Scotrail scandal

I have taken previous comments about how awful Scotrail is with a pinch of salt.

However, having recently travelled from Aberdeen on a train which was totally packed, with the passageway filled with over-hot, though polite, people who were less than happy that a two-carriage train was supposed to take a trainful of passengers plus those whose previous train had been cancelled, with no ventilation, I started to rethink. Another train was available from Arbroath, but that does not make up for the poor level of capacity on the only train from Aberdeen.

On Easter Sunday, myself and my wife, having booked a train to Dundee, with seats reserved, found ourselves standing, jammed onto another two-carriage, tropically heated train which was filled to bursting (and beyond) by people travelling from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and all points in-between.

Luckily, the mood was one of resignation and good humour, as young men, for the most part – many afflicted with terrible haircuts, poor souls – sat on luggage racks and the floor, demonstrating their remarkable capacity for blasphemy in various dialects, including English and Doric.

One polite man gave up his seat to my wife, which was very kind of him, and I was struck by how well we cope in this country when, in Europe,

there would probably have been bloodshed and riots on the streets.

It must surely be time for responsibility for Scotland’s railways to be taken from the SNP and given to a responsible adult.

ANDREW HN GRAY Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh