, to Newton.
The arrangement of the triangle at Cathcart is such that trains to and from Newton cannot call at Cathcart - no matter whether they run via the east or the west side of the loop - but we passed within metres of the platforms at Cathcart while traversing the triangle. (Cathcart station itself is served by the circle trains, and trains to and from Neilston.)
If you're not already confused enough, you may wish to look at the diagram here, which may help explain the topology of the lines.
1123 Newton to Hamilton Central, arr 1133
Headcode: 2S38, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318265
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up return Newton-Lanark: £2.45
1150 Hamilton Central to Larkhall, arr 1200
Headcode: 2L22, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up price included above
1207 Larkhall to Blantyre, arr 1222
Headcode: 2L01, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 8 miles; walk-up price included above
1234 Blantyre to Newton, arr 1238
Headcode: 2F11, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318259
Distance: 2.5 miles; walk-up price included above
After arriving in Newton, we headed for Larkhall; trains to Larkhall pass through Newton but do not stop, thus necessitating a change at Hamilton Central. Trains to and from Hamilton continue along the Argyle Line, the low-level line through Glasgow Central.
From Hamilton Central we headed onto the Larkhall branch, which reopened in 2005. The line is mostly single-track, partly due to a tunnel near Hamilton and partly due to the low level of service on a short branch line, with trains running to Larkhall every half an hour from Glasgow Central low level and beyond. We got to Larkhall, stayed right on the same train, and headed back to Newton, changing at Blantyre on the way back for variety's sake.
1250 Newton to Mount Florida, arr 1304
Headcode: 2P03, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314210
Distance: 5.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.70
Once back at Newton, we headed back onto the Cathcart Circle Lines: we first headed to Mount Florida, on the eastern side of the loop, along the other route trains take between Newton and Glasgow Central.
1315 Mount Florida to Neilston, arr 1334
Headcode: 2N08, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 8.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.90
At Mount Florida, we changed and headed down the branch to Neilston. What is now a short branch line to Neilston originally extended all the way to the Ayrshire coast at Ardrossan, but "rationalisation" - i.e., removal of effectively duplicate lines - led to the line beyond Neilston being closed shortly after the electrification to Neilston was completed in 1962.
With a 26-minute gap between each train arriving at Neilston and departing again to head back to Glasgow, we had hoped to find somewhere to grab some lunch, but the area around the station in Neilston was decidedly lacking in almost everything, so we waited patiently on the platform for our train back to Glasgow.
1400 Neilston to Glasgow Central, arr 1429
Headcode: 2N13, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 11.75 miles; walk-up price: £2.10
We headed back to Glasgow, via Mount Florida and the eastern side of the loop. Most of the trains so far today had been quite quiet, but this was well-used with people going into Glasgow for a Friday afternoon. Amusingly, in going to Newton and back and Neilston and back in the manner which we did, we found that we had actually covered all the track on which the Cathcart Circle trains run, without ever actually travelling on the Cathcart Circle!
1437 (actual 1443) Glasgow Central (low level) to Partick, arr 1444 (actual 1450)
Headcode: 2L09, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318260
Distance: 2.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.05
Having each grabbed some lunch from different places and reconvened at Glasgow Central low level platforms, we headed to Partick. The rain was threatening coming down quite heavily, so we headed for the Riverside Museum, Glasgow's museum of transport.
The Riverside Museum contains a wide variety of old cars, motorbikes, bicycles, trams, trolleybuses, train locomotives, and much else besides. The trouble is that, while each item is interesting in its own right, the organisation of the museum is rather haphazard, with train locomotives right next to bicycles right next to trams.
The layout means that people are forced to look around the whole museum instead of being able to, say, just look at the trains or the cars. I can see why they've done what they've done, and it certainly meant I saw more than I might otherwise have seen, but it did make it very difficult to find any particular item that you wanted to see.
Nonetheless, the museum is very interesting and has many enjoyable interactive exhibits. It has a mock-up of a Sinclair C5, Clive Sinclair's ill-fated electric tricycle, where you can "ride" one on a computer-simulated course. The museum also makes considerable use of touch-screen computers to display information, as well as for games designed for you to learn about the various exhibits, including one game of "top trumps" for the collection of motorcycles.
One of the best exhibits was about the Glasgow Subway and its construction. The subway, a single circular line under the city centre, was originally cable-hauled: the train driver would use a "gripper" to, effectively, grip or release the cable in order to move or stop. While the subway is now powered by more conventional third-rail electric trains, the subway retains its unusual four-foot gauge track - that is, the rails are just 4ft (1.22m) apart instead of the conventional 4ft 8.5in (1.435m) apart - to this day.
Having spent a good two hours seeing the exhibits, we then experienced the subway for ourselves:
Glasgow Subway: Partick to Cowcaddens (outer rail, one complete loop)
We went clockwise round a full one-and-a-half loops of the subway circuit, from Partick, all the way round back to Partick, and on to Cowcaddens (the nearest stop to our hotel). The subway, lovingly known to locals as the Clockwork Orange thanks to circular nature and colourful livery, operates with just three-carriage trains, and even though it was a Friday evening at 5pm there was room for everyone to sit down.
Admittedly it is the summer holidays, but the subway - with trains in each direction every 3-4 minutes - seems rather underused. One of the reasons may be its lack of connections: aside from Partick, which is fully integrated with the mainline station, the only "connection" to Scotrail services is a travelator from Buchanan Street subway station to Queen Street station. St Enoch station is a five-minute walk from Glasgow Central station, but its name belies that it originally served the station at St Enoch which was closed in the 1960s.
After a brief rest in the hotel, we dined at Wagamama in the city centre: it was nice to return to Wagamama in Glasgow, my first ever visit to Wagamama having been to that in Glasgow in 2007, since when I have been an instant convert to their brand of clean, crisp, oriental-influenced food.
After dinner, we wandered down to the Clyde, where we could see the bridge carrying the lines into and out of Glasgow Central station: even at 10pm they were remarkably busy with trains (although there are seven parallel tracks!). We ambled slowly up Buchanan Street back to our hotel, ready for our final packed day in Scotland on Saturday.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 7
On Thursday, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed getting up at 6:30am. We checked out of our hostel and headed for the first train of the day out of Fort William:
0742 Fort William to Crianlarich, arr 0930
Headcode: 1Y42, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156478
Distance: 63 miles; walk-up price: £11.20
The West Highland line from Fort William to Crianlarich is probably my favourite section of the West Highland Line: on the All-Line Rover I didn't manage to see Fort William to Mallaig, but I did manage a return trip from Glasgow to Fort William on day 14; that post gives a pretty full account of the history of the line, so forgive me if I don't go into quite as much detail here.
The natural route for the West Highland Line to take would be to follow what is now the A82, which heads south along the coast from Fort William as far as Ballachulish, before climbing up Glen Coe and across the southern part of Rannoch Moor to Bridge of Orchy, and on to Crianlarich. However, that would have involved building a bridge at Ballachulish, and the West Highland Line was being built on a shoestring budget.
So, instead, the builders chose the cheaper option of simply building over the top of Rannoch Moor. Out of Fort William, we head north-east parallel to the road to Aviemore as far as Tulloch station, before turning south and climbing past Loch Treig, onto Rannoch Moor. Here, the route goes truly through the middle of nowhere, with some of the most beautiful, most barren, most wild scenery in the country.
Amazingly, there are not one but two stations in the middle of Rannoch Moor: we come first to the curious station at Corrour - the highest station anywhere in the country - which has no road access whatsoever. Nonetheless, about a mile from Corrour station is Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, which has become an essential base for walkers, as Corrour station is in easy walking distance of half a dozen Munros (mountains over 3000ft, of which there are 283 in Scotland).
The second station on Rannoch Moor is Rannoch station, where we meet our only road for 30 miles: however, that road comes from the east, a narrow single-track road leading towards Pitlochry and Perth. To drive from Rannoch station to Tulloch station, at the north end of the moor, a distance of 17 miles by rail, is a 76-mile, two-hour drive via the pass of Drumochter on the A9 far to the east.
At Rannoch station, we crossed paths with the sleeper train from London, which had left just under twelve hours earlier: yes, you can board a train in London at 21:15, and arrive the next morning in Fort William at 09:50. The sleeper train is nicknamed the "Deerstalker": imagine being able to go to sleep in London and wake up, having travelled nearly 500 miles, on top of Rannoch Moor. That one is definitely still on my to-do list.
It was at this point we realised just how lucky we were: we were on a train, in the middle of nowhere, looking out over the most glorious scenery in the country, under bright blue skies and blazing sunshine, right in the middle of the rush-hour in London. Very satisfying, and well worth the early start.
What is particularly nice about the trains on the West Highland lines is that they have undergone only minimal refurbishment, and they retain their low-backed seats, only coming up to about shoulder-height, thus providing everyone with a good view from the good-sized windows, something which is sadly lacking on newer trains. On this line, however, visibility is not optional, it is the reason for going on the line.
We continued south through Bridge of Orchy - where we rejoined the A82 - and Tyndrum, and got off at Crianlarich, where the lines from Oban and Fort William meet. For me, being up and outside at 9:30am is rare enough; being up, outside and having travelled 63 miles to Crianlarich was rare indeed. We had 45 minutes to wait for the next train to Oban; amazingly, this station in the middle of nowhere had a tea room, which we availed ourselves in the meantime.
1015 Crianlarich to Oban, arr 1127
Headcode: 1Y21, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156493 + 156465
Distance: 41.75 miles; walk-up price: £6.80
Oban is just 100 miles from Glasgow, and though the journey takes three hours, the line is wonderfully scenic as to make day-tripping from Glasgow to Oban quite popular, and so our four-car train from Crianlarich to Oban was well-used. The line itself is less pioneering than the route to Fort William - it parallels the A85 road to Oban for most of the way - but still provides its share of wonderful scenery, past Loch Awe and Loch Etive.
An interesting feature are the Pass of Brander "stone signals": due to rockfalls, the line between Dalmally and Taynuilt, past Loch Awe, is protected by automatic signals which stop the driver if there has been a rockfall that would endanger the line. This is done using a system of wires: if rocks fall, the wires will be stretched or broken, and the semaphore signals will fall to show "danger".
The signals were installed in 1882, shortly after the line was opened, and have survived ever since. They are remarkable in being entirely mechanical, unlike most modern electrical tripwire systems, such as those installed at the end of the runways at Gatwick and Edinburgh airports (both of which have railway lines running past them). They did not, unfortunately, prevent a serious derailment in June 2010, when boulders fell below the wires; fortunately no-one was seriously injured.
At Connel, we pass the cantilever bridge which takes the road north along the coast to Ballachulish and Fort William. The name of the nearby station - Connel Ferry - betrays that originally there was no road bridge: the bridge was in fact originally a railway bridge, built in 1903 for the branch to Ballachulish; in 1914, the bridge was converted to have a parallel roadway, and when the railway closed in 1966 the bridge was dedicated entirely to road traffic.
With 20,000 people, the town of Oban is the largest on the western seaboard north of Glasgow, and is the base for the CalMac ferries to the outer Hebrides - with sailings to Castlebay and Lochboisdale taking five hours - as well as shorter ferry journeys to the nearby isles of Mull, Tiree and Coll. We spent an hour and a half looking round the town and getting some lunch, before heading back to the station for our train all the way back to Glasgow.
1256 Oban to Glasgow Queen Street, arr 1600 (actual 1618)
Headcode: 1Y24, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156465 + 156493
Distance: 101.5 miles; walk-up price: £13.45
Our train took us back past Loch Etive and Loch Awe to Crianlarich, then south to Ardlui, where we hit the banks of Loch Lomond, before crossing the isthmus at Arrochar to Loch Long. We then cross another isthmus at Garelochhead to follow Gare Loch as far as Helensburgh, where we then follow the Clyde estuary through Dumbarton into Glasgow.
The four-car train was again well-loaded, but the journey wasn't quite as smooth as we had been hoping: after three stops we called at Loch Awe, where we stood for 15 minutes. The driver and conductor were evidently trying to fix a problem, which seemed to be something to do with the doors in the third carriage; eventually we proceeded, but we only got two stops further to Tyndrum Lower before stopping for another five minutes.
At this point the conductor asked all passengers in the rear two coaches to proceed forwards to the front two coaches: the problems were evidently severe enough that the rear unit could not be relied upon for safety, and so all the passengers were bundled into the front two coaches. Fortunately, the train was not too busy, and while there was quite a lot of luggage around, everyone got a seat.
By the time we got to Crianlarich, we were 17 minutes late, and holding up the next train in the other direction which had portions heading for Oban and Mallaig. The train to Mallaig formed the last train back from Mallaig to Fort William, which provided a connecting service into the sleeper train back to London, and the delay could potentially have rippled through all those services; it was amusing to think that one small door problem at a remote location in the highlands could have effects on the following morning's rush-hour services into London Euston.
Beyond Crianlarich, the journey was uneventful, in more sense than one. By now the cloud had started to roll in from the west - the weather forecast being the key factor in our deciding to travel earlier, rather than later - but it remained dry for the whole journey.
However, just south of Crianlarich, we passed from Highland council area into Argyll and Bute; the change in local authority marked a noticeable change in visibility. While Highland council have undertaken to clear as many trees as possible from the line, thus aiding visibility and making the ride more attractive, Argyll and Bute have not yet done the same, meaning any view of Loch Lomond that we had was obscured by trees.
