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ScotRail to cut services


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Just seen on the BBC news that Scot Rail  are considering cutting 300 services per day as a result of  Covid ,the unions are not happy because jobs could go and certainly passengers will be affected. Is this the first of many service cuts by other operators who are waiting in the wings to follow  as they must all be suffering moneywise at the moment so as they say, follow this space.

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1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

So, a saving of thirty to forty million quid eh ? ................... that should just about pay for the obligatory re-branding exercise when the Government take over the franchise.

The Government already has and Scotrail trains do not get rebranded.

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To an observer from outside (England) who does nevertheless use ScotRail services quite often to visit relatives, most of this sounds harmless enough and probably not unexpected, to cater for a predicted fall in commuting journeys towards big cities.

 

But I was surprised to read in the proposed Glasgow/Edinburgh-Inverness timetable that they intend to route all Edinburgh-Inverness trains to Perth via Stirling rather than via Kirkcaldy and the Ladybank-Perth line, which they have used for a good few years now.  This appears to leave the Ladybank-Perth line without any service, which seems a pity as there must be useful journey opportunities between Kirkcaldy (and Fife generally) and Perth and stations on the Highland main line.  The line seems to have had quite a bit of investment over recent years; at least the line speed seems higher and the ride smoother than it used to be.

 

Every time I've travelled over it to go to Inverness I remember wryly that at one time (1980s) it was shown with a directional arrow on the BR Timetable Network Map as it only had one passenger train a day, an early morning Perth to Edinburgh via Kirkcaldy, and I once stopped overnight in Perth in order to be able to 'do' it!

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I doubt that planned service cuts will be necessary once the robotic annual price rises of RPI + 1% are implemented next January. 

 

Fares will soon be so high that only Nicola Sturgeon and HM The Queen will be able to afford a ticket. Once no one is using the trains, all lines can be closed, then converted into guided busways.  

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I think the unions are missing the point when they talk about the cuts 'diverting many passengers back onto the roads and increasing pollution, congestion and greenhouse gases'. The issue is that the 'passengers' are working in their spare bedrooms, and aren't travelling to work by any means. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

I doubt that planned service cuts will be necessary once the robotic annual price rises of RPI + 1% are implemented next January. 

 

Fares will soon be so high that only Nicola Sturgeon and HM The Queen will be able to afford a ticket. Once no one is using the trains, all lines can be closed, then converted into guided busways.  

It's not robotic, the increase is decided by the relevant administrations - Wales, Scotland or Westminster. This year the Scottish Parliament agreed a mix so it wasn't RPI+1%. 

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1 hour ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

I think the unions are missing the point when they talk about the cuts 'diverting many passengers back onto the roads and increasing pollution, congestion and greenhouse gases'. The issue is that the 'passengers' are working in their spare bedrooms, and aren't travelling to work by any means.

 

Agree.

 

When the trains, considered over the entire timetable for the week, are apparently running 77% empty that isn't exactly environmentally friendly making the unions argument nonsense.

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2 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

I think the unions are missing the point when they talk about the cuts 'diverting many passengers back onto the roads and increasing pollution, congestion and greenhouse gases'. The issue is that the 'passengers' are working in their spare bedrooms, and aren't travelling to work by any means. 

 

 

Actually our roads are considerably busier than they they were before all of this kicked off. 

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8 hours ago, 31A said:

This appears to leave the Ladybank-Perth line without any service

There is still the hourly Edinburgh-Perth stopper via the Ladybank line.

 

Though this is now altered to diverted via Dunfermline and run all stations round the Fife Circle, so travelling on one of the Inverness trains including changing at Stirling if necessary would still be faster than taking the more 'direct' route.

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1 hour ago, hexagon789 said:

There is still the hourly Edinburgh-Perth stopper via the Ladybank line.

 

Though this is now altered to diverted via Dunfermline and run all stations round the Fife Circle, so travelling on one of the Inverness trains including changing at Stirling if necessary would still be faster than taking the more 'direct' route.

