Black day for Scotrail and Borders Railway – how about a buy out of the service?
Living in the Borders used to mean that you were seen as remote by friends and family in the Central Belt. Then a new solution – the Borders Railway. A lazy train trip through nice scenery and picked up at the station 15 minutes from our home. Perfect!
Actually a journey from hell, according to our friends’ experience on Saturday 8 December.
The 11.25 train from Waverley to Tweedbank was cancelled at the last minute. Passengers were told to get on a bus to replace the train. At Newcraighall they were told that another train to Tweed- bank had left Waverley: alternatively they could continue a two-hour bus journey.
Should they not have been advised to remain at Waverley for the next train (which in fact arrived at Galashiels at 13.00)?
We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with our friends. At 16.30 the Scotrail app told us the 18.01 had been cancelled but the 17.01 and 17.33 were ‘on time’.
Our friends were at Tweedbank in good time for the 17.01. At 17.01 the information board and app switched to say that the 17.01 was cancelled. No warning, no station staff to speak to – just a remote ‘Alexa’ sitting warm in Glasgow! Scotrail must have known that no train was on its way to Tweedbank, but this information was withheld until the exact departure time. Our friends waited in the cold (the station has no heated waiting room or accessible public toilet) for the 17.33 train – which arrived ‘on time’ and departed at 17.35.
The single information board inside the Interchange Centre in Galashiels showed departures information but no information about arrivals.on it Scotrail apologised several times for lack of staff and a day’s delay in implementing improved numbers of coaches on this line. On our friends’ return journey there were two coaches instead of four, with many passengers standing because of the cancelled services.
It is unlikely that our friends will choose the Borders Railway to visit us in future. Sadly, I have had to advise family and friends that they cannot rely on convenient rail travel to the Borders.
Scotland suffers from the structural organisational chaos afflicting the key players: Scottish Government, Network Rail, and the train operators by virtue of their contractually separate roles, contract definitions and terms.
However, in this case the problems point to Scotrail. On Saturday 8 December their website gave no reason to anticipate problems: astonishingly, in the middle of chaos it gave a ‘green tick’ to services in Lothians and Borders! The truth alighted only on enquiry about particular trains on the platform information boards and app, and then with updates when it was too late to consider other travel options.
This level of service will not be good enough to sustain commuter confidence and meet increased traffic from new housing and commercial investment, necessary to deliver the Borders Railway Business Plan.
How about a buy out of the service by a Borders Railway Company to run the service as a community trust venture? While other examples of ‘arms length’ trusts running public services evoke mixed emotions, surely dedicated appointed trustees could hardly manage any worse – and at least their staff would take pride in turning up.
ALEXANDER (SANDY) ROSIE
St Boswells, Melrose