Having made up a little time, being only 11 minutes late at Dumbarton, we then had to follow a couple of on-time stopping trains, and thus arrived in Glasgow 18 minutes late, where we proceeded to our hotel - a slightly older Travelodge, with a subtly different layout - to dump our stuff and relax for an hour or two.
For dinner, we decided to head to the nearby town of Balloch, at the south end of Loch Lomond. Of course, we decided to go and come back by different routes, using various parts of Glasgow's dense suburban network.
1756 Glasgow Queen Street to Anniesland, arr 1816
Headcode: 2W73, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158735
Distance: 6.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.40
We started with the short shuttle service to Anniesland, which was delayed by ten minutes awaiting a driver. For a suburban service in the evening peak it was busy, but by no means full; the short distance is probably better suited to buses than trains, but the line survives nonetheless.
1835 Anniesland to Balloch, arr 1910
Headcode: 2E73, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 320307 + 320322
Distance: 15.5 miles; walk-up price: £2.50
At Anniesland, we joined the main electric suburban lines. There are two east-west tunnels through central Glasgow, one via Queen Street and one via Central. On the west side of the city, they join up at Partick, before splitting again at Hyndland (the next station), with two routes to Dalmuir, one via Anniesland and Westerton, and the other via Garscadden and Yoker. From Dalmuir, the line continues on to Dumbarton, before splitting for Helensburgh and Balloch. And, if you're not confused by now, there's also a branch to Milngavie which splits off at Westerton.
To cut a long story short, our route took us from Anniesland, through Westerton, Dalmuir and Dumbarton, to Balloch. The contrast with suburban lines in London was stark: while even the outer reaches of London are noticeably affluent, here prefabricated concrete structures abound, and much of the city feels poor.
Balloch, on the other hand, is a real treat: Loch Lomond is just a short walk from Balloch station. Almost no other city in the country allows you to spend just half an hour on a suburban train, walk for ten minutes, and find yourself in a National Park looking out over a beautiful loch; by now there was still a little sunshine left, and while the cloud had well and truly arrived, in fact it only added to the atmosphere.
The walk from the station to the loch and back provided us with plenty of appetite for a good pub dinner at the Tullie Inn, right next to Balloch station, which was excellent and which we'd highly recommend. If you're ever in Glasgow and want to get out of the city briefly, spend an evening in Balloch; you won't regret it.
2123 Balloch to Dumbarton East, arr 2134
Headcode: 2E64, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 320317
Distance: 4.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.65
We headed back as far as Dumbarton East, where we changed trains; we could have changed at a number of places, but we chose Dumbarton East for its views of Dumbarton Castle, a castle built on a hill perfectly shaped, with steep sides, for a fortification.
2157 Dumbarton East to Glasgow Queen Street (low level), arr 2229
Headcode: 2H16, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 334037 + 334027
Distance: 15 miles; walk-up price: £2.45
Our final train took us back to Queen Street via Dalmuir and Yoker, the other route to the one we went to Balloch on, and we arrived not in the high-level platforms we left at Queen Street but rather the underground low-level platforms.
London has had one cross-city suburban line - Thameslink - since 1988 and is currently building another in the shape of Crossrail; by contrast, the line through Glasgow Queen Street has been open since 1886, and that through Glasgow Central opened in 1896 (though it closed between 1964 and 1979).
These tunnels mean that most of the suburban trains do not simply run between Glasgow city centre and the suburbs, but rather they run through the city centre, from suburbs on one side to suburbs on the other side. This permits more than one station in the city centre, thus spreading the load and giving passengers more choice, as well as needing much fewer platforms in the city centre (albeit at the expense of tunnels).
In our case, the train we got from Balloch was heading to Springburn, and the train we changed onto at Dumbarton East started in Helensburgh Central, and was in fact heading all the way to Edinburgh via the newly-reopened Airdrie-Bathgate line.
Indeed, the complexity and density of the Glasgow suburban network led to us allowing Friday and Saturday to explore the network and try and better understand the services and their use. We got back to our hotel after a long day - nearly fifteen hours from first train to last - and decided to have a lie-in on Friday, ready for two days in Glasgow.
0742 Fort William to Crianlarich, arr 0930
Headcode: 1Y42, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156478
Distance: 63 miles; walk-up price: £11.20
The West Highland line from Fort William to Crianlarich is probably my favourite section of the West Highland Line: on the All-Line Rover I didn't manage to see Fort William to Mallaig, but I did manage a return trip from Glasgow to Fort William on day 14; that post gives a pretty full account of the history of the line, so forgive me if I don't go into quite as much detail here.
The natural route for the West Highland Line to take would be to follow what is now the A82, which heads south along the coast from Fort William as far as Ballachulish, before climbing up Glen Coe and across the southern part of Rannoch Moor to Bridge of Orchy, and on to Crianlarich. However, that would have involved building a bridge at Ballachulish, and the West Highland Line was being built on a shoestring budget.
So, instead, the builders chose the cheaper option of simply building over the top of Rannoch Moor. Out of Fort William, we head north-east parallel to the road to Aviemore as far as Tulloch station, before turning south and climbing past Loch Treig, onto Rannoch Moor. Here, the route goes truly through the middle of nowhere, with some of the most beautiful, most barren, most wild scenery in the country.
Amazingly, there are not one but two stations in the middle of Rannoch Moor: we come first to the curious station at Corrour - the highest station anywhere in the country - which has no road access whatsoever. Nonetheless, about a mile from Corrour station is Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, which has become an essential base for walkers, as Corrour station is in easy walking distance of half a dozen Munros (mountains over 3000ft, of which there are 283 in Scotland).
The second station on Rannoch Moor is Rannoch station, where we meet our only road for 30 miles: however, that road comes from the east, a narrow single-track road leading towards Pitlochry and Perth. To drive from Rannoch station to Tulloch station, at the north end of the moor, a distance of 17 miles by rail, is a 76-mile, two-hour drive via the pass of Drumochter on the A9 far to the east.
At Rannoch station, we crossed paths with the sleeper train from London, which had left just under twelve hours earlier: yes, you can board a train in London at 21:15, and arrive the next morning in Fort William at 09:50. The sleeper train is nicknamed the "Deerstalker": imagine being able to go to sleep in London and wake up, having travelled nearly 500 miles, on top of Rannoch Moor. That one is definitely still on my to-do list.
It was at this point we realised just how lucky we were: we were on a train, in the middle of nowhere, looking out over the most glorious scenery in the country, under bright blue skies and blazing sunshine, right in the middle of the rush-hour in London. Very satisfying, and well worth the early start.
What is particularly nice about the trains on the West Highland lines is that they have undergone only minimal refurbishment, and they retain their low-backed seats, only coming up to about shoulder-height, thus providing everyone with a good view from the good-sized windows, something which is sadly lacking on newer trains. On this line, however, visibility is not optional, it is the reason for going on the line.
We continued south through Bridge of Orchy - where we rejoined the A82 - and Tyndrum, and got off at Crianlarich, where the lines from Oban and Fort William meet. For me, being up and outside at 9:30am is rare enough; being up, outside and having travelled 63 miles to Crianlarich was rare indeed. We had 45 minutes to wait for the next train to Oban; amazingly, this station in the middle of nowhere had a tea room, which we availed ourselves in the meantime.
1015 Crianlarich to Oban, arr 1127
Headcode: 1Y21, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156493 + 156465
Distance: 41.75 miles; walk-up price: £6.80
Oban is just 100 miles from Glasgow, and though the journey takes three hours, the line is wonderfully scenic as to make day-tripping from Glasgow to Oban quite popular, and so our four-car train from Crianlarich to Oban was well-used. The line itself is less pioneering than the route to Fort William - it parallels the A85 road to Oban for most of the way - but still provides its share of wonderful scenery, past Loch Awe and Loch Etive.
An interesting feature are the Pass of Brander "stone signals": due to rockfalls, the line between Dalmally and Taynuilt, past Loch Awe, is protected by automatic signals which stop the driver if there has been a rockfall that would endanger the line. This is done using a system of wires: if rocks fall, the wires will be stretched or broken, and the semaphore signals will fall to show "danger".
The signals were installed in 1882, shortly after the line was opened, and have survived ever since. They are remarkable in being entirely mechanical, unlike most modern electrical tripwire systems, such as those installed at the end of the runways at Gatwick and Edinburgh airports (both of which have railway lines running past them). They did not, unfortunately, prevent a serious derailment in June 2010, when boulders fell below the wires; fortunately no-one was seriously injured.
At Connel, we pass the cantilever bridge which takes the road north along the coast to Ballachulish and Fort William. The name of the nearby station - Connel Ferry - betrays that originally there was no road bridge: the bridge was in fact originally a railway bridge, built in 1903 for the branch to Ballachulish; in 1914, the bridge was converted to have a parallel roadway, and when the railway closed in 1966 the bridge was dedicated entirely to road traffic.
With 20,000 people, the town of Oban is the largest on the western seaboard north of Glasgow, and is the base for the CalMac ferries to the outer Hebrides - with sailings to Castlebay and Lochboisdale taking five hours - as well as shorter ferry journeys to the nearby isles of Mull, Tiree and Coll. We spent an hour and a half looking round the town and getting some lunch, before heading back to the station for our train all the way back to Glasgow.
1256 Oban to Glasgow Queen Street, arr 1600 (actual 1618)
Headcode: 1Y24, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156465 + 156493
Distance: 101.5 miles; walk-up price: £13.45
Our train took us back past Loch Etive and Loch Awe to Crianlarich, then south to Ardlui, where we hit the banks of Loch Lomond, before crossing the isthmus at Arrochar to Loch Long. We then cross another isthmus at Garelochhead to follow Gare Loch as far as Helensburgh, where we then follow the Clyde estuary through Dumbarton into Glasgow.
The four-car train was again well-loaded, but the journey wasn't quite as smooth as we had been hoping: after three stops we called at Loch Awe, where we stood for 15 minutes. The driver and conductor were evidently trying to fix a problem, which seemed to be something to do with the doors in the third carriage; eventually we proceeded, but we only got two stops further to Tyndrum Lower before stopping for another five minutes.
At this point the conductor asked all passengers in the rear two coaches to proceed forwards to the front two coaches: the problems were evidently severe enough that the rear unit could not be relied upon for safety, and so all the passengers were bundled into the front two coaches. Fortunately, the train was not too busy, and while there was quite a lot of luggage around, everyone got a seat.
By the time we got to Crianlarich, we were 17 minutes late, and holding up the next train in the other direction which had portions heading for Oban and Mallaig. The train to Mallaig formed the last train back from Mallaig to Fort William, which provided a connecting service into the sleeper train back to London, and the delay could potentially have rippled through all those services; it was amusing to think that one small door problem at a remote location in the highlands could have effects on the following morning's rush-hour services into London Euston.
Beyond Crianlarich, the journey was uneventful, in more sense than one. By now the cloud had started to roll in from the west - the weather forecast being the key factor in our deciding to travel earlier, rather than later - but it remained dry for the whole journey.
However, just south of Crianlarich, we passed from Highland council area into Argyll and Bute; the change in local authority marked a noticeable change in visibility. While Highland council have undertaken to clear as many trees as possible from the line, thus aiding visibility and making the ride more attractive, Argyll and Bute have not yet done the same, meaning any view of Loch Lomond that we had was obscured by trees.
Having made up a little time, being only 11 minutes late at Dumbarton, we then had to follow a couple of on-time stopping trains, and thus arrived in Glasgow 18 minutes late, where we proceeded to our hotel - a slightly older Travelodge, with a subtly different layout - to dump our stuff and relax for an hour or two.
For dinner, we decided to head to the nearby town of Balloch, at the south end of Loch Lomond. Of course, we decided to go and come back by different routes, using various parts of Glasgow's dense suburban network.
1756 Glasgow Queen Street to Anniesland, arr 1816
Headcode: 2W73, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158735
Distance: 6.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.40
We started with the short shuttle service to Anniesland, which was delayed by ten minutes awaiting a driver. For a suburban service in the evening peak it was busy, but by no means full; the short distance is probably better suited to buses than trains, but the line survives nonetheless.
1835 Anniesland to Balloch, arr 1910
Headcode: 2E73, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 320307 + 320322
Distance: 15.5 miles; walk-up price: £2.50
At Anniesland, we joined the main electric suburban lines. There are two east-west tunnels through central Glasgow, one via Queen Street and one via Central. On the west side of the city, they join up at Partick, before splitting again at Hyndland (the next station), with two routes to Dalmuir, one via Anniesland and Westerton, and the other via Garscadden and Yoker. From Dalmuir, the line continues on to Dumbarton, before splitting for Helensburgh and Balloch. And, if you're not confused by now, there's also a branch to Milngavie which splits off at Westerton.
To cut a long story short, our route took us from Anniesland, through Westerton, Dalmuir and Dumbarton, to Balloch. The contrast with suburban lines in London was stark: while even the outer reaches of London are noticeably affluent, here prefabricated concrete structures abound, and much of the city feels poor.
Balloch, on the other hand, is a real treat: Loch Lomond is just a short walk from Balloch station. Almost no other city in the country allows you to spend just half an hour on a suburban train, walk for ten minutes, and find yourself in a National Park looking out over a beautiful loch; by now there was still a little sunshine left, and while the cloud had well and truly arrived, in fact it only added to the atmosphere.