It also takes the Edinburgh - Inverness services away from the Fife chokepoints. This seems more likely to be a line capacity issue rather than any kind of service reduction. Those that write the timetables through Fife consistently seem to be able to squeeze that last drops out of the network. 

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7 hours ago, sulzer27jd said:

Actually our roads are considerably busier than they they were before all of this kicked off. 

 

48 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
 Valid point. IMHO they are south of the border too.

 

Traffic estimated at 125% of normal levels in parts of Greater London whilst from my observations when travelling, public transport in London is carrying typically 50-60% of normal levels off-peak and considerably less in the peak. 

 

Not entirely surprising given the effort expended by various groups in discouraging the use of public transport.  In my part of suburbia the train service has been halved and on some days a lot of what's left gets cancelled so it's not surprising that people are driving instead.  If you put people off either by negative messaging or make it too difficult or unreliable then they either won't travel at all or will use other modes.  Some of those will never come back to public transport. 

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2 hours ago, hexagon789 said:

There is still the hourly Edinburgh-Perth stopper via the Ladybank line.

 

Though this is now altered to diverted via Dunfermline and run all stations round the Fife Circle, so travelling on one of the Inverness trains including changing at Stirling if necessary would still be faster than taking the more 'direct' route.

 

Thank you, I didn't pick that up from browsing the timetables.  Good to know.

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What are the opinions of the forum on the changes?

How will  the reduced number of services  tie in with the dates in 2022  with the renationalisation of of railway services in Scotland?

Will the changes  be implemented in advance or after the termination of the Abelio franchise?

 

"It was announced on 17 March 2021 that ScotRail is to be renationalised in March 2022 as ScotRail Trains.

 

Since 1 April 2015 ScotRail has been operated by Abellio. This franchise will end in March 2022.

 

From 1 April 2022, a Scottish Government-owned operator of last resort would take over from Abellio the day-to-day operations of the ScotRail service, maintaining the ScotRail brand."

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14 minutes ago, Pandora said:

 

What are the opinions of the forum on the changes?

How will  the reduced number of services  tie in with the dates in 2022  with the renationalisation of of railway services in Scotland?

Will the changes  be implemented in advance or after the termination of the Abelio franchise?

 

"It was announced on 17 March 2021 that ScotRail is to be renationalised in March 2022 as ScotRail Trains.

 

Since 1 April 2015 ScotRail has been operated by Abellio. This franchise will end in March 2022.

 

From 1 April 2022, a Scottish Government-owned operator of last resort would take over from Abellio the day-to-day operations of the ScotRail service, maintaining the ScotRail brand."

 

I looked at some of the proposed timetables which were of interest to me, which can be found by following the BBC link posted by RFS near the top of this thread.  They are accompanied by some text explaining the rationale.  To me most of what I saw looked quite sensible.  It seems to be aimed at weeding out additional peak hour commuting services, which may not be needed in future in the short term or at all, and in doing so and by making other adjustments, improving the reliability of the remaining services. From what I looked at, most lines seem to retain a decent level of service (in the Central Belt hourly or more frequent).  Rural lines largely unaltered.  I think in Scotland as well as the rest of the country in general, the last few years have seen services increased without the infrastructure to allow them to run reliably and a move to run fewer trains with greater reliability can only be a good thing.  Possibly easier to implement in Scotland than in some other parts of the country, as most of the planning is already done in one place, whether nationalised or not.

 

From a personal point of view a bit of a gripe as I have relatives who live near Carstairs and I use the train to visit them, the Edinburgh-Glasgow Central-Ayr via Carstairs and Motherwell service has been decimated, leaving Carstairs with no service for most of the day as far as I can see!  It was always a bit of a strange one, running approximately every two hours but without a very consistent pattern and never very busy when I've caught them (in the middle of the day).  However the text accompanying that timetable does suggest that they might be reinstated when driver training issues have been resolved.

