ScotRail disappointments

A letter in the Press & Journal in December rightly clobbered ScotRail regarding its Ed in burgh-Inverurie service.

The writer and her husband had just returned from Italy, where Trenitalia did them proud. Arrival home to Scotland, and they were reminded of how third-world trains operate in an otherwise developed nation.

With an open goal available, off went my contribution. I sometimes wonder how on earth Abellio manages to operate the ScotRail franchise, given the experience of my wife recently.

Aboard the 1050 Edinburgh-Stone haven, she arrived in Dundee, where after a ten-minute delay there was an announcement that “we are waiting for the Glasgow train”. A short time later came a second announcement that the train she was on would go direct to Aberdeen, with no stops en route.

She and passengers for intermediate stations decamped onto the platform, where for 55 minutes they stood in chilling conditions (there are currently no waiting facilities in Dundee station) to board a following Edinburgh-Aberdeen train.

The arithmetic of putting two trainloads of passengers into one train meant sardine-like conditions for the rest of the journey to Stonehaven.

The problem had arisen, my wife was told, because of “problems with a driver rota in Perth”.

It’s high time that the inability of Abellio ScotRail to cope with straightforward operational matters is brought to book by Transport Minister Humza Yousaf.

Gordon Casely, Kincardineshire