The walk from the station to the loch and back provided us with plenty of appetite for a good pub dinner at the Tullie Inn, right next to Balloch station, which was excellent and which we'd highly recommend. If you're ever in Glasgow and want to get out of the city briefly, spend an evening in Balloch; you won't regret it.
2123 Balloch to Dumbarton East, arr 2134
Headcode: 2E64, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 320317
Distance: 4.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.65
We headed back as far as Dumbarton East, where we changed trains; we could have changed at a number of places, but we chose Dumbarton East for its views of Dumbarton Castle, a castle built on a hill perfectly shaped, with steep sides, for a fortification.
2157 Dumbarton East to Glasgow Queen Street (low level), arr 2229
Headcode: 2H16, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 334037 + 334027
Distance: 15 miles; walk-up price: £2.45
Our final train took us back to Queen Street via Dalmuir and Yoker, the other route to the one we went to Balloch on, and we arrived not in the high-level platforms we left at Queen Street but rather the underground low-level platforms.
London has had one cross-city suburban line - Thameslink - since 1988 and is currently building another in the shape of Crossrail; by contrast, the line through Glasgow Queen Street has been open since 1886, and that through Glasgow Central opened in 1896 (though it closed between 1964 and 1979).
These tunnels mean that most of the suburban trains do not simply run between Glasgow city centre and the suburbs, but rather they run through the city centre, from suburbs on one side to suburbs on the other side. This permits more than one station in the city centre, thus spreading the load and giving passengers more choice, as well as needing much fewer platforms in the city centre (albeit at the expense of tunnels).
In our case, the train we got from Balloch was heading to Springburn, and the train we changed onto at Dumbarton East started in Helensburgh Central, and was in fact heading all the way to Edinburgh via the newly-reopened Airdrie-Bathgate line.
Indeed, the complexity and density of the Glasgow suburban network led to us allowing Friday and Saturday to explore the network and try and better understand the services and their use. We got back to our hotel after a long day - nearly fifteen hours from first train to last - and decided to have a lie-in on Friday, ready for two days in Glasgow.
Sunday 17 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 6
We awoke on Wednesday to a rare sight in the highlands: blue skies and sunshine, broken only by a few puffs of white cloud. We couldn't have got a better day for what are probably the two most scenic lines in the whole country: that from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, and from Mallaig to Fort William. We would get from Kyle to Mallaig by a bus across the bridge to the Isle of Skye, followed by a ferry back to the mainland.
0900 Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, arr 1128
Headcode: 2H81, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158717
Distance: 82.25 miles; walk-up price: £12.75
To get to Kyle of Lochalsh, trains run along the Far North Line to Wick as far as Dingwall, where the line to Kyle of Lochalsh curves off. The line, while remote, is more verdant than the Far North Line, climbing Strath Bran to Achnasheen, before descending down Glen Carron to the coast at Stromeferry, and then hugs the coast via Plockton into Kyle. The scenery is less barren than the line to Wick, with many lochs and forests lining the route through the glens, with many mountains lining their sides.
Once the line hits the coast at Stromeferry, however, the scenery becomes even more incredible, with the line literally cut into the cliff-face; at one point the line has been covered over and effectively put in a tunnel in order to protect it from rockfalls. The line was one of the most difficult to build in the whole country, and was the second line ever to receive government subsidy to build it (not just to operate it).
It's difficult to describe in words how picturesque the line is; the whole line is simply beautiful, and not so long as to leave you weary at the end of it, the journey taking two and a half hours from Inverness, and we arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh just before lunchtime. The area beside the harbour is a wonderful area to sit and relax, and we duly did so while eating fish and chips for lunch.
Kyle of Lochalsh was, until fairly recently, an important ferry terminal: all the ferries to the outer Hebrides used to go from Kyle, but in 1973 the main service to Stornoway was diverted to Ullapool (which has no rail connection), and the line was threatened with closure. Fortunately, however, the line's incredible scenic qualities has saved it on more than one occasion, and closure is no longer a serious suggestion.
Until recently, Kyle had a very profitable ferry service across the very short distance to the Isle of Skye, but in 1995 the Skye Bridge opened, about a mile west of Kyle, removing the need for any ferry services. We were thus able to get a bus across the bridge, and onto the Isle of Skye:
1335 Kyle bus terminal to Armadale, arr 1418
Bus number: 51, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 20946
Distance: approx 9.25 miles
Our bus route took us down the eastern side of the Isle of Skye, in glorious sunshine. The Isle of Skye is the biggest of the islands in the Hebrides on the western coast of Scotland, though whether it is still an "island" - after the building of the bridge - is now a matter of some debate. In the centre of the island is the fierce Cuillin mountain ridge, jagged and pointy mountains unlike the rolling hills of the mainland, dominating the skyline for miles around.
I have twice spent wonderful family holidays on the Isle of Skye; this time, however, we were only passing through, but a few fleeting glimpses of the Cuillin and of the Isle of Raasay were more than enough to remind me of the great unspoilt beauty of the Hebrides.
We arrived in Armadale, the other main ferry port on the east side of the Isle of Skye, where a frequent car ferry service operates to Mallaig on the mainland. Until the opening of the Skye bridge, this was nearly as popular a route to the Isle of Skye as the route via Kyle; while the bridge now takes the bulk of the traffic, this route via Mallaig is still my all-time favourite ferry ride, this being my third time on the route:
1430 Armadale to Mallaig, arr 1500
Ferry operated by Caledonian MacBrayne using MV Coruisk
Distance: approx 5 miles
Our ferry was pretty full; although there was space for a few more vehicles, there were two coach parties on board the ferry, which took up a sizable chunk of the passenger capacity. We stood on deck and admired the wonderful views of the surrounding area.
Caledonian Macbrayne, abbreviated to CalMac, operate pretty much all the lifeline ferry routes between the mainland and the various islands of the Hebrides. Some of these are short five-minute hops between islands, but some are three-hour long sailings between Oban and the Outer Hebrides. They are utterly vital to life on the islands, though CalMac do have something of a monopoly: there is a local poem, based loosely on Psalm 24, which goes
From the ferry, we could see across to the remote peninsula of Kintail: while part of the mainland, there is no road access whatsoever, and the only ways to get to the tiny village of Inverie are by 17-mile hike from Kinloch Hourn, or by a tiny little boat from Mallaig.
We could also see south to the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, the westernmost point on mainland Britain (even west of Land's End!), and south-west to the so-called "Small Isles" of Eigg and Rum. Slowly, Mallaig, on the mainland, came into view to the south-east, and we docked and disembarked after half an hour on the ferry. We had an hour before our final journey of the day, the train from Mallaig to Fort William, the "Iron Road to the Isles":
1605 Mallaig to Fort William, arr 1727
Headcode: 1Y48, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156493 + 156453
Distance: 41.5 miles; walk-up price: £6.85
The line between Mallaig and Fort William, the final part of the West Highland Line and the westernmost railway in the country, is widely regarded as (one of) the most scenic line(s) in the world, featuring some of the most incredible railway engineering with viaducts over deep valleys and tunnels and cuttings through impossibly steep hills.
The line opened in 1901, built by Sir Robert McAlpine, as the first line built with government subsidy in the UK (and possibly in the whole world). The government invested £45,000 - a huge sum for the 1890s - in the line from Fort William to Mallaig and the line from Stromeferry to Kyle, as well as building better port facilities at Kyle and Mallaig to provide better connections to the Western Isles. Their expense is our reward: both lines offer probably the best scenery of any line in the UK, if not the world.
The most famous structure on the line is the Glenfinnan viaduct, featured in (among other things) the Harry Potter films. The line curves round the head of a valley, crossing the river below on the viaduct, which is itself curved; even with our four-car train we could easily see the back of the train from the front carriage.
Nearby is the memorial to Bonnie Prince Charlie, the grandson of the deposed King James II who returned from hiding in Italy to the Western Isles to gather an army in Glenfinnan. The song "Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing / O'er the sea to Skye" refers not to heading west from the mainland to Skye, but to Bonnie Prince Charlie's journey east from the outer Hebrides to Skye, and onward to the mainland.
Having gathered an army in Glenfinnan, Bonnie Prince Charlie marched all the way south as far as Derby, before hearing rumours of a large force being mustered by King George II and turning back; while the rumours were false, the retreat gave the English time to muster an actual army, which caught up with the Jacobites at Culloden, just south of Inverness, and defeated them there in the last battle on British soil, in 1746, thus ending the Jacobite challenge to the throne.
The whole stretch of line is breathtakingly beautiful, and we had the privilege of seeing it in dappled sunshine; by now the clouds were starting to roll in, but it was still bright and sunny for the most part, and it made the experience just magical.
We arrived in Fort William at 17:27, an early finish to a wonderful day involving two trains, a bus and a ferry, and headed to the Bank Street Lodge, our hostel for the night. We headed to the Nevis pub by the coast for dinner, before retiring ready for a very early start on Thursday.
Note: Edited on Friday 22nd July to correct the statement that Bonnie Prince Charlie was the illegitimate son of King James II; he was, in fact, his legitimate grandson.
0900 Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, arr 1128
Headcode: 2H81, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158717
Distance: 82.25 miles; walk-up price: £12.75
To get to Kyle of Lochalsh, trains run along the Far North Line to Wick as far as Dingwall, where the line to Kyle of Lochalsh curves off. The line, while remote, is more verdant than the Far North Line, climbing Strath Bran to Achnasheen, before descending down Glen Carron to the coast at Stromeferry, and then hugs the coast via Plockton into Kyle. The scenery is less barren than the line to Wick, with many lochs and forests lining the route through the glens, with many mountains lining their sides.
Once the line hits the coast at Stromeferry, however, the scenery becomes even more incredible, with the line literally cut into the cliff-face; at one point the line has been covered over and effectively put in a tunnel in order to protect it from rockfalls. The line was one of the most difficult to build in the whole country, and was the second line ever to receive government subsidy to build it (not just to operate it).
It's difficult to describe in words how picturesque the line is; the whole line is simply beautiful, and not so long as to leave you weary at the end of it, the journey taking two and a half hours from Inverness, and we arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh just before lunchtime. The area beside the harbour is a wonderful area to sit and relax, and we duly did so while eating fish and chips for lunch.
Kyle of Lochalsh was, until fairly recently, an important ferry terminal: all the ferries to the outer Hebrides used to go from Kyle, but in 1973 the main service to Stornoway was diverted to Ullapool (which has no rail connection), and the line was threatened with closure. Fortunately, however, the line's incredible scenic qualities has saved it on more than one occasion, and closure is no longer a serious suggestion.
Until recently, Kyle had a very profitable ferry service across the very short distance to the Isle of Skye, but in 1995 the Skye Bridge opened, about a mile west of Kyle, removing the need for any ferry services. We were thus able to get a bus across the bridge, and onto the Isle of Skye:
1335 Kyle bus terminal to Armadale, arr 1418
Bus number: 51, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 20946
Distance: approx 9.25 miles
Our bus route took us down the eastern side of the Isle of Skye, in glorious sunshine. The Isle of Skye is the biggest of the islands in the Hebrides on the western coast of Scotland, though whether it is still an "island" - after the building of the bridge - is now a matter of some debate. In the centre of the island is the fierce Cuillin mountain ridge, jagged and pointy mountains unlike the rolling hills of the mainland, dominating the skyline for miles around.
I have twice spent wonderful family holidays on the Isle of Skye; this time, however, we were only passing through, but a few fleeting glimpses of the Cuillin and of the Isle of Raasay were more than enough to remind me of the great unspoilt beauty of the Hebrides.
We arrived in Armadale, the other main ferry port on the east side of the Isle of Skye, where a frequent car ferry service operates to Mallaig on the mainland. Until the opening of the Skye bridge, this was nearly as popular a route to the Isle of Skye as the route via Kyle; while the bridge now takes the bulk of the traffic, this route via Mallaig is still my all-time favourite ferry ride, this being my third time on the route:
1430 Armadale to Mallaig, arr 1500
Ferry operated by Caledonian MacBrayne using MV Coruisk
Distance: approx 5 miles
Our ferry was pretty full; although there was space for a few more vehicles, there were two coach parties on board the ferry, which took up a sizable chunk of the passenger capacity. We stood on deck and admired the wonderful views of the surrounding area.
Caledonian Macbrayne, abbreviated to CalMac, operate pretty much all the lifeline ferry routes between the mainland and the various islands of the Hebrides. Some of these are short five-minute hops between islands, but some are three-hour long sailings between Oban and the Outer Hebrides. They are utterly vital to life on the islands, though CalMac do have something of a monopoly: there is a local poem, based loosely on Psalm 24, which goes
The Earth belongs unto the Lord, and all that it contains;
Except the Western Isles, which do belong unto Macbrayne's.
From the ferry, we could see across to the remote peninsula of Kintail: while part of the mainland, there is no road access whatsoever, and the only ways to get to the tiny village of Inverie are by 17-mile hike from Kinloch Hourn, or by a tiny little boat from Mallaig.
