Rail solution?

Recently there has been a lot written about the standard of service provided by Abellio to the Scottish commuter, in particular the Borders route.

On punctuality, I think that if any train arrives within five to 10 minutes of its scheduled arrival time, that should be regarded as “on time” – if commuters are planning journeys where five minutes late is critical, they should be catching an earlier train.

Living next to the Borders rail route at Eskbank I am well aware of the vagaries of the service. Last week I read of more overcrowding and even one passenger fainting, which is totally unacceptable. But what is noticeable about the service is the different number of carriages making up a train, and the number of trains running during the day with few passengers.

A possible solution is to have a minimum of four carriages during peak times. The stations on the line can take carriages, departing either end from 07:00 to 09:00 and 16:00 to 18:00, and outwith these times cut the trains back to hourly with two carriages. This would allow more people on during the peak times and release rolling stock outwith peak times to be used elsewhere in the network.

Much has been said about the success of the Borders route and the possible extension of it to Hawick, and ultimately Carlisle. A far better use of money to expand the Scottish rail network would be to reopen the rail link to Levenmouth in Fife.

GORDON MCLEOD Lasswade Road, Eskbank

Alexander Mackay (Letters, 8 April) is horrified at the treatment passengers on the railways and says the First Minister has been “inundated” with complaints.

However, analysis of 97.8 million passenger journeys, giving a conservative estimate of 360,000 passengers, indicates that the complaints from the 83 “scunnered” passengers amounts to 0.025 per cent of all users. It would appear that the inundation is not so much a flood as a trickle.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh