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Scotrail - Post Covid Consultation - Service Reductions

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Bletchleyite

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Just a gentle reminder that any suggestions for service provision changes, other than those proposed, should be made in the appropriate forum section please :) This thread is exclusively for discussing the proposed service reductions as part of the consultation. Many thanks :)

There is a speculative thread specifically for discussion related to this proposal, e.g. what you think ScotRail should do instead of what is proposed:

 
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Kirkcaldy will at least keep its LNER and XC services, so Monday-Saturday there'll be a fast Edinburgh-Dundee/Aberdeen service most hours. (I'm clutching at straws here.) Some proper integration with those TOCs, and ScotRail can plug the gaps a little. The solution might be to route a couple of Edinburgh-Invernesses via Kirkcaldy after all.
There are only 4 LNER trains/day to Aberdeen and 2/3 XC, so at most 7 hours in the day will have anything other than a Fife Circle stopper at Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing. It either needs hourly stops on the Scotrail Edinburgh-Aberdeen or the Edinburgh-Inverness continuing to go via Fife.
 

backontrack

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There are only 4 LNER trains/day to Aberdeen and 2/3 XC, so at most 7 hours in the day will have anything other than a Fife Circle stopper at Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing. It either needs hourly stops on the Scotrail Edinburgh-Aberdeen or the Edinburgh-Inverness continuing to go via Fife.
Maybe ScotRail could alternate Kirkcaldy calls (1tp2h) on Edinburgh-Aberdeen HSTs with Montrose calls (1tp2h).
 

hexagon789

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Maybe ScotRail could alternate Kirkcaldy calls (1tp2h) on Edinburgh-Aberdeen HSTs with Montrose calls (1tp2h).
Would be one way of doing it, but still going to upset some people.

From what I recall going back to the early days of the TurboStars the timetable was set up so that Montrose was served every two hours alternating with either Carnoustie or Stonehaven.
 

tbtc

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Looking at some of the changes, Citylink and Stagecoach could sweep in grab more coach passengers for themselves , if the train travel times are now roughly the same as the coach and your trying to save money it would make since to make the swap.

Feels like a good time to invest in Stagecoach shares!

(pre-Covid) They ran four coaches per hour from Kirkcaldy to Edinburgh whilst ScotRail ran two fast and two slow trains - now that ScotRail are only going to be running two slow trains per hour on that corridor that looks like good news for Stagecoach

The proposed timetable also appears to have removed semi-fast services from Edinburgh to most Fife destinations (including Kirkcaldy) apart from a few calls at Leuchars, leaving just stopping services.

Kirkcaldy will at least keep its LNER and XC services, so Monday-Saturday there'll be a fast Edinburgh-Dundee/Aberdeen service most hours. (I'm clutching at straws here.) Some proper integration with those TOCs, and ScotRail can plug the gaps a little. The solution might be to route a couple of Edinburgh-Invernesses via Kirkcaldy after all.

There are only 4 LNER trains/day to Aberdeen and 2/3 XC, so at most 7 hours in the day will have anything other than a Fife Circle stopper at Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing. It either needs hourly stops on the Scotrail Edinburgh-Aberdeen or the Edinburgh-Inverness continuing to go via Fife.

I hope that something can get sorted out - Kirkcaldy has had twice as many Edinburgh services as Stirling has for many years, but now Kirkcaldy will have fewer Edinburgh services than Stirling will get (given that Stirling gets to keep all of it's existing services plus gains calls on the Edinburgh - Inverness trains)... is this "political" or just bad luck?

I'd have expected the ScotRail Aberdeen services to at least go back to stopping at Kirkcaldy each hour (as they were for many years, rather than being non-stop to Leuchars), but Aberdeen seems to keep all of it's "good" things (including the additional "local" services) whilst Kirkcaldy loses half of it's services (and the remaining ones will presumably be even busier when half of them gain Levenmouth passengers too!)

In a sensible world, all the long distance trains would be HST and spare 158s or 170s would cascade to other TOCs to help with the DMU shortage.

Agreed - we've spent years waiting for sufficient HSTs to operate all of the Inter7City services - now that we are seeing a reduction in ScotRail's PVR and the completion of the HST programme ... and 170s are going to be running a significant chunk of Inverness services... I don't understand!