We could also see south to the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, the westernmost point on mainland Britain (even west of Land's End!), and south-west to the so-called "Small Isles" of Eigg and Rum. Slowly, Mallaig, on the mainland, came into view to the south-east, and we docked and disembarked after half an hour on the ferry. We had an hour before our final journey of the day, the train from Mallaig to Fort William, the "Iron Road to the Isles":
1605 Mallaig to Fort William, arr 1727
Headcode: 1Y48, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156493 + 156453
Distance: 41.5 miles; walk-up price: £6.85
The line between Mallaig and Fort William, the final part of the West Highland Line and the westernmost railway in the country, is widely regarded as (one of) the most scenic line(s) in the world, featuring some of the most incredible railway engineering with viaducts over deep valleys and tunnels and cuttings through impossibly steep hills.
The line opened in 1901, built by Sir Robert McAlpine, as the first line built with government subsidy in the UK (and possibly in the whole world). The government invested £45,000 - a huge sum for the 1890s - in the line from Fort William to Mallaig and the line from Stromeferry to Kyle, as well as building better port facilities at Kyle and Mallaig to provide better connections to the Western Isles. Their expense is our reward: both lines offer probably the best scenery of any line in the UK, if not the world.
The most famous structure on the line is the Glenfinnan viaduct, featured in (among other things) the Harry Potter films. The line curves round the head of a valley, crossing the river below on the viaduct, which is itself curved; even with our four-car train we could easily see the back of the train from the front carriage.
Nearby is the memorial to Bonnie Prince Charlie, the grandson of the deposed King James II who returned from hiding in Italy to the Western Isles to gather an army in Glenfinnan. The song "Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing / O'er the sea to Skye" refers not to heading west from the mainland to Skye, but to Bonnie Prince Charlie's journey east from the outer Hebrides to Skye, and onward to the mainland.
Having gathered an army in Glenfinnan, Bonnie Prince Charlie marched all the way south as far as Derby, before hearing rumours of a large force being mustered by King George II and turning back; while the rumours were false, the retreat gave the English time to muster an actual army, which caught up with the Jacobites at Culloden, just south of Inverness, and defeated them there in the last battle on British soil, in 1746, thus ending the Jacobite challenge to the throne.
The whole stretch of line is breathtakingly beautiful, and we had the privilege of seeing it in dappled sunshine; by now the clouds were starting to roll in, but it was still bright and sunny for the most part, and it made the experience just magical.
We arrived in Fort William at 17:27, an early finish to a wonderful day involving two trains, a bus and a ferry, and headed to the Bank Street Lodge, our hostel for the night. We headed to the Nevis pub by the coast for dinner, before retiring ready for a very early start on Thursday.
Note: Edited on Friday 22nd July to correct the statement that Bonnie Prince Charlie was the illegitimate son of King James II; he was, in fact, his legitimate grandson.
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 5
Our original plan for Tuesday had been to head to Wick and come back. However, we decided that getting all the way to Wick without going to John O'Groats was like turning back 200 yards from the summit, so we sought a way to get to John O'Groats and back in a day.
We had initially planned to get the 10:38 train out of Inverness to Wick, but to get to John O'Groats using buses between Wick and John O'Groats would have meant getting the 07:00 train. In an effort not to have a hideously early start, we found that we could get a bus all the way from Inverness to John O'Groats which left later. So we did that:
0940 Inverness to Dunbeath war memorial, arr 1156
Bus number: X99, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 52429
Distance: approx 83 miles
The X99 bus route, run by Stagecoach and essentially using pretty comfortable 49-seater coaches, connects Inverness to John O'Groats along the A9 road. We weren't quite sure if the bus was included in our ticket (further examination suggests it probably wasn't) but the driver let us on anyway.
The A9 essentially follows the coast up from Inverness to Thurso, but the railway line comes much further inland at times to go up one side of a firth and down the other, rather than going over a bridge at the bottom of the firth. As such, the bus route from Inverness to John O'Groats is a full 40 miles shorter than the railway line, and thus takes just over three hours rather than nearly five hours.
This means that the road and the railway line take, at times, completely different routes, with completely different scenery, meaning that by going both ways we saw much more varied and interesting scenery than we would have otherwise. What's more, we were very lucky in getting dry (though overcast) weather.
Most of the route was along fairly normal single-carriageway roads, albeit it set against a beautiful North Sea coastline. However, between Helmsdale and Wick, the railway line curves inland away from the steep coast, while the road follows the coast with 13% gradients and numerous hairpins. It was probably the most exciting coach ride I've ever been on - we were going round corners rather faster than I would have expected in a car, let alone a coach - but we all enjoyed it immensely.
Our first bus was heading for Thurso and on to Scrabster, the ferry terminal for the Orkney Islands, and was surprisingly busy, picking up people at a number of the intermediate towns such as Tain, Dornoch, Golspie and Helsmdale. For passengers heading to Wick and John O'Groats, there is a connecting bus from Dunbeath, just south of the junction for Wick and Thurso, which was waiting for us:
1201 Dunbeath war memorial to John O'Groats, arr 1254
Bus number: X99, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 52528
Distance: approx 37 miles
Changing at Dunbeath war memorial to the other X99 was probably the weirdest place any of us have ever changed buses, but we were not alone. Well... we weren't alone to Wick, anyway; Wick is the second-biggest town (behind Thurso) north of Inverness, and many people were heading there to do their shopping. But after Wick, we were the only people left on the bus.
The bus dropped us at the end of the road down to John O'Groats, so we walked the last five minutes down to the famous sign - which, contrary to popular belief, is not run by the local council but rather by a photographic business, who will post out framed photographs of you posing in front of the sign. We duly posed for a photograph - with the distance to the University of Warwick (where we met), some 595 miles away, on the signpost - though not before getting some lunch in one of the two cafes in John O'Groats.
It really is an amazing feeling getting to the "end" of the country - and by public transport at that! - not least because of the barren scenery we pass through to get there. The journey takes a full three hours to cover the 130 miles from Inverness, which is itself nearly 200 miles from Edinburgh and Glasgow. John O'Groats is, in fact, further from Edinburgh than Coventry is, which really gives an idea of just how remote a place it is.
Having come up by bus and spent a couple of hours wandering around John O'Groats, we took another bus back to Wick station to head back to Inverness by train:
1445 John O'Groats to Wick station, arr 1514
Bus number: 77, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 27590
Distance: approx 16 miles
On this bus we were not quite alone - there was one other passenger to Wick - but the emptiness of the bus is reflected in the emptiness of the scenery. The short half-hour journey to Wick left us with time to buy a drink before boarding our train to take us on the 175 miles back to Inverness:
1600 Wick to Inverness, arr 2009
Headcode: 2H64, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158705
Distance: 175 miles; walk-up price: £11.20
The railway line between Inverness and Wick is undoubtedly the most remote line in the country: ostensibly it provides a rail connection for the Orkney and Shetland islands, but more importantly it serves the small communities along the line - none of which has more than 9000 people.
In order to serve both Wick and Thurso, trains from Inverness run to Georgemas Junction, from where there are two branches to Thurso and Wick. Because the branch to Thurso is only six miles, the trains from Inverness run to Georgemas Junction, reverse to head to Thurso, reverse again to head back to Georgemas Junction, and head on to Wick. For our train, heading to Inverness, we did the reverse: we headed west to Georgemas Junction, then due north to Thurso, back south to Georgemas Junction, and finally south-west on the long slog to Inverness.
But what a slog: the scenery, especially north of Helmsdale, is so remote and barren as to look like no-one has touched it since the making of the earth, other than to put down a railway line. Instead of hairpin bends and steep gradients along the coast from Wick, we start heading due west, coming miles and miles inland, in order to follow a valley down to Helmsdale, finally rejoining the coast and the A9 there.
And what a day: by the time we left Wick, the overcast weather we had started with in Inverness had cleared and turned to bright, warm sunshine, with clear blue skies and superb visibility. From the coast between Helmsdale and Golspie, we were heading south-west, and could see very clearly across to the south-east to the north coast of Aberdeenshire, nearly 40 miles away.
South of Golspie we turned north-west up the valley to Lairg, before following the valley down to Tain. Until 1991, the A9 road took a similar route, but since then the A9 has taken a new bridge across the Dornoch Firth, cutting 25 miles off the journey north; there were initially proposals to double-deck the bridge for trains as well, but funding could not be found and the railway thus loses out quite badly to the road in journey time.
On hitting Tain, we finally started to return to some semblance of civilisation; the countryside north of Inverness is so empty and devoid of human activity that it's hard to convey in words just how barren and desolate it was. But gradually we chugged along back to Inverness.
Due to "poor performance of the train" (that is, the engine wasn't quite at full power for the summits) we ended up back in Inverness about nine minutes late, at 20:18 instead of 20:09. There was a connecting train at 20:15 to Glasgow Queen Street which, aside from the sleeper train to London, was the last train to Perth for connections to Edinburgh; the conductor had asked passengers to see if there were any making onward journeys, and radioed ahead to say there were passengers heading for the Glasgow train.
Those passengers were duly instructed to head to platform 4 for the 20:15 to Glasgow, but when we pulled into platform 6 there was no train to be seen in platform 4. It transpired that Inverness station had changed their plans and instead of holding the connection by three minutes they decided to make the poor passengers heading for the Glasgow train take the sleeper train to Perth or Stirling and then, since that would be the last train through those stations, presumably onward to Glasgow by taxi.
We were very surprised to see that the last connection of the day was not held - and only by three or four minutes - simply for the purpose of making punctuality statistics look better. It is a sad day when it is cheaper for a train company to taxi passengers and get them home hours late than it is to pay the fine for having one of their trains run late and get passengers home five minutes late; in contrast to Saturday's excellent work by Scotrail in diverting trains after the Forth Bridge lightning strike, this was the disjointed railway network at its absolute worst.
I lay no fault at the conductor of the train; I am ashamed at Inverness station, and Scotrail management, for deciding that helping a dozen passengers make the last connection of the day wasn't worth doing. Shame on you, Scotrail; whatever happened to the idea of never leaving a man down?
That incident, however, did little to tarnish the beautiful day we'd had going to John O'Groats and back. In retrospect, we should have planned to go there by bus and come back by train from the beginning: both have completely different scenery, and it was really nice to see both routes in one day.
On arrival in Inverness, we grabbed some dinner in McDonalds and ate in the glorious evening sunshine on the banks of the River Ness, before heading back to our hotel ready for an epic day on Wednesday, travelling to Fort William via the Isle of Skye.
We had initially planned to get the 10:38 train out of Inverness to Wick, but to get to John O'Groats using buses between Wick and John O'Groats would have meant getting the 07:00 train. In an effort not to have a hideously early start, we found that we could get a bus all the way from Inverness to John O'Groats which left later. So we did that:
0940 Inverness to Dunbeath war memorial, arr 1156
Bus number: X99, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 52429
Distance: approx 83 miles
The X99 bus route, run by Stagecoach and essentially using pretty comfortable 49-seater coaches, connects Inverness to John O'Groats along the A9 road. We weren't quite sure if the bus was included in our ticket (further examination suggests it probably wasn't) but the driver let us on anyway.
The A9 essentially follows the coast up from Inverness to Thurso, but the railway line comes much further inland at times to go up one side of a firth and down the other, rather than going over a bridge at the bottom of the firth. As such, the bus route from Inverness to John O'Groats is a full 40 miles shorter than the railway line, and thus takes just over three hours rather than nearly five hours.
This means that the road and the railway line take, at times, completely different routes, with completely different scenery, meaning that by going both ways we saw much more varied and interesting scenery than we would have otherwise. What's more, we were very lucky in getting dry (though overcast) weather.
Most of the route was along fairly normal single-carriageway roads, albeit it set against a beautiful North Sea coastline. However, between Helmsdale and Wick, the railway line curves inland away from the steep coast, while the road follows the coast with 13% gradients and numerous hairpins. It was probably the most exciting coach ride I've ever been on - we were going round corners rather faster than I would have expected in a car, let alone a coach - but we all enjoyed it immensely.
Our first bus was heading for Thurso and on to Scrabster, the ferry terminal for the Orkney Islands, and was surprisingly busy, picking up people at a number of the intermediate towns such as Tain, Dornoch, Golspie and Helsmdale. For passengers heading to Wick and John O'Groats, there is a connecting bus from Dunbeath, just south of the junction for Wick and Thurso, which was waiting for us:
1201 Dunbeath war memorial to John O'Groats, arr 1254
Bus number: X99, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 52528
Distance: approx 37 miles
Changing at Dunbeath war memorial to the other X99 was probably the weirdest place any of us have ever changed buses, but we were not alone. Well... we weren't alone to Wick, anyway; Wick is the second-biggest town (behind Thurso) north of Inverness, and many people were heading there to do their shopping. But after Wick, we were the only people left on the bus.
The bus dropped us at the end of the road down to John O'Groats, so we walked the last five minutes down to the famous sign - which, contrary to popular belief, is not run by the local council but rather by a photographic business, who will post out framed photographs of you posing in front of the sign. We duly posed for a photograph - with the distance to the University of Warwick (where we met), some 595 miles away, on the signpost - though not before getting some lunch in one of the two cafes in John O'Groats.
It really is an amazing feeling getting to the "end" of the country - and by public transport at that! - not least because of the barren scenery we pass through to get there. The journey takes a full three hours to cover the 130 miles from Inverness, which is itself nearly 200 miles from Edinburgh and Glasgow. John O'Groats is, in fact, further from Edinburgh than Coventry is, which really gives an idea of just how remote a place it is.
