Central Scotland Rover - 6th to 8th Nov

[Crossover]

With a couple of long overdue days out of the office, I am currently out and about spending a few days in Scotland, something I haven't done for a while

After a 158 (thankful as it could have been a Pacer, even if it was only 2 coach and rammed) into Leeds it was onto 185 146 for the hop up to York in First Class. Not a bad journey, getting offered a drink not long after boarding and being able to get on with some things on the laptop, it was a brief dash North before we arrived and the train terminated, level pegging it into the platform with 220022 adjacent.

I am now on an unknown 91 hauled service (muppet me forgot the loco was at the front - even seeing the panto on the front as it came in to York didn't register, so I'll have to get the number as I leave) to Edinburgh where we are due in about 15 mins

Plans for today include the final part of the First Class journey across to Glasgow before I intend to spend a bit of time on the Clockwork Orange and on the A-B line before heading off for this evenings loco hauled service on the Fife Circle.

I am around the area until Saturday so if anyone is going to be around, let me know and I'll try and say "hi"

EDIT: 91104 was the lead.
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After a bit of time on the A-B, doing both lines from Glasgow to Partick and having my rover ticket kept by the barrier at Haymarket, I'm now behind 67004 on the Fife Circle

 

[Kite159]

Haymarket was the only station whose barriers did not like my Freedom of Scotland card (excluding the odd time at glasgow central where I exited the barriers before going back through them a couple minutes later to jump onto the next train)

I love Scotland

 

[Crossover]

I daren't put it through any barrier now haha

Well, I think the ticket checker was suitably confused by why I was still on the train after Kirkcaldy - you'd have thought they'd be used to it by now! Amusing when the guard explained we'd be going into Dalmeny Sidings and to change at Inverkeithing for a quicker journey to Waverley. After repeating a couple of times he simply ended with 'so it's up to you '

By Edinburgh I think more staff left the train than passengers - really very quiet after Dunfermline

The last moves of the day were down to Newcraighall and back to Waverley where it terminated and led to the unusual situation of the only two of us passengers on it getting 'butterflied' off via 158 local door so they could quickly get it on it's way

Finally a whizz along to Edinburgh Park, back to Waverley and a walk in the lovely mild evening along Princes St (wondering if any of the many buses might be driven by folk from here) before finally heading back to Haymarket to complete the day

Trams, Carstairs and Alloa all on the agenda for tomorrow
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Alloa has got missed out today. The day started on the trams at Haymarket, being stung to the tune of £9 for the Airport Day. First down to York Place then right through to Airport before hopping on another tram to come back to Edinburgh Park Station

Disruption this morning due to a passenger taken ill, so I hop on the first Waverley service to arrive and head to the destination before making haste to join 380101 to Drem

Not much happening at Drem and only two passing services, the time waiting gets spent partly in the rather pleasant waiting room with our only clue the train had arrived being the Desiro whine with no announcement made via the PIS

On return to Waverley it was time for lunch - scaling the Scotsman Steps (possibly a mistake) it was time for a visit to Pizza Hut for the lunchtime buffet.

More to follow as I'm on mobile and about to bail at Carstairs...
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Next up was the AB again. Having missed a Milgavie, I took a Helensburgh to Bathgate for a station scratch then the following for the high speed run non stop through a number of stations. Through to Partick where it was time to go on the Subway. Hadn't realised the change to smart tickets so went to get a zero fare single and I took the inner circle to Kelvinbridge, changing at Govan due to a set going out of service. Left at Kelvinbridge for a quick wander, but soon wished I hadn't as a massive queue formed at the single ticket window and I had a while to queue to get another single. Ticket in hand it was now Outer Circle to Buchanan St then a quick walk to Central for the semi-fast via Shotts, arriving back to Edinburgh in failing light

Heading for the Ayr service, I was happy to see a 380 given they have power, but less happy to see it was 101 from earlier. We left RT but crawled part of the way and arrived at Carstairs 10L. The station was more exposed than I thought and made me think maybe it's a larger version of the layout Norton Bridge may have had. Most amusing was the sign proclaiming level access from platform to ticket office/toilet but seemingly no level access to anywhere else!

320312 rolled in next, a few minutes late, and I think I was the only passenger all the way to it's terminus at Motherwell, another rather bleak station which also saw little action in my time there on account of the WCML problems and resultant delays. The next service turned up, as expected, as a 318 - fearing the worst I boarded under the panto and got a pleasant surprise as it looked newly refurbished and the seats were very comfortable. Onto Glasgow Central again with plenty wheel spins on the way - the motors often went pretty wild before regaining traction

A walk back through Glasgow again and onto Haymarket once again, and we've just arrived at Linlithgow. I think this means I have travelled all 4 main routes between the cities today alone! Once back in Edinburgh, it'll likely be back to the trams to complete the day

 

[Kite159]

Making use of the rather excellent free Wifi on the Scotrail network?

Sounds like you are having a good day in central scotland

 

[Crossover]

The second day ended with leaving the train at Haymarket, travelling on via tram to Princes Street, walking to St Andrews Place (via getting a drink from McDonalds