I believe some time ago now a poster on here described a ride on a 170 as the equivalent of a hamster pushing a filing cabinet. Now imagine trying to push that filing cabinet up Slocht, loaded with details of all the bonus is paid and money wasted in the Scottish transport industry across all modes for the last 15 or 20-years. That's quite a heavyweight filing cabinet

You'd think that the HSTs would have slashed journey times significantly if the 170s were as slow as you suggest - I appreciate that the 170s aren't perfect trains (like most trains, they are a compromise) - they've struggled with the stop/start nature of some of the services that Northern have tried to run them on - but if they were as slow as you suggest then HSTs would be knocking half an hour off the Inverness - Perth journey times!

At every station half the carriage side disappears and the Scottish winter gets in

If you're confident of your argument then you don't need to exaggerate as much

Anyone who says there adequate is just wrong and it's not down to personal opinion only

170s are adequate

Posted in the other thread, but might be useful here. Perhaps the reason the West of Scotland timetables have been designed is so they can reintroduce the withdrawn services with minimal fuss given that they’ll easily slot back in. Maybe being very optimistic there but worth considering - if these were intended as long term changes you’d have thought more effort would have went into them.

The changes in Central Scotland seem more a bit more reasonable though, and give the impression they’ll be permanent. I’d be more concerned about their plans for Fife though. That’s a mess that needs sorted out. They’d as well not bothering with that Edinburgh to Perth service and as others have stated, the offering at Kirkcaldy needs to be far better.

Agreed on both points.

Bus companies can change timetables pretty easily - removing some journeys one month and slotting additional journeys in another month (e.g. your local route can go from every ten minutes to every twelve to every fifteen to every twelve to every ten by just removing/adding one vehicle into the PVR). but train times are much messier (you can't just change the frequency of a train service given conflicts at junctions etc), so a lot more thought has to go into how you plan for future growth (e.g. as far as I am aware, the "Channel Tunnel" services had paths reserved for them through New Street etc for many years, so that there was scope to eventually operate them) - I hope I can share your optimism that services can be re-added at a later date (e.g. the services that terminate at Airdrie/ Drumgelloch can be extended back to/from Edinburgh at some stage in the future)

Agreed about Fife too - for Kirkcaldy to go down from two fast and two slow services per hour to just two slow services most hours (and lose long distance links) is a significantly bigger cut than most other lines have (especially as Kirkcaldy is bigger than Perth/ Inverness - despite the focus that enthusiasts have about the Highland Main Line!)

The service Carlisle - Dumfries - Glasgow does look reasonable - hourly Carlisle <> Dumfries at peak times and 2 hourly to Glasgow. The 2 hourly to Glasgow would appear to be an improvement as it provides a regular interval with more trains overall

Agreed - I've argued in the past that Dumfries to Carlisle ought to have a much better service, since that corridor via Annan/ Gretna is where the local demand is - look at the competing Stagecoach bus services - I'm glad that an hourly Carlisle service is being prioritised, even though it's over the border - a well balanced service to Glasgow is better than a "more frequent but irregular" service to Glasgow IMHO
 

haggishunter

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170s are adequate

For intercity services, particularly those that carry a lot of incoming and outgoing tourist traffic with significant luggage they most definitely are not adequate and the tender documents that lead to Abellio being awarded the franchise shows Transport Scotland agreed the170s were not adequate.

I've recently been on a 170 non-stop between Queen Street and Stirling - it was pedestrian away from Queen Street, but with no stops it was cruising along smoothly on the E&G once it got up to speed until till it left that route. For those who used them on the E&G, they probably were OK, the difference between that non stop run to Stirling and riding a 170 on the HML is night and day. When working hard on gradients it seems every component in these wretched things resonates with the engines - they shake, vibrate and rattle and go nowhere particularly quickly (though they probably damage your hearing pretty quickly).

As for exaggerating the downsides of a 1/3 and 2/3rd doors, have you ever sat in one at remote Scottish stations when its blowing a hoolie and the rain comes into the passenger saloon sideways and blows things about the coach or when it is sub-zero outside and you have just about recovered from frost-bite when they open at the next station?