Having come up by bus and spent a couple of hours wandering around John O'Groats, we took another bus back to Wick station to head back to Inverness by train:
1445 John O'Groats to Wick station, arr 1514
Bus number: 77, operated by Stagecoach Inverness using bus 27590
Distance: approx 16 miles
On this bus we were not quite alone - there was one other passenger to Wick - but the emptiness of the bus is reflected in the emptiness of the scenery. The short half-hour journey to Wick left us with time to buy a drink before boarding our train to take us on the 175 miles back to Inverness:
1600 Wick to Inverness, arr 2009
Headcode: 2H64, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158705
Distance: 175 miles; walk-up price: £11.20
The railway line between Inverness and Wick is undoubtedly the most remote line in the country: ostensibly it provides a rail connection for the Orkney and Shetland islands, but more importantly it serves the small communities along the line - none of which has more than 9000 people.
In order to serve both Wick and Thurso, trains from Inverness run to Georgemas Junction, from where there are two branches to Thurso and Wick. Because the branch to Thurso is only six miles, the trains from Inverness run to Georgemas Junction, reverse to head to Thurso, reverse again to head back to Georgemas Junction, and head on to Wick. For our train, heading to Inverness, we did the reverse: we headed west to Georgemas Junction, then due north to Thurso, back south to Georgemas Junction, and finally south-west on the long slog to Inverness.
But what a slog: the scenery, especially north of Helmsdale, is so remote and barren as to look like no-one has touched it since the making of the earth, other than to put down a railway line. Instead of hairpin bends and steep gradients along the coast from Wick, we start heading due west, coming miles and miles inland, in order to follow a valley down to Helmsdale, finally rejoining the coast and the A9 there.
And what a day: by the time we left Wick, the overcast weather we had started with in Inverness had cleared and turned to bright, warm sunshine, with clear blue skies and superb visibility. From the coast between Helmsdale and Golspie, we were heading south-west, and could see very clearly across to the south-east to the north coast of Aberdeenshire, nearly 40 miles away.
South of Golspie we turned north-west up the valley to Lairg, before following the valley down to Tain. Until 1991, the A9 road took a similar route, but since then the A9 has taken a new bridge across the Dornoch Firth, cutting 25 miles off the journey north; there were initially proposals to double-deck the bridge for trains as well, but funding could not be found and the railway thus loses out quite badly to the road in journey time.
On hitting Tain, we finally started to return to some semblance of civilisation; the countryside north of Inverness is so empty and devoid of human activity that it's hard to convey in words just how barren and desolate it was. But gradually we chugged along back to Inverness.
Due to "poor performance of the train" (that is, the engine wasn't quite at full power for the summits) we ended up back in Inverness about nine minutes late, at 20:18 instead of 20:09. There was a connecting train at 20:15 to Glasgow Queen Street which, aside from the sleeper train to London, was the last train to Perth for connections to Edinburgh; the conductor had asked passengers to see if there were any making onward journeys, and radioed ahead to say there were passengers heading for the Glasgow train.
Those passengers were duly instructed to head to platform 4 for the 20:15 to Glasgow, but when we pulled into platform 6 there was no train to be seen in platform 4. It transpired that Inverness station had changed their plans and instead of holding the connection by three minutes they decided to make the poor passengers heading for the Glasgow train take the sleeper train to Perth or Stirling and then, since that would be the last train through those stations, presumably onward to Glasgow by taxi.
We were very surprised to see that the last connection of the day was not held - and only by three or four minutes - simply for the purpose of making punctuality statistics look better. It is a sad day when it is cheaper for a train company to taxi passengers and get them home hours late than it is to pay the fine for having one of their trains run late and get passengers home five minutes late; in contrast to Saturday's excellent work by Scotrail in diverting trains after the Forth Bridge lightning strike, this was the disjointed railway network at its absolute worst.
I lay no fault at the conductor of the train; I am ashamed at Inverness station, and Scotrail management, for deciding that helping a dozen passengers make the last connection of the day wasn't worth doing. Shame on you, Scotrail; whatever happened to the idea of never leaving a man down?
That incident, however, did little to tarnish the beautiful day we'd had going to John O'Groats and back. In retrospect, we should have planned to go there by bus and come back by train from the beginning: both have completely different scenery, and it was really nice to see both routes in one day.
On arrival in Inverness, we grabbed some dinner in McDonalds and ate in the glorious evening sunshine on the banks of the River Ness, before heading back to our hotel ready for an epic day on Wednesday, travelling to Fort William via the Isle of Skye.
Freedom of Scotland, Day 4
On Monday morning, we said goodbye to our hotel in Edinburgh and headed first on a return trip to Glasgow. There are no fewer than four direct routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow, two of which serve Glasgow Central (high level), one of which serves Glasgow Queen Street high level, and one of which serves Glasgow Queen Street low level. In order to cover all four of them eventually, this morning we took a return trip to Glasgow Central:
0911 Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central (via Carstairs), arr 1026
Headcode: 1S99, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 221121
Distance: 57.25 miles; walk-up return: £13.05
Our first route to Glasgow is also the longest, and until recently was the only one which was electrified. However, the fourth route, via Airdrie and Bathgate, which opened earlier this year, is now also electrified; ironically, all bar one of the trains on this route via Carstairs are operated by diesel trains!
Until the new East Coast timetable was brought in in May, this route was served every two hours or so by East Coast trains to London King's Cross via Newcastle and York, and these were almost always run by electric trains. However, in order to have enough trains to run the rest of their proposed service, all but one of the East Coast trains to Glasgow was withdrawn.
In order to maintain the level of service between York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, CrossCountry were called upon to extend their hourly service between Plymouth and Edinburgh to run to Glasgow every two hours. Since most of the lines CrossCountry run over are not electrified, this means the Edinburgh-Glasgow service via Carstairs is no longer provided by electric trains but by diesel Voyagers.
So it was that we ended up on a CrossCountry Voyager for the hour-and-a-quarter long trip to Glasgow Central. The route via Carstairs essentially manages to avoid almost all of the built-up areas near Edinburgh, and only when you get to Motherwell and the outer suburbs of Glasgow does the route become urban; the line is otherwise in open countryside.
Indeed, it was never really intended as an Edinburgh to Glasgow route; in reality, Carstairs is a triangle junction: the three legs of the triangle lead towards Edinburgh, Glasgow, and south to Carlisle and on towards Preston and London. The original intended use of the lines was for trains from Carlisle to head to Edinburgh and Glasgow; this third side of the triangle between Edinburgh and Glasgow was a later addition.
(In order to get round the fact that the ticket was valid from 09:15 on weekdays, but our train left at 09:11, we bought a single to Haymarket - which, valid on CrossCountry only, cost just 85p with a railcard! - because our train left Haymarket at 09:16 and our rover ticket was thus valid from Haymarket. Not that the ticket inspector seemed to care, but never mind.)
We approached Glasgow through the busy approaches on the West Coast Main Line through Motherwell, and got held for not one but two suburban trains to cross our path at Newton; we arrived in Glasgow Central on time, and I suspect this is down to the CrossCountry path having some slack in it for exactly that purpose. In this case, however, given the complexity of the Glasgow suburban network - something which we will undoubtedly discover for ourselves later in the week - it's hard to imagine being able to substantially improve the timetable without ending up breaking something else.
We arrived in Glasgow Central station with a half-hour wait to our next train to go back along one of the other routes to Edinburgh. Glasgow Central one of the nicest big stations in the country: while it's not as architecturally stunning as, say, London St Pancras or even Manchester Piccadilly, it is nonetheless a rather nice station, with lots of air and space, lots of amenities, and no automatic ticket barriers.
Our train from Edinburgh formed one of the most distant departures from GlasgoW: it became the 10:59 to Penzance, calling at no fewer than 35 calling points along the way, taking very nearly 12 hours. Of course, almost no-one uses the whole length, but it provides so many overlapping opportunities that would be lost if the train were simply to run to Birmingham and have a separate train from Birmingham to Penzance. Nonetheless, it's still slightly disorienting to see Penzance on the departure board at Glasgow Central.
Our train back to Edinburgh duly arrived, and we boarded:
1105 Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley (via Shotts), arr 1210
Headcode: 1Y80, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156433
Distance: 47.25 miles; walk-up return included above
The route via Shotts essentially forms a cut-off of the route via Carstairs: it shortens the distance to Edinburgh by a full ten miles, while passing through areas of significant population in Lanarkshire and West Lothian, most notably Livingston and Shotts. This route diverges from the West Coast Main Line north of Motherwell, thus avoiding Motherwell in favour of Bellshill and other suburbs, and rejoins the route via Carstairs near Calder.
The ends of the route - those parts shared with the Carstairs route - are thus electrified, but the portion in the middle is not, although the Scottish government is considering "filling in" all the routes in the central belt with electric wires.
In comparison to the previous train, this was a small two-car diesel multiple unit and was definitely a local train rather than a long-distance train, but it was well-used (probably better-used than the five-car Voyager). The Shotts route is served twice an hour; one train an hour which, like ours, is semi-fast, calling only at about six stations en route, and one train an hour which calls at all 17 stations but takes a bit longer. The fact that we were on a semi-fast train meant that we were back in Edinburgh in just an hour and five minutes, with ample time to make our next connection.
I started out thinking that Edinburgh Waverley was, at first glance, confusing and oddly laid-out. However, in practice, to the layman who doesn't care about the track layout, it's actually a very well laid-out station, with the majority of platforms having level access from the concourse, and good and convenient amenities. The one drawback is that the layout constrains the amount of circulation space available, but Network Rail are working on improving both space and access to the station.
We left Edinburgh for the last time (at least for a few days) on the last of the major suburban lines around Edinburgh which we hadn't done, the so-called Fife Circle:
1239 Fife Circle Inner Rail, Edinburgh Waverley to Inverkeithing (via Glenrothes), arr 1411
Headcode: 2K01, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158741
Distance: 58.25 miles; walk-up price: £5.60
The Fife Circle is a not-quite-circle-shaped collection of suburban lines in, unsurprisingly, Fife. The line runs north from Edinburgh across the Forth Bridge to Inverkeithing, where the line splits in two. The western branch heads through Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, while the eastern branch heads through Burntisland and Kirkcaldy, before meeting at Glenrothes.
Trains therefore run in a teardrop shape: from Edinburgh trains head to Inverkeithing, before running either clockwise or anticlockwise around the loop and back to Inverkeithing, before heading back to Edinburgh. In our case, we went anticlockwise, so we thus passed through Inverkeithing, then Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and back to Inverkeithing.
The Forth Bridge is one of the iconic railway bridges in the country, and in the clear sunshine we got very good views from the bridge over to the Forth Road Bridge. Better still, the line towards Kirkcaldy curves to the east, giving a view back to the Forth Rail Bridge further along the line.
The rest of the line was actually a fairly bland suburban line, with towns relatively sparse through fairly open countryside, and a few showers of rain interrupting an otherwise relatively fine day.
We went round the loop all the way back to Inverkeithing, where we alighted to join our next train to Aberdeen; we ended up with half an hour to wait because we couldn't quite have made it to Edinburgh in time to pick up the train there.
1447 Inverkeithing to Aberdeen, arr 1709
Headcode: 1S11, operated by East Coast using HST 43296 + 43306
Distance: 117.25 miles; walk-up price: £25.95
We opted to take an East Coast train up the coast to Aberdeen, on the basis that, given it was a nine-coach train, there should be plenty of room. Boy, were we wrong.
This is one of three through trains a day between London and Aberdeen: given it leaves London at 10:00 and arrives at Aberdeen at 17:09, it is the perfect train for everyone heading north for a holiday to catch, and this was borne out by the fact that every seat was taken, people were standing in the vestibules, with some even resorting to sitting on their luggage, since every luggage rack, vestibule, corner, nook and cranny was overflowing with cases and bags of every inconvenient shape and size conceivable.
And to think that the Chief Executive of East Coast, Elaine Holt, wants to end through trains between London and anywhere north of Edinburgh! Scotland does not end at the central belt!
Through trains to Aberdeen and Inverness lead to far more people heading north, simply because it avoids having to change trains. People do not, in general, like having to change trains, especially at huge stations at Edinburgh Waverley, and even having three through trains to Aberdeen and one through to Inverness each day is of huge benefit to all those heading to Scotland on holiday or on business.
Not only was every seat taken, most of the seats were reserved. There were seats reserved from London to Montrose (just two stations south of Aberdeen), from York to Aberdeen, from Newcastle to Dundee, from London to Leuchars (for St Andrews), and many other such through journeys across Edinburgh. There were six coaches of standard class; I suspect if there had been ten coaches of standard class we would still have felt cramped. Never before have an HST has felt small.
So for an hour and a half, until Montrose, the three of us stood in the vestibule between the last coach of standard class and the buffet car. This was actually quite a good decision, since this meant we were by the doors, and - this being a slam-door train - the doors had push-down windows, meaning we could get good clear photographs.
The route passes over the Tay Bridge just south of Dundee, which opened in 1887 to replace the original bridge which collapsed in 1879. The bridge is over two miles long, and was described by Ulysses S. Grant as "a big bridge for a small city". Last time I did this route, on the All-Line Rover, the weather was so bad that I couldn't even see the Tay Road Bridge just a couple of miles away; this time, however, the visibility was good, even if it was a little overcast, and we got some very good views of both bridges.
We finally got a table to sit at after Montrose, for the last half-hour of the journey. However, in another demonstration of how much slack East Coast's new timetable has, having run five minutes late the whole way from York, we arrived five minutes early at Aberdeen - or rather, on time thanks to the five minutes public adjustment that most trains seem to have.
We had an hour at Aberdeen before catching our next train, so we headed to the adjacent shopping centre for dinner in Nando's, before returning for our final onward train to Inverness:
1820 Aberdeen to Inverness, arr 2033
Headcode: 1H39, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170404 + Sprinter 158721
Distance: 108.25 miles; walk-up price: £17.30
The Aberdeen-Inverness line is the second route to Inverness, built by the very grandiose-sounding Great North of Scotland Railway. The line is, like Perth-Inverness, single track with passing loops, with only one five-mile loop and the rest only short loops at stations.
Strangely, the Aberdeen-Inverness route is busier, with 11 trains a day to just nine on Perth-Inverness; both get roughly two-hourly services with odd extra trains and irregular patterns, and, in an ideal world, both would have an hourly service, but the constraints of the single-track sections make this, at present, impossible to timetable.
Our train was, remarkably, five cars long, with a three-car Turbostar unceremoniously juxtaposed with a two-car Sprinter; the Sprinters have doors on the ends in order to provide a gangway between coupled units, but the Turbostars do not, instead having rounded noses, meaning our train looked a bit odd. Moreover, the lack of connection meant that the trolley could only operate in the three-car Turbostar, which we gladly found ourselves in.
While the scenery on the line was undoubtedly very nice, we were all a bit tired at the end of a long day and managed somehow not to pay that much attention, and dozed, chatted, and discussed plans for the following day, with the two-and-a-quarter hour journey to Inverness seemingly passing quite quickly.
We arrived in Inverness after a long day and got a taxi to our hotel, another Travelodge, this time a rather quieter one near the retail park on the eastern outskirts of the city centre, and retired ready for Tuesday: a day trip on the Far North Line to Wick.
0911 Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central (via Carstairs), arr 1026
Headcode: 1S99, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 221121
Distance: 57.25 miles; walk-up return: £13.05
Our first route to Glasgow is also the longest, and until recently was the only one which was electrified. However, the fourth route, via Airdrie and Bathgate, which opened earlier this year, is now also electrified; ironically, all bar one of the trains on this route via Carstairs are operated by diesel trains!
Until the new East Coast timetable was brought in in May, this route was served every two hours or so by East Coast trains to London King's Cross via Newcastle and York, and these were almost always run by electric trains. However, in order to have enough trains to run the rest of their proposed service, all but one of the East Coast trains to Glasgow was withdrawn.
In order to maintain the level of service between York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, CrossCountry were called upon to extend their hourly service between Plymouth and Edinburgh to run to Glasgow every two hours. Since most of the lines CrossCountry run over are not electrified, this means the Edinburgh-Glasgow service via Carstairs is no longer provided by electric trains but by diesel Voyagers.
So it was that we ended up on a CrossCountry Voyager for the hour-and-a-quarter long trip to Glasgow Central. The route via Carstairs essentially manages to avoid almost all of the built-up areas near Edinburgh, and only when you get to Motherwell and the outer suburbs of Glasgow does the route become urban; the line is otherwise in open countryside.
Indeed, it was never really intended as an Edinburgh to Glasgow route; in reality, Carstairs is a triangle junction: the three legs of the triangle lead towards Edinburgh, Glasgow, and south to Carlisle and on towards Preston and London. The original intended use of the lines was for trains from Carlisle to head to Edinburgh and Glasgow; this third side of the triangle between Edinburgh and Glasgow was a later addition.
(In order to get round the fact that the ticket was valid from 09:15 on weekdays, but our train left at 09:11, we bought a single to Haymarket - which, valid on CrossCountry only, cost just 85p with a railcard! - because our train left Haymarket at 09:16 and our rover ticket was thus valid from Haymarket. Not that the ticket inspector seemed to care, but never mind.)
We approached Glasgow through the busy approaches on the West Coast Main Line through Motherwell, and got held for not one but two suburban trains to cross our path at Newton; we arrived in Glasgow Central on time, and I suspect this is down to the CrossCountry path having some slack in it for exactly that purpose. In this case, however, given the complexity of the Glasgow suburban network - something which we will undoubtedly discover for ourselves later in the week - it's hard to imagine being able to substantially improve the timetable without ending up breaking something else.
We arrived in Glasgow Central station with a half-hour wait to our next train to go back along one of the other routes to Edinburgh. Glasgow Central one of the nicest big stations in the country: while it's not as architecturally stunning as, say, London St Pancras or even Manchester Piccadilly, it is nonetheless a rather nice station, with lots of air and space, lots of amenities, and no automatic ticket barriers.
Our train from Edinburgh formed one of the most distant departures from GlasgoW: it became the 10:59 to Penzance, calling at no fewer than 35 calling points along the way, taking very nearly 12 hours. Of course, almost no-one uses the whole length, but it provides so many overlapping opportunities that would be lost if the train were simply to run to Birmingham and have a separate train from Birmingham to Penzance. Nonetheless, it's still slightly disorienting to see Penzance on the departure board at Glasgow Central.
Our train back to Edinburgh duly arrived, and we boarded:
1105 Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley (via Shotts), arr 1210
Headcode: 1Y80, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 156433
Distance: 47.25 miles; walk-up return included above
The route via Shotts essentially forms a cut-off of the route via Carstairs: it shortens the distance to Edinburgh by a full ten miles, while passing through areas of significant population in Lanarkshire and West Lothian, most notably Livingston and Shotts. This route diverges from the West Coast Main Line north of Motherwell, thus avoiding Motherwell in favour of Bellshill and other suburbs, and rejoins the route via Carstairs near Calder.
The ends of the route - those parts shared with the Carstairs route - are thus electrified, but the portion in the middle is not, although the Scottish government is considering "filling in" all the routes in the central belt with electric wires.
In comparison to the previous train, this was a small two-car diesel multiple unit and was definitely a local train rather than a long-distance train, but it was well-used (probably better-used than the five-car Voyager). The Shotts route is served twice an hour; one train an hour which, like ours, is semi-fast, calling only at about six stations en route, and one train an hour which calls at all 17 stations but takes a bit longer. The fact that we were on a semi-fast train meant that we were back in Edinburgh in just an hour and five minutes, with ample time to make our next connection.
I started out thinking that Edinburgh Waverley was, at first glance, confusing and oddly laid-out. However, in practice, to the layman who doesn't care about the track layout, it's actually a very well laid-out station, with the majority of platforms having level access from the concourse, and good and convenient amenities. The one drawback is that the layout constrains the amount of circulation space available, but Network Rail are working on improving both space and access to the station.
We left Edinburgh for the last time (at least for a few days) on the last of the major suburban lines around Edinburgh which we hadn't done, the so-called Fife Circle:
1239 Fife Circle Inner Rail, Edinburgh Waverley to Inverkeithing (via Glenrothes), arr 1411
Headcode: 2K01, operated by First Scotrail using Sprinter 158741
Distance: 58.25 miles; walk-up price: £5.60
The Fife Circle is a not-quite-circle-shaped collection of suburban lines in, unsurprisingly, Fife. The line runs north from Edinburgh across the Forth Bridge to Inverkeithing, where the line splits in two. The western branch heads through Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath, while the eastern branch heads through Burntisland and Kirkcaldy, before meeting at Glenrothes.
Trains therefore run in a teardrop shape: from Edinburgh trains head to Inverkeithing, before running either clockwise or anticlockwise around the loop and back to Inverkeithing, before heading back to Edinburgh. In our case, we went anticlockwise, so we thus passed through Inverkeithing, then Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and back to Inverkeithing.
The Forth Bridge is one of the iconic railway bridges in the country, and in the clear sunshine we got very good views from the bridge over to the Forth Road Bridge. Better still, the line towards Kirkcaldy curves to the east, giving a view back to the Forth Rail Bridge further along the line.
The rest of the line was actually a fairly bland suburban line, with towns relatively sparse through fairly open countryside, and a few showers of rain interrupting an otherwise relatively fine day.
We went round the loop all the way back to Inverkeithing, where we alighted to join our next train to Aberdeen; we ended up with half an hour to wait because we couldn't quite have made it to Edinburgh in time to pick up the train there.
1447 Inverkeithing to Aberdeen, arr 1709
Headcode: 1S11, operated by East Coast using HST 43296 + 43306
Distance: 117.25 miles; walk-up price: £25.95
We opted to take an East Coast train up the coast to Aberdeen, on the basis that, given it was a nine-coach train, there should be plenty of room. Boy, were we wrong.
This is one of three through trains a day between London and Aberdeen: given it leaves London at 10:00 and arrives at Aberdeen at 17:09, it is the perfect train for everyone heading north for a holiday to catch, and this was borne out by the fact that every seat was taken, people were standing in the vestibules, with some even resorting to sitting on their luggage, since every luggage rack, vestibule, corner, nook and cranny was overflowing with cases and bags of every inconvenient shape and size conceivable.
And to think that the Chief Executive of East Coast, Elaine Holt, wants to end through trains between London and anywhere north of Edinburgh! Scotland does not end at the central belt!
Through trains to Aberdeen and Inverness lead to far more people heading north, simply because it avoids having to change trains. People do not, in general, like having to change trains, especially at huge stations at Edinburgh Waverley, and even having three through trains to Aberdeen and one through to Inverness each day is of huge benefit to all those heading to Scotland on holiday or on business.
Not only was every seat taken, most of the seats were reserved. There were seats reserved from London to Montrose (just two stations south of Aberdeen), from York to Aberdeen, from Newcastle to Dundee, from London to Leuchars (for St Andrews), and many other such through journeys across Edinburgh. There were six coaches of standard class; I suspect if there had been ten coaches of standard class we would still have felt cramped. Never before have an HST has felt small.
So for an hour and a half, until Montrose, the three of us stood in the vestibule between the last coach of standard class and the buffet car. This was actually quite a good decision, since this meant we were by the doors, and - this being a slam-door train - the doors had push-down windows, meaning we could get good clear photographs.
The route passes over the Tay Bridge just south of Dundee, which opened in 1887 to replace the original bridge which collapsed in 1879. The bridge is over two miles long, and was described by Ulysses S. Grant as "a big bridge for a small city". Last time I did this route, on the All-Line Rover, the weather was so bad that I couldn't even see the Tay Road Bridge just a couple of miles away; this time, however, the visibility was good, even if it was a little overcast, and we got some very good views of both bridges.
We finally got a table to sit at after Montrose, for the last half-hour of the journey. However, in another demonstration of how much slack East Coast's new timetable has, having run five minutes late the whole way from York, we arrived five minutes early at Aberdeen - or rather, on time thanks to the five minutes public adjustment that most trains seem to have.
We had an hour at Aberdeen before catching our next train, so we headed to the adjacent shopping centre for dinner in Nando's, before returning for our final onward train to Inverness:
1820 Aberdeen to Inverness, arr 2033
Headcode: 1H39, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170404 + Sprinter 158721
Distance: 108.25 miles; walk-up price: £17.30
The Aberdeen-Inverness line is the second route to Inverness, built by the very grandiose-sounding Great North of Scotland Railway. The line is, like Perth-Inverness, single track with passing loops, with only one five-mile loop and the rest only short loops at stations.
Strangely, the Aberdeen-Inverness route is busier, with 11 trains a day to just nine on Perth-Inverness; both get roughly two-hourly services with odd extra trains and irregular patterns, and, in an ideal world, both would have an hourly service, but the constraints of the single-track sections make this, at present, impossible to timetable.
Our train was, remarkably, five cars long, with a three-car Turbostar unceremoniously juxtaposed with a two-car Sprinter; the Sprinters have doors on the ends in order to provide a gangway between coupled units, but the Turbostars do not, instead having rounded noses, meaning our train looked a bit odd. Moreover, the lack of connection meant that the trolley could only operate in the three-car Turbostar, which we gladly found ourselves in.
While the scenery on the line was undoubtedly very nice, we were all a bit tired at the end of a long day and managed somehow not to pay that much attention, and dozed, chatted, and discussed plans for the following day, with the two-and-a-quarter hour journey to Inverness seemingly passing quite quickly.
We arrived in Inverness after a long day and got a taxi to our hotel, another Travelodge, this time a rather quieter one near the retail park on the eastern outskirts of the city centre, and retired ready for Tuesday: a day trip on the Far North Line to Wick.
Monday 11 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 3
On Sunday, we took a day off from trains to see the city of Edinburgh. The railway line runs east-west through the centre of Edinburgh, in a valley separating the Old Town, to the south, and the New Town, to the north. Our hotel was in the old town, just a few minutes walk from the railway station, so we walked across to the New Town to get some breakfast.
From there, we walked down to Princes Street Gardens, which line the side of the hill next to the railway line up to the New Town. We then crossed the railway line on a small footbridge, and walked back up the other side of the hill to Edinburgh Castle.
Edinburgh Castle, which sits high atop a hill on the south-west side of the city centre, was the royal residence of Scotland until the union of the crowns in 1603, and is still home to the Scottish Crown Jewels, including the Crown, Sword and Sceptre, and the Stone of Destiny (traditionally known as the Stone of Scone). The Castle is home to the oldest building in Edinburgh, the twelfth-century St Margaret's Chapel, as well as the Great Hall and the Royal Residences.
