ScotRail to cut services

[Railfreight1998]

On 23/08/2021 at 07:10, Ian Hargrave said:

This post isn’t strictly connected with cuts in services but may have some bearing on what’s going on. Both last night’s Southbound Sleeper Scot services from Inverness and Fort William were similarly headed by GBRF 66 with 73/9 tucked up behind. Is this current practice and what’s the reason for it ?

It isn't normal practice. I believe the 73s were suffering more (!) reliability issues so some were doubled up and others paired with 66s. Single 73s are being used again on some portions ie from Aberdeen (though staffing issues has been cancelling it recently).

[lmsforever]

Intersting article on the Scot Sleeper in latest Rail mag  evidently 73,s undergoing work to cure reliability problems .This might explain the 66,s being used must slow services down to Inverness as they are limited on this line .Just as well the sleeper is independant SCR would be looking to cut services despite decent loadings .This train is a great advert for Scottish tourist companies etc and I am glad that the new rolling stock is mostly reliable although timekeeping of late has been poor.

[Ian Hargrave]

At present it is normal practice to use GBRF 66 as traction at least on the West Highland Line and has been so for some time.  Yesterday there were 8 Mark 5 on the Southbound  sleeper from Fort William headed by 73967 parked inside 66741. Such a load would surely be beyond the capability of the 73/9 and there simply aren’t enough of them to work in multiple anyway.