The relative lack of toilets on the 170s as well is an issue, with inadequate retention tank capacity for the diagrams they were sent out on when busy. A 4 coach 158 on the other hand has four toilets, slightly more seats than a 4+2 HST vs only 2 toilets on a 170. The Inverness based 158s also have significantly more luggage storage and the airline seats have seat back tables that you can use a laptop on and actually work at, whereas the ones on the turbostars are completely useless for that purpose and most of them slope down so badly that you can't sit a coffee on them either.

If the Highland Mainline is to be a mix of multiple units and HSTs going forward in the medium term, I could live with four coach 158s if they were set out as the Inverness based sets with a good mix of tables and airline seats and decent luggage storage, even more so if there was a dedicated fleet that got an Inter7city mini buffet that could do some hot snacks and make a good coffee onboard!

I know plenty of people that probably couldn't tell you what train class / type they had been on, that nonetheless would make quite a bit of effort to fit their travel around getting the Highland Chieftain vs ScotRail. The Inter7city HSTs were beginning to change that, if 170s make a notable comeback on the HML then the LNER Azuma is going to get busier!
 

John Bishop

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Agreed - we've spent years waiting for sufficient HSTs to operate all of the Inter7City services - now that we are seeing a reduction in ScotRail's PVR and the completion of the HST programme ... and 170s are going to be running a significant chunk of Inverness services... I don't understand!




You'd think that the HSTs would have slashed journey times significantly if the 170s were as slow as you suggest - I appreciate that the 170s aren't perfect trains (like most trains, they are a compromise) - they've struggled with the stop/start nature of some of the services that Northern have tried to run them on - but if they were as slow as you suggest then HSTs would be knocking half an hour off the Inverness - Perth journey times!
I think the stark reality of the situation is that it would be absolute carnage if the full HST programme was operating.
There’s nowhere near the reliability on the Fleet to do that unfortunately.
 

Journeyman

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I think the stark reality of the situation is that it would be absolute carnage if the full HST programme was operating.
There’s nowhere near the reliability on the Fleet to do that unfortunately.
It's an admission the project has failed. The operating costs are eye-watering and reliability is terrible.

If they hadn't given so many away, I suspect we'd be back to 170s entirely now.
 

Falcon1200

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Observed at Glasgow Central today, on a screen above the subsidiary departure board (nearest Platforms 11-15), the following messages:

'Is your journey necessary ? Only travel if you have to' and
'Can you find another way to travel ?'

So despite national TV adverts exhorting people to use the train, in Scotland we still have these 'pee off and don't bother us' anti-train travel exhortations. No wonder Scotrail are having to drastically reduce their services. I despair.
 

lammergeier

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Observed at Glasgow Central today, on a screen above the subsidiary departure board (nearest Platforms 11-15), the following messages:

'Is your journey necessary ? Only travel if you have to' and
'Can you find another way to travel ?'

So despite national TV adverts exhorting people to use the train, in Scotland we still have these 'pee off and don't bother us' anti-train travel exhortations. No wonder Scotrail are having to drastically reduce their services. I despair.
Same in Leeds and probably many other places around the UK. Infuriating. I don't know who is responsible for them but whoever it is needs their P45
 

Deltic1961

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It's just as bad in other businesses. Shopping centre toilets have hand driers and sinks blocked off for social distancing. Supermarket has the second set of doors at the other end of the store closed to aid social distancing (by forcing everyone through one entrance ironically). Chain pub won't let you consume your drink at the bar.

Maybe they never got the memo that social distsncing is over in Scotland. Its very frustrating.

Scotrail seem to be scaring people away. If I were in charge I'd be trying to get revenue back up and encouraging rail travel but who knows what's going on. Seems any business financed by "public" noney has no financial prudence.
 
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Bletchleyite

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It's just as bad in other businesses. Shopping centre toilets have hand driers and sinks blocked off for social distancing. Supermarket has the second set of doors at the other end of the store closed to aid social distancing (by forcing everyone through one entrance ironically). Chain pub won't let you consume your drink at the bar.

Maybe they never got the memo that social distsncing is over in Scotland. Its very frustrating.

Private businesses have the right to do whatever they wish, your remedy is not to patronise them if you don't like it. Most have chosen to follow Government policy, but they don't have to do that, only the law.