One of the more unusual buildings in the Castle is the Scottish National War Memorial, which was added in 1927; the memorial is not merely a simple statue or pillar, but an entire cathedral-like building, with more than a dozen wall-sized plaques to each of the battalions in Scotland who suffered losses in World War I.
In the centre is a metal casket, presented by King George V, a sealed container with a roll of honour with all 140,000 names; each of the plaques also had an associated book containing the roll of honour for that battalion. One of the panels had quotation of Thucydides, which I particularly liked:
"The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men, and their story is not graven only on stone over their clay, but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other men's lives."
After having some lunch, we headed back down into the Old Town, where we took an open-top tour bus round the city; we did slightly more than the full loop in order to end up near our hotel. The tour took us past Arthur's Seat, the Scottish Parliament building, and the statue of Greyfriars Bobby.
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the hotel, before heading out for dinner at Pizza Express, and retiring ready for a long day on trains on Monday.
From there, we walked down to Princes Street Gardens, which line the side of the hill next to the railway line up to the New Town. We then crossed the railway line on a small footbridge, and walked back up the other side of the hill to Edinburgh Castle.
Edinburgh Castle, which sits high atop a hill on the south-west side of the city centre, was the royal residence of Scotland until the union of the crowns in 1603, and is still home to the Scottish Crown Jewels, including the Crown, Sword and Sceptre, and the Stone of Destiny (traditionally known as the Stone of Scone). The Castle is home to the oldest building in Edinburgh, the twelfth-century St Margaret's Chapel, as well as the Great Hall and the Royal Residences.
One of the more unusual buildings in the Castle is the Scottish National War Memorial, which was added in 1927; the memorial is not merely a simple statue or pillar, but an entire cathedral-like building, with more than a dozen wall-sized plaques to each of the battalions in Scotland who suffered losses in World War I.
In the centre is a metal casket, presented by King George V, a sealed container with a roll of honour with all 140,000 names; each of the plaques also had an associated book containing the roll of honour for that battalion. One of the panels had quotation of Thucydides, which I particularly liked:
"The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men, and their story is not graven only on stone over their clay, but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other men's lives."
After having some lunch, we headed back down into the Old Town, where we took an open-top tour bus round the city; we did slightly more than the full loop in order to end up near our hotel. The tour took us past Arthur's Seat, the Scottish Parliament building, and the statue of Greyfriars Bobby.
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the hotel, before heading out for dinner at Pizza Express, and retiring ready for a long day on trains on Monday.
Sunday 10 July 2011
Freedom of Scotland, Day 2
Our first full day in Scotland consisted, essentially, of three return trips from our Edinburgh base: two short suburban lines in the morning, to Newcraighall and North Berwick, followed by a return trip along the Highland Main Line from Edinburgh to Inverness via Perth.
0921 Edinburgh Waverley to Newcraighall, arr 0933
and
0947 Newcraighall to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 0957
Headcodes: 2G01 and 2K67 resp., operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170394
Distance: 4.75 miles; walk-up return: £2.30
We started with the short 12-minute trip to Newcraighall. Newcraighall was opened in 2002 as part of a project with the grand title of Edinburgh Crossrail, whereby trains from the suburban Fife Circle lines run through to Newcraighall, on the south-east side of Edinburgh, instead of terminating in Edinburgh, thus freeing up platform capacity at Edinburgh Waverley.
No new track was required for the Edinburgh Crossrail, save for a new siding at Newcraighall for turning back trains, since the lines were already used for freight trains via Millerhill yard. The line is a short and relatively bland suburban line; we'd ended up starting with this in order for the rest of our plan to work. We started from Edinburgh platform 1, went to Newcraighall, spent ten minutes sat in the platform, went straight back to Edinburgh, and arrived back at... platform 1.
That said, the line is due to be extended by a whopping 35 miles to Galashiels, reopening part of one of the most contentious of the Beeching closures, the Waverley Line between Edinburgh and Carlisle via Galashiels. This closure essentially left the Scottish Borders with no rail lines between Lockerbie and Berwick, and the re-opening has been campaigned for pretty much since the day and hour the line was closed. Construction is due to start this year, with a projected re-opening set for 2014.
Until then, however, the line is a short 5-mile stub, and we returned to Edinburgh less than 40 minutes after we left it. We jumped straight on the other suburban line on the east side of Edinburgh, that out to North Berwick:
1012 Edinburgh Waverley to North Berwick, arr 1045
and
1050 North Berwick to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 1123
Headcodes: 2Y18 and 2Y17 resp., operated by First Scotrail using Desiro 380104
Distance: 22.25 miles; walk-up return: £4.05
The North Berwick branch has been the problem child of Edinburgh's railway network for many years. Trains to North Berwick run along the East Coast Main Line as far as Drem, 18 miles outside Edinburgh, before turning onto a five mile long single-track branch line out to North Berwick. These provide the only stopping services to Musselburgh and a number of other suburbs of Edinburgh, and the line was electrified as part of the ECML electrification in the early 1990s.
However, as a suburban line tacked on to a long-distance electrification project, there was no natural candidate for stock to run the suburban services, and the lines have ended up, over the years, with hand-me-downs from almost every other line in the country. Over the year since electrification, they have been served by class 305 slam-door stock, by old mark 3 coaches from Virgin Trains with class 90 locomotives, by Class 170 Turbostars (diesel trains under an entirely electrified route!) eventually used by Hull Trains, and by Class 322s.
At long last, however, someone has had the sense to tack an extra few trains onto another order, and so the North Berwick line is going to be served by brand new Class 380 Desiros built by Siemens. The first of these was delivered just a month ago, and we got lucky with one out to North Berwick on this occasion. That said, a number of the other North Berwick services had to be cancelled, due to a class 322 having broken down; we saw it receiving attention from the fitters in the usual platform for North Berwick services (platform 4) at Edinburgh Waverley.
The line is actually quite a nice, scenic run out to the coast at North Berwick, and the new Class 380s are pretty nippy, with very good acceleration and braking. The run takes just over half an hour; we spent just five minutes in the platform at North Berwick before coming back to Edinburgh.
Satisfied with our two short suburban jaunts as toes-in-the-water, we plunged in head-first and headed on a 350-mile round trip to Inverness, via Perth:
1135 Edinburgh Waverley to Inverness, arr 1506
Headcode: 1H11, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170412
Distance: 175 miles; walk-up return: £34.80
The line from Edinburgh to Inverness is a beautiful route through what is really quite mountainous territory: we essentially pass through the only north-south route across the Cairngorms. The fast-flowing rivers (often nearly torrential) which we run parallel to for much of the route only add to the beauty of the rolling mountains.
We headed out of Edinburgh to the north, over the Forth Rail Bridge in glorious sunshine. The view from the bridge is really quite impressive: you can see right across the Firth of Forth, with Edinburgh city in one direction and the Forth Road Bridge in the other. We then hugged the coast along to Kirkcaldy, and got some very good views back to the bridges from further down the Firth of Forth.
The route is double-track as far as Ladybank, where the lines to Dundee and Perth split; the Ladybank-Perth line is single-track. North of Perth, aside from a 23-mile stretch of double track between Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie, the whole 118-mile line to Inverness is single track, albeit with reasonably frequent passing loops. Twice we were delayed by a minute or two waiting for trains to clear the single line, once at Ladybank and once at Dalwhinnie. Nonetheless, we only ran a few minutes late to Inverness.
That said, once you're north of Perth it's pretty obvious why it's largely single-track. The line is pretty twisty, running parallel to the A9 almost the entire way, twisting and turning parallel first to the River Tay, then to its tributary the River Tummel, before leading to a fifteen-mile slow climb up Glen Garry. This brings us to the summit: Druimuachdar (or Drumochter) is the highest point on the whole British railway network, at 1484 feet (452m) above sea level.
We fall slowly back, before climbing once more to Slochd summit at a mere 1315 feet (401m) above sea level, and then gradually descending back to sea level at Inverness. The climbs and descents do not go unnoticed: while climbing the trains invariably run at full power, not getting any faster (and sometimes even slowing!), but while descending we can simply coast and still sometimes pick up speed.
The line between Perth and Inverness is served usually only once every two hours, with services usually alternating between Edinburgh and Inverness. The long single-track sections, however, constrain the timetable and mean the service pattern is somewhat irregular; nonetheless, on this relatively sunny summer Saturday, the train from Edinburgh to Inverness was pretty full.
We were lucky to get a table of four seats to ourselves most of the way, and there was a noticeable lack of luggage space, with the overhead racks full to (almost) overflowing with bags that would have been better suited to the luggage spaces at the end of the carriages, if they had not themselves been full. Nonetheless, the linespeed isn't that high, with a top speed of around 75mph even along the coast of the Firth of Forth, so the three-car Turbostar was relatively adequate for the journey.
The weather held up nicely for most of the journey, with some sunshine all the way north as far as Aviemore. From thereon in, however, the rain descended and stayed with us all the way to Inverness. Matt, being an optimist from London (and not an optimist in the sense of Harold Wilson), had come to Scotland without a waterproof, so on arrival at Inverness we promptly found an outdoors shop and, much to the laughter of the shop assistants, bought a waterproof.
Inverness itself is a rather nice little city, although it was only granted city status in 2000 as a "millennium city". The city itself is home to only around 56,000 people, but as it is by far the largest settlement for nearly a hundred miles, the city is better-equipped with large shops than many larger cities in England. We took a wander round, first down to the full and fast-flowing River Ness, before heading up to the castle, now in use as the council buildings and the Sheriff Court.
We returned to Inverness station to head back to Edinburgh on the same route:
1653 (actual 1710) Inverness to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 2029 (actual 2040)
Headcode: 1B34, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170424
Distance: booked 175 miles, actual 188.75 miles; walk-up return included above
The trains out of Inverness are busy enough that a queue started to form a full 20 minutes before departure time, which we duly joined, and boarded our train. The departure time of 16:53 came and went, and the guard soon told us that the train had failed and we were awaiting fitters to come over from the depot to fix the train. Inverness depot being nearby, the fitters soon came, and before long the guard came over the tannoy again and announced that our train (170455) was a failure.
Fortunately, with Inverness depot being nearby, they soon had a spare train (170424) in the platform, and we piled into that and found seats; we left just 17 minutes late, which actually isn't too bad for a failed train, especially somewhere as remote as Inverness.
What's more, we hit a stroke of luck: the Highland Chieftain (the once-daily service from London King's Cross to Inverness, which takes eight hours end-to-end), which we were due to pass in the loop at Pitlochry, was also running about 15 minutes late, and so rather than having to wait for it at some point we ended up both waiting very little time in Pitlochry, as intended!
However, the journey was not quite plain sailing. Not long into the journey the guard came down the carriage asking if there were any passengers for Fife (we were booked to call at Markinch and Kirkcaldy). This piqued our curiosity, and a quick check on National Rail Enquiries on our phone showed that there were "signalling problems in the North Queensferry area", which we conjectured meant there were problems on the Forth Bridge. The logical conclusion to draw, thus, was that, given the problems on the Forth Bridge, we were being diverted via Stirling, the only other logical route to Edinburgh, and thus not calling at Markinch and Kirkcaldy.
Given we were running (by now) 13 minutes late, the five-minute connection at Perth to the next train to Glasgow would be missed. In a rare example of joined-up thinking on the part of Scotrail, after Perth our train, which we had initially expected to be diverted through Stirling non-stop, did in fact stop at Stirling, and we were signalled through ahead of the stopping train from Alloa to Glasgow.
This allowed passengers for Glasgow to change at Stirling and get to Glasgow just 20 minutes later than the Perth connection would have allowed, instead of the hour-long wait at Perth they would have had otherwise. Indeed, Stirling signalbox was kind enough to re-platform the Glasgow train to the adjacent platform 6, rather than forcing passengers to cross the footbridge to platform 9 as timetabled.
(It was quite satisfying that, after the guard had asked for passengers to Fife, we were able to figure out what was going on, advise our fellow passengers heading for Glasgow of the problems, and having done so asked the conductor "are we being diverted via Stirling?" and got the unequivocal response "yes".)
We arrived in Edinburgh just 11 minutes late, in spite of the diversion being nearly 14 miles longer. We were aided not just by getting a clear run almost all the way to Edinburgh by the signallers, but we also benefitted from the linespeed via Stirling being higher than the booked route via Kirkcaldy; the diversion didn't really delay us at all, with the delay being almost entirely due to the breakdown at Inverness.
Scotrail showed the kind of joined-up thinking that is sadly lacking on the rest of the network: trains diverted rather than cancelled outright, and not just holding booked connections but adding stops to make up for lost connections. There were a number of passengers on our train heading for Glasgow, and it was clear that the guard's (and, indeed, Scotrail's) priority was not merely ensuring that the train was simply on time but that all the passengers got where they needed to go, an attitude sadly lacking on much of our railway network.
Well done, Scotrail, but also well done to Network Rail's Scotland Route: Scotrail run the trains, but Network Rail man the signalboxes and run the tracks, so recovering from disruption requires close co-operation between track and train, something made much, much harder by the fragmentation introduced into the network by the Byzantine method of privatisation opted for by John Major's government in 1993, which seemingly amounted to throwing all the various bits of the railway network in the air, seeing where they landed, and hoping for the best.
