Perth gets raw deal on trains

JOHN Macnab (Letters, August 29) seems happy with the journey times of trains through his Falkirk home town but I suggest it would be a different story if he lived in Perth. Journey times from there to

Glasgow are competitive with the bus or car but not so to Edinburgh, which was the subject of your original report.

The direct line from Perth to Edinburgh through Kinross-shire was closed in 1970, reputedly to make it easier to build the M90 through the difficult terrain around Glenfarg. Road traffic now powers down this road while the train takes a much longer meander in the wrong direction on a single-track line to Newburgh before it can turn south.

The 13.34 train from Edinburgh to Perth is actually a through service to Inverness and Highland passengers have to share its tortuous progress too. The Scottish Government has some infrastructure investment decisions to make in the next few weeks and will, I hope, realise the strategic and environmental importance to Scotland of, at long last, seriously upgrading this whole route up the spine of Scotland to Perth and the Highlands.

Transform Scotland made a serious proposal to Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government in March 2014 that a direct rail route through Kinrossshire should be reinstated. This should reduce the journey time between Edinburgh and Perth (and thus all stations to Inverness) by 30 minutes and has received wide ranging support.

In view of all the press stories in the past few weeks about the harm that pollutants are causing to humans, we need to embrace an environmentally sustainable transport structure to improve our economy and society’s health.

R J Ardern,

27 Drumdevan Road, Inverness.

Reader Donald Russell sends this late afternoon view of Newark Castle, St Monans, with the tide out and the Isle of May in the background. He used a Nikon D3300.