On the other hand, the railway acting in a manner that isn't Government policy (as a publically-funded body) isn't OK. Though I suspect it's just been forgotten about, not done deliberately.
 

Journeyman

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Private businesses have the right to do whatever they wish, your remedy is not to patronise them if you don't like it. Most have chosen to follow Government policy, but they don't have to do that, only the law.
I've been encouraged by some things. The Gyle shopping centre in Edinburgh removed every last trace of social distancing infrastructure and signage overnight on 8th/9th August, and everything looked extremely normal when it opened on 9th. No angry notices, no cordoned off toilets or sinks, no barriers, no stickers on the floor. It's enough to make me want to shop there over other places, although of course it will have the opposite effect on the more timid, and businesses have to work out what's going to get more people through the door.
On the other hand, the railway acting in a manner that isn't Government policy (as a publically-funded body) isn't OK. Though I suspect it's just been forgotten about, not done deliberately.
It's far more likely a cock-up than a conspiracy.
 

tbtc

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For intercity services, particularly those that carry a lot of incoming and outgoing tourist traffic with significant luggage they most definitely are not adequate and the tender documents that lead to Abellio being awarded the franchise shows Transport Scotland agreed the170s were not adequate

The tender documents didn't want the 170s that had been operating the majority of Highland Main Line services for around twenty years - how's their replacements working out?

Be careful what you wish for - I'd rather have a "good" train in service than be sat around because my "perfect" train isn't available

I've recently been on a 170 non-stop between Queen Street and Stirling - it was pedestrian away from Queen Street

Most trains coming out of Queen Street are though - it's a heck of an incline from a standing start

As for exaggerating the downsides of a 1/3 and 2/3rd doors, have you ever sat in one at remote Scottish stations when its blowing a hoolie and the rain comes into the passenger saloon sideways and blows things about the coach or when it is sub-zero outside and you have just about recovered from frost-bite when they open at the next station?

Yes I have, and I think that there's a "Four Yorkshiremen" attitude - some people seem to want to give the impression that it's always winter in Scotland, always sub zero, always hurricane season - don't get a job in tourism!

I know plenty of people that probably couldn't tell you what train class / type they had been on, that nonetheless would make quite a bit of effort to fit their travel around getting the Highland Chieftain vs ScotRail. The Inter7city HSTs were beginning to change that, if 170s make a notable comeback on the HML then the LNER Azuma is going to get busier!

I think that the popularity of the Chieftan is partly to do with the fact that it has prime time - breakfast time southbound and teatime northbound

I think the stark reality of the situation is that it would be absolute carnage if the full HST programme was operating.
There’s nowhere near the reliability on the Fleet to do that unfortunately.

It's an admission the project has failed. The operating costs are eye-watering and reliability is terrible.

If they hadn't given so many away, I suspect we'd be back to 170s entirely now.

I think you're probably both right - the "sunk cost fallacy" and pride means that nobody will want to accept what a failure it's been
 

haggishunter

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Be careful what you wish for - I'd rather have a "good" train in service than be sat around because my "perfect" train isn't available
They’re not good trains and the 170s were a retrograde step on the HML vs the 158s they largely displaced. The introduction of the 170s to the route was hardly flawless and trouble free either!
 

geoffk

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Same in Leeds and probably many other places around the UK. Infuriating. I don't know who is responsible for them but whoever it is needs their P45
I get the impression that both Great Western and South Western are trying to get passengers back and reassure them. None of the negative messages here in the south-west anyway.
 

lammergeier

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It's far more likely a cock-up than a conspiracy.
I don't think there's been any suggestion of conspiracy, it's clearly either a cock up or one of those things that's fallen outside of a clear remit and nobody knows/cares whose responsibility it is. That doesn't make it any more acceptable of course.
 

Bikeman78

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I think the stark reality of the situation is that it would be absolute carnage if the full HST programme was operating.
There’s nowhere near the reliability on the Fleet to do that unfortunately.
What is the miles per failure for the HST fleet? What is the biggest cause of failure? FGW managed something like 47 diagrams from 54 sets day in day out. Typically they covered more miles at higher speed than the Scottish sets do. In 25 years I cannot recall one ever failing on me. Some ran on one power car but they still got to Paddington.
 

Falcon1200

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Not an exhaustive study I know, but I travelled on two Scotrail HSTs yesterday and performance in both cases was exemplary, plus the ambience was IMHO far superior to any DMU type.
 

duffers2324

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It must be remembered to a degree that the possibly one of the reasons for Scotrail switching to the HST's as well particularly on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness lines, was that i heard quite a lot of people tended to book with LNER and VTEC before then knowing they would get an HST as opposed to booking with Scotrail and getting a 170 so Scotrail must have been thinking well if we do the same thing then we can get the same passengers to book with us as we now have the HST. This obviously doesn't apply to the Glasgow journeys or Inverness and Aberdeen journeys, it was seen more of a nice "to have" when HST's came in for those routes and seemingly passengers seen the HST as more of the proper train to be on these routes IE an Intercity train and not a regional train

Just to add i can say the 170 seems fine to me as i did a run from Inverness to Glasgow on the 2015 train, this was the back end of 2019 right enough but was in October and cant say it was too bad, comfortable enough seating, yes could get a little drafty as doors opened but nothing drastic and overall a nice ambience considering the whole journey was pretty much in darkness. I take it some people might prefer a 156 over the 170 to Inverness then :D
 

Kite159

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It must be remembered to a degree that the possibly one of the reasons for Scotrail switching to the HST's as well particularly on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness lines, was that i heard quite a lot of people tended to book with LNER and VTEC before then knowing they would get an HST as opposed to booking with Scotrail and getting a 170 so Scotrail must have been thinking well if we do the same thing then we can get the same passengers to book with us as we now have the HST. This obviously doesn't apply to the Glasgow journeys or Inverness and Aberdeen journeys, it was seen more of a nice "to have" when HST's came in for those routes and seemingly passengers seen the HST as more of the proper train to be on these routes IE an Intercity train and not a regional train

Just to add i can say the 170 seems fine to me as i did a run from Inverness to Glasgow on the 2015 train, this was the back end of 2019 right enough but was in October and cant say it was too bad, comfortable enough seating, yes could get a little drafty as doors opened but nothing drastic and overall a nice ambience considering the whole journey was pretty much in darkness. I take it some people might prefer a 156 over the 170 to Inverness then :D

I suspect some of those people who aimed to book on the East Coast services booked on them simply because they were 8 coaches rather than 3.

Probably the same these days with people aiming for the 9 coach LNER service rather than the Scotrail HST solely because 9 coaches can hold more passengers than 4 coaches.
 

David M

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Travelling from Tweedbank to Glasgow return last Saturday:
0832 from Tweedbank - 3 coach 170 significantly quieter than it would have been 2 years ago - nevertheless half-hourly at peak times maintained
1015 from Waverley to Queen St - despite now being a half-hourly service, the 8 coach train was very empty. Croy station car park was less than half full as opposed to overflowing
1801 unscheduled train from QSt to Waverley - very empty - possibly due to not being on the timetable - I assume an extra for the festival. Saturday's proposed as every 15 minutes going forward anyway.
1955-ish from Waverley to Tweedbank - 4 coach 158 - easy enough to get an airline seat without sharing with a stranger
Doing a similar run tomorrow except onward to Kilmarnock return, will update on Monday.
I do feel that many here are being critical simply for the sake of it. Respond to the consultation constructively and there may be better outcomes than doing so in a rage or with only political bias.
Times have changed and everyone and everything has to reassess the future.
 

Blindtraveler

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Which is exactly what I have done. My response acknowledges that things are going to have to change going forward but has attempted to point out the the schoolboy errors they've meat made with the bits of the service that I'm familiar with.


My friend who lives near newcraighall reports the hourly borders service simply not coping during the week and between certain times on Saturdays. I would suggest that the above posters journey was not necessarily made at a typical time for peak crowding on the borders route in particular but there are times when an hourly service would struggle
 

scotrail158713

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My friend who lives near newcraighall reports the hourly borders service simply not coping during the week and between certain times on Saturdays. I would suggest that the above posters journey was not necessarily made at a typical time for peak crowding on the borders route in particular but there are times when an hourly service would struggle
I would concur. I travelled on the 1620 service out of Edinburgh recently and it was full and standing on departure. Part of this could be caused by school holidays, festival etc - and it's also the last off peak service for a couple of hours. However I have no doubt that the hourly gap massively contributed to how busy it was. I myself had arrived at 1540 off the TPE Manchester service, so if 2tph were running I'd have made a 1550 service and situations like that will be what makes it as busy as it is.
 

