New rail timetables ‘putting sustainable tourism at risk’

Abusiness leader has warned Scotrail’s new timetables could jeopardise sustainable tourism in Highland Perthshire.

Proposed changes to rail timetables in May will see fewer stops at smaller stations including Blair Atholl and Dalwhinnie.

Rhona Metcalfe chairs the The Atholl Glens, a business, community and tourism association in Highland Perthshire.

She is also standing as a Conservative candidate in this year’s local elections.

“As an organisation, it’s very difficult to promote sustainable tourism if we say to everybody that you’ve got to come here by car,” she said.

Scotrail ran a public consultation on a timetable shake-up aimed at providing a more reliable rail service.

Under the changes, just five trains from Perth will stop at Blair Atholl on weekdays, compared to the current nine.

However, the number of trains running from the village to Perth will increase from five to six from Monday to Saturday.

A Scotrail spokesperson said the new timetables had been designed around when people wanted to travel.

And he added there was a balance to be struck between providing fast journey times to Inverness, Perth, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and serving smaller stations.

But Ms Metcalfe says the service to Blair Atholl makes it “extremely difficult” to commute to Perth.

“You would struggle to get to work. You would either get there far too early, or too late.

“And then you would struggle to get home again.

“It means if you want to work outside the village, you have no choice, you must go by car.”

She added there was no incentive for people travelling into the village to take the train rather than drive along the A9.

“We have a number of establishments that need day-to-day employment,” she said. “It’s very difficult to get anybody into the village unless they have a vehicle.”

Murdo Fraser is a Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife.

He is concerned about the reduction in service for stations between Perth and Inverness.

“We see very stops now at Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie or Carrbridge,” he said.

“Particularly for Blair Atholl, which falls into my constituency area, that’s a real missed opportunity.”

Mr Fraser claims the timetable changes fail to promote the use of public transport, saying: “We’re trying to encourage better connectivity for people living in rural areas.

“And we’re also trying to encourage more tourist traffic to use rail rather than having to resort to using the A9.”

He added better rail links would boost tourism – Highland Perthshire’s “biggest employer”.

“What we’ve seen in recent years is clearly the tourist industry has been under a lot of pressure,” said Mr Fraser. “There’s a particular need to make sure that we have all the infrastructure in place that will support the tourist industry, which is in a very fragile state having been through a couple of very difficult years.”

The spokesperson for Scotrail said the operator had taken public feedback on board “to ensure that the new timetable from May 2022 is better placed to serve the local communities on the route”.

“We recognise that any timetable changes may work better for some than others,” they said.

“But we’re confident that this new timetable will provide foundations to start the process of recovering from the pandemic.

“And as passenger numbers increase, we will keep the timetable under regular review.”

Rhona Metcalfe says people are being forced to use cars.