– LETTERS

Am I the only rail passenger to groan every time I read the mantra “the best railway Scotland has ever had”?

This trite and hackneyed phrase is trotted out by our Scottish Government, by Transport Scotland, and of course, by dear old Abellio Scotrail. Spokesfolk from all three organisations are never short on employing this expression to decorate otherwise puffed-up words.

Latest user is (and you’ll need a deep breath to say this wondrous job title out loud) Scotrail Alliance programmes and transformation director Ian Mcconnell. Speaking of rail improvements in the Granite City, he says: “Aberdeen Station is central to our plan to build the best railway Scotland has...” and so on, and so on.

Meanwhile, in the real world, a colleague tells me that engineering work closed his home route, Edinburgh-shotts, this week – until Wednesday 29 August – with buses replacing trains. But he relates that on the Abellio Scotrail website, there’s no word of this. All routes are apparently shown as “generally good service” with no indication at all that there is no service, and no information on the replacement buses – far less a timetable for them.

He said: “If anything represents an indication of the disregard Abellio has for its customers, this is it”. He adds: “The only information Abellio gives out is that they are building the best railway that Scotland

has...” Guess the rest of the sentence! GORDON CASELY Westerton Cottage, Crathes, Kincardineshire