Deltic1961

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The whole peak thing needs to stop. No need for it. On the 17:25 Aberdeen to Inverness "peak" service today and the train was literally empty. Taking the eye off the ball or just gouging people?
 

Highlandspring

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The whole peak thing needs to stop. No need for it. On the 17:25 Aberdeen to Inverness "peak" service today and the train was literally empty. Taking the eye off the ball or just gouging people?

That’s strange, because I saw that train arrive at Inverurie today and about 30 people got off. Unless the word ‘literally’ has a different meaning.
 

Stopper

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Travelling from Tweedbank to Glasgow return last Saturday:
0832 from Tweedbank - 3 coach 170 significantly quieter than it would have been 2 years ago - nevertheless half-hourly at peak times maintained
1015 from Waverley to Queen St - despite now being a half-hourly service, the 8 coach train was very empty. Croy station car park was less than half full as opposed to overflowing
1801 unscheduled train from QSt to Waverley - very empty - possibly due to not being on the timetable - I assume an extra for the festival. Saturday's proposed as every 15 minutes going forward anyway.
1955-ish from Waverley to Tweedbank - 4 coach 158 - easy enough to get an airline seat without sharing with a stranger
Doing a similar run tomorrow except onward to Kilmarnock return, will update on Monday.
I do feel that many here are being critical simply for the sake of it. Respond to the consultation constructively and there may be better outcomes than doing so in a rage or with only political bias.
Times have changed and everyone and everything has to reassess the future.
Have to agree. Find it very odd that most on this forum have defended ScotRail/TS through years of poor performance but when a reasonably sensible decision comes along they’re angry.

It’s hardly surprising to see the Cumbernauld services truncated. They were completely pointless, unused and cancelled at any hint of disruption. Linlithgow and Polmont will benefit from being back on the Dunblane services and Stirling retains its fast Edinburgh service through the Inverness trains.
 

David M

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Saturday 28/8:
0858 from Tweedbank to Edinburgh quiet until Newcraighall where a surprising number got on - nice weather so maybe accounts for this. People stood in the doorways but there were actually plenty of seats to go around. 2 car 158 which was surprising but coupled up with a 170 when it reached Waverley.
1015 from Waverley to Glasgow Queen St - nice and quiet although more got on at Croy this week - weather again? Toilet in front 1st class coach badly blocked. Looked like an unscheduled 1000 via Falkirk High ran as well.
1113 from Glasgow Central to Kilmarnock - pretty quiet but the further west I got, the less mask compliance and suddenly people openly drinking - seems no point in banning drinking if no-one enforces it. Same applies with masks - they're a legal requirement, enforce it.
1759 from Kilmarnock to Central - a number of Killie fans but again not busy.
1900 x Country to Waverley - very quiet but still someone sat in my reserved seat - how hard is it?
Train manager was an a*** - despite this being a Central to Waverley only and, therefore a wholly internal Scotland service, he loudly told us all that he disagreed with masks. If it's okay in England and Wales not to wear one then it should be okay in Scotland - didn't go down well at all.
2054 from Waverley to Tweedbank - 5 car set - easy to get a seat.
Poster above is correct, I generally only travel on a Saturday but this was reflected in my submission to Scotrail - if weekdays are struggling to cope then say so - that's presumably the reason for the consultation.
I've made the point that Auchinleck and Glenafton both have 1400 and 1330 kick off times and that the 1212 from Central ought to be extended to at least New Cumnock. Similarly, reinstate the train that used to leave Auchinleck at roughly 1620 as some teams carry significant supports to their away games. Pollok and Clydebank take roughly 300 to each ground, many by train.
 

Deltic1961

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seems no point in banning drinking if no-one enforces it. Same applies with masks - they're a legal requirement, enforce it.

According to Scotrail you need to contact British Transport Police. End of. They are simply not interested in enforcing the rules.

Strange as I'm 54 and have never ever seen a BTP officer on a train.
 
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