The McNulty report, published recently with a view to getting better value-for-money from the railway network, has recommended "vertical integration", where train operating companies take over the tracks they're running on and manage both track and train. Scotland is a perfect example of where vertical integration makes sense: almost all the trains in Scotland are run by Scotrail, with only a few trains run by Virgin Trains, East Coast and CrossCountry.
Indeed, on today's evidence, it seems that vertical integration is already working in practice (if not in theory): both with the train breakdown at Inverness and the diversion via Stirling required train operators to work together with Network Rail, something which can go spectacularly wrong at times south of the border.
That said, while vertical integration is a good idea in areas where one operator dominates the vast majority of the trains - Scotland and southern England being two good examples - in much of the midlands and the north of England there are far too many operators (not least freight operators) sharing tracks for vertical integration to work, and it seems to me that the only way to ensure vertical integration in all areas is to simply reunify the network into one company. We could even call it British Rail.
---
Saturday was a really exciting day on trains, with not just beautiful scenery but interesting diversions (well, most people wouldn't think they're interesting but we enjoyed it no end!). Our statistics for the day:
Total time spent on trains: 8 hours, 35 minutes.
Distance travelled: 417.75 miles.
Walk-up price: £41.15.
We grabbed some dinner in Burger King in Edinburgh Waverley station, and headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night, before a day of tourism in Edinburgh on Sunday.
0921 Edinburgh Waverley to Newcraighall, arr 0933
and
0947 Newcraighall to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 0957
Headcodes: 2G01 and 2K67 resp., operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170394
Distance: 4.75 miles; walk-up return: £2.30
We started with the short 12-minute trip to Newcraighall. Newcraighall was opened in 2002 as part of a project with the grand title of Edinburgh Crossrail, whereby trains from the suburban Fife Circle lines run through to Newcraighall, on the south-east side of Edinburgh, instead of terminating in Edinburgh, thus freeing up platform capacity at Edinburgh Waverley.
No new track was required for the Edinburgh Crossrail, save for a new siding at Newcraighall for turning back trains, since the lines were already used for freight trains via Millerhill yard. The line is a short and relatively bland suburban line; we'd ended up starting with this in order for the rest of our plan to work. We started from Edinburgh platform 1, went to Newcraighall, spent ten minutes sat in the platform, went straight back to Edinburgh, and arrived back at... platform 1.
That said, the line is due to be extended by a whopping 35 miles to Galashiels, reopening part of one of the most contentious of the Beeching closures, the Waverley Line between Edinburgh and Carlisle via Galashiels. This closure essentially left the Scottish Borders with no rail lines between Lockerbie and Berwick, and the re-opening has been campaigned for pretty much since the day and hour the line was closed. Construction is due to start this year, with a projected re-opening set for 2014.
Until then, however, the line is a short 5-mile stub, and we returned to Edinburgh less than 40 minutes after we left it. We jumped straight on the other suburban line on the east side of Edinburgh, that out to North Berwick:
1012 Edinburgh Waverley to North Berwick, arr 1045
and
1050 North Berwick to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 1123
Headcodes: 2Y18 and 2Y17 resp., operated by First Scotrail using Desiro 380104
Distance: 22.25 miles; walk-up return: £4.05
The North Berwick branch has been the problem child of Edinburgh's railway network for many years. Trains to North Berwick run along the East Coast Main Line as far as Drem, 18 miles outside Edinburgh, before turning onto a five mile long single-track branch line out to North Berwick. These provide the only stopping services to Musselburgh and a number of other suburbs of Edinburgh, and the line was electrified as part of the ECML electrification in the early 1990s.
However, as a suburban line tacked on to a long-distance electrification project, there was no natural candidate for stock to run the suburban services, and the lines have ended up, over the years, with hand-me-downs from almost every other line in the country. Over the year since electrification, they have been served by class 305 slam-door stock, by old mark 3 coaches from Virgin Trains with class 90 locomotives, by Class 170 Turbostars (diesel trains under an entirely electrified route!) eventually used by Hull Trains, and by Class 322s.
At long last, however, someone has had the sense to tack an extra few trains onto another order, and so the North Berwick line is going to be served by brand new Class 380 Desiros built by Siemens. The first of these was delivered just a month ago, and we got lucky with one out to North Berwick on this occasion. That said, a number of the other North Berwick services had to be cancelled, due to a class 322 having broken down; we saw it receiving attention from the fitters in the usual platform for North Berwick services (platform 4) at Edinburgh Waverley.
The line is actually quite a nice, scenic run out to the coast at North Berwick, and the new Class 380s are pretty nippy, with very good acceleration and braking. The run takes just over half an hour; we spent just five minutes in the platform at North Berwick before coming back to Edinburgh.
Satisfied with our two short suburban jaunts as toes-in-the-water, we plunged in head-first and headed on a 350-mile round trip to Inverness, via Perth:
1135 Edinburgh Waverley to Inverness, arr 1506
Headcode: 1H11, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170412
Distance: 175 miles; walk-up return: £34.80
The line from Edinburgh to Inverness is a beautiful route through what is really quite mountainous territory: we essentially pass through the only north-south route across the Cairngorms. The fast-flowing rivers (often nearly torrential) which we run parallel to for much of the route only add to the beauty of the rolling mountains.
We headed out of Edinburgh to the north, over the Forth Rail Bridge in glorious sunshine. The view from the bridge is really quite impressive: you can see right across the Firth of Forth, with Edinburgh city in one direction and the Forth Road Bridge in the other. We then hugged the coast along to Kirkcaldy, and got some very good views back to the bridges from further down the Firth of Forth.
The route is double-track as far as Ladybank, where the lines to Dundee and Perth split; the Ladybank-Perth line is single-track. North of Perth, aside from a 23-mile stretch of double track between Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie, the whole 118-mile line to Inverness is single track, albeit with reasonably frequent passing loops. Twice we were delayed by a minute or two waiting for trains to clear the single line, once at Ladybank and once at Dalwhinnie. Nonetheless, we only ran a few minutes late to Inverness.
That said, once you're north of Perth it's pretty obvious why it's largely single-track. The line is pretty twisty, running parallel to the A9 almost the entire way, twisting and turning parallel first to the River Tay, then to its tributary the River Tummel, before leading to a fifteen-mile slow climb up Glen Garry. This brings us to the summit: Druimuachdar (or Drumochter) is the highest point on the whole British railway network, at 1484 feet (452m) above sea level.
We fall slowly back, before climbing once more to Slochd summit at a mere 1315 feet (401m) above sea level, and then gradually descending back to sea level at Inverness. The climbs and descents do not go unnoticed: while climbing the trains invariably run at full power, not getting any faster (and sometimes even slowing!), but while descending we can simply coast and still sometimes pick up speed.
The line between Perth and Inverness is served usually only once every two hours, with services usually alternating between Edinburgh and Inverness. The long single-track sections, however, constrain the timetable and mean the service pattern is somewhat irregular; nonetheless, on this relatively sunny summer Saturday, the train from Edinburgh to Inverness was pretty full.
We were lucky to get a table of four seats to ourselves most of the way, and there was a noticeable lack of luggage space, with the overhead racks full to (almost) overflowing with bags that would have been better suited to the luggage spaces at the end of the carriages, if they had not themselves been full. Nonetheless, the linespeed isn't that high, with a top speed of around 75mph even along the coast of the Firth of Forth, so the three-car Turbostar was relatively adequate for the journey.
The weather held up nicely for most of the journey, with some sunshine all the way north as far as Aviemore. From thereon in, however, the rain descended and stayed with us all the way to Inverness. Matt, being an optimist from London (and not an optimist in the sense of Harold Wilson), had come to Scotland without a waterproof, so on arrival at Inverness we promptly found an outdoors shop and, much to the laughter of the shop assistants, bought a waterproof.
Inverness itself is a rather nice little city, although it was only granted city status in 2000 as a "millennium city". The city itself is home to only around 56,000 people, but as it is by far the largest settlement for nearly a hundred miles, the city is better-equipped with large shops than many larger cities in England. We took a wander round, first down to the full and fast-flowing River Ness, before heading up to the castle, now in use as the council buildings and the Sheriff Court.
We returned to Inverness station to head back to Edinburgh on the same route:
1653 (actual 1710) Inverness to Edinburgh Waverley, arr 2029 (actual 2040)
Headcode: 1B34, operated by First Scotrail using Turbostar 170424
Distance: booked 175 miles, actual 188.75 miles; walk-up return included above
The trains out of Inverness are busy enough that a queue started to form a full 20 minutes before departure time, which we duly joined, and boarded our train. The departure time of 16:53 came and went, and the guard soon told us that the train had failed and we were awaiting fitters to come over from the depot to fix the train. Inverness depot being nearby, the fitters soon came, and before long the guard came over the tannoy again and announced that our train (170455) was a failure.
Fortunately, with Inverness depot being nearby, they soon had a spare train (170424) in the platform, and we piled into that and found seats; we left just 17 minutes late, which actually isn't too bad for a failed train, especially somewhere as remote as Inverness.
What's more, we hit a stroke of luck: the Highland Chieftain (the once-daily service from London King's Cross to Inverness, which takes eight hours end-to-end), which we were due to pass in the loop at Pitlochry, was also running about 15 minutes late, and so rather than having to wait for it at some point we ended up both waiting very little time in Pitlochry, as intended!
However, the journey was not quite plain sailing. Not long into the journey the guard came down the carriage asking if there were any passengers for Fife (we were booked to call at Markinch and Kirkcaldy). This piqued our curiosity, and a quick check on National Rail Enquiries on our phone showed that there were "signalling problems in the North Queensferry area", which we conjectured meant there were problems on the Forth Bridge. The logical conclusion to draw, thus, was that, given the problems on the Forth Bridge, we were being diverted via Stirling, the only other logical route to Edinburgh, and thus not calling at Markinch and Kirkcaldy.
Given we were running (by now) 13 minutes late, the five-minute connection at Perth to the next train to Glasgow would be missed. In a rare example of joined-up thinking on the part of Scotrail, after Perth our train, which we had initially expected to be diverted through Stirling non-stop, did in fact stop at Stirling, and we were signalled through ahead of the stopping train from Alloa to Glasgow.
This allowed passengers for Glasgow to change at Stirling and get to Glasgow just 20 minutes later than the Perth connection would have allowed, instead of the hour-long wait at Perth they would have had otherwise. Indeed, Stirling signalbox was kind enough to re-platform the Glasgow train to the adjacent platform 6, rather than forcing passengers to cross the footbridge to platform 9 as timetabled.
(It was quite satisfying that, after the guard had asked for passengers to Fife, we were able to figure out what was going on, advise our fellow passengers heading for Glasgow of the problems, and having done so asked the conductor "are we being diverted via Stirling?" and got the unequivocal response "yes".)
We arrived in Edinburgh just 11 minutes late, in spite of the diversion being nearly 14 miles longer. We were aided not just by getting a clear run almost all the way to Edinburgh by the signallers, but we also benefitted from the linespeed via Stirling being higher than the booked route via Kirkcaldy; the diversion didn't really delay us at all, with the delay being almost entirely due to the breakdown at Inverness.
Scotrail showed the kind of joined-up thinking that is sadly lacking on the rest of the network: trains diverted rather than cancelled outright, and not just holding booked connections but adding stops to make up for lost connections. There were a number of passengers on our train heading for Glasgow, and it was clear that the guard's (and, indeed, Scotrail's) priority was not merely ensuring that the train was simply on time but that all the passengers got where they needed to go, an attitude sadly lacking on much of our railway network.
Well done, Scotrail, but also well done to Network Rail's Scotland Route: Scotrail run the trains, but Network Rail man the signalboxes and run the tracks, so recovering from disruption requires close co-operation between track and train, something made much, much harder by the fragmentation introduced into the network by the Byzantine method of privatisation opted for by John Major's government in 1993, which seemingly amounted to throwing all the various bits of the railway network in the air, seeing where they landed, and hoping for the best.
The McNulty report, published recently with a view to getting better value-for-money from the railway network, has recommended "vertical integration", where train operating companies take over the tracks they're running on and manage both track and train. Scotland is a perfect example of where vertical integration makes sense: almost all the trains in Scotland are run by Scotrail, with only a few trains run by Virgin Trains, East Coast and CrossCountry.
Indeed, on today's evidence, it seems that vertical integration is already working in practice (if not in theory): both with the train breakdown at Inverness and the diversion via Stirling required train operators to work together with Network Rail, something which can go spectacularly wrong at times south of the border.
That said, while vertical integration is a good idea in areas where one operator dominates the vast majority of the trains - Scotland and southern England being two good examples - in much of the midlands and the north of England there are far too many operators (not least freight operators) sharing tracks for vertical integration to work, and it seems to me that the only way to ensure vertical integration in all areas is to simply reunify the network into one company. We could even call it British Rail.
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Saturday was a really exciting day on trains, with not just beautiful scenery but interesting diversions (well, most people wouldn't think they're interesting but we enjoyed it no end!). Our statistics for the day:
Total time spent on trains: 8 hours, 35 minutes.
Distance travelled: 417.75 miles.
Walk-up price: £41.15.
We grabbed some dinner in Burger King in Edinburgh Waverley station, and headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night, before a day of tourism in Edinburgh on Sunday.
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