 

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Seems sensible . Reality is that many people are and will still work from home , at least for part of week . In addition many of us are still avoiding crowded places . That’s the reality of the pandemic . I would travel in the bubble of my car but less inclined to use public transport . This seems to be a reaction to the reality . Actually it’s a relatively small change . 

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8 hours ago, sulzer27jd said:

It also takes the Edinburgh - Inverness services away from the Fife chokepoints. This seems more likely to be a line capacity issue rather than any kind of service reduction.

 

A service reduction is exactly what this is, because the Perth/Edinburgh service will run via Dunfermline stopping at nearly every lamp post, therefore fulfilling two service needs with one train, and giving Perth a very poor service to and from Edinburgh, given that via Stirling is longer than via Fife, and only 4 or 5 trains go that way anyway; The Edinburgh/Perth trains take around 95-100 (ninety-five to one hundred) minutes ! 

 

Among other 'highlights':

Glasgow Queen St/Edinburgh service runs half hourly calling at Croy, Falkirk High, Polmont, Linlithgow and Haymarket; There are additional peak hour trains which miss Croy, Polmont and Linlithgow, but call at Bishopbriggs and Lenzie instead ! Any ambition to provide an express service linking Scotland's two largest cities has been well and truly abandoned, and Scotrail has a real nerve classing this service among their Inter City group. 

Glasgow Queen St/Cumbernauld/Falkirk/Edinburgh service, only recently introduced, no longer runs between Falkirk and Edinburgh.

Glasgow/Kilmarnock service is two trains per hour, but half of these call at all stations, ie also forming Barrhead locals. 

Cathcart Circle services, except for a few in the peaks, are withdrawn, meaning the Maxwell Park side of the Circle has only an hourly service during the day, 50% of pre-Covid level, and the Queens Park side 3 trains per hour, 75% ditto.

Glasgow Suburban services in general go down to an hourly service (vice half-hourly) in the evenings. 

 

I fully recognise the decline in passenger numbers, not helped in anyway by the railway industry itself effectively telling people 'if you dare get on a train you will die of Covid, and probably kill your granny too', and would have expected to see cuts in additional rush hour provision given the fall in commuting, but these cuts go far beyond that and will seriously damage attempts to get people back on trains. They also make a mockery of the Scottish Government's environmental policies by forcing people to use road transport vice rail - I wonder what their just-appointed little Green helpers will make of that ?

 

All in all, a disaster for Scotland's Railway. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
As maybe. But also an increase in commercial vehicles. Still many people travelling by train here ( Central England ) if not on buses.

As we have virtually no freight north of Central Scotland anyway, there is no choice but to use the roads.

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Not entirely unexpected. The GLQ-EDB via Grahamston provided the benefit that Dunblane trains stopped serving Linlithgow and Polmont giving a very decent run between Edinburgh and Grahamston. The problem is that (although it had not been in operation for a long time before the pandemic) these trains ran virtually empty and I suspect the Falkirk - Edinburgh leg would have been being looked at anyway. Ironically (as I don't live in Edinburgh) I can't see the necessity of knocking 10 minutes off the main line journey (what difference would 20 minutes in a day make to someone visiting Glasgow from Edinburgh)? - but of course if you travel the line daily.....

 

To be honest I hope the reduction in services assists with timetable robustness overall; I do think some lines (even EDB-GLQ via Falkirk High) have had over-provision for some time. Perhaps more space will allow tweaks and some speeding up/additional services later.

 

I agree Perth has an abysmal service to/from Edinburgh; it would be an interesting 'how to improve' topic!

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Isn’t the Scottish Gvt line still “work from home if possible” at moment. As a result I am not surprised commuting levels are low. When this mantra changes there should be an uptick, esp as employers start to encourage workers back to the workplace. In my place of work our office is still empty - we have made WFH ok but it is recognised there is a fatigue amongst many and business results are not as good, mainly due less interaction between people than you get in a more conventional office. Will we be actively enticing employees back to the office - yes. Are we yet- no - not while government line is as it is. Hopefully cuts can be reversed later as I still think things will pick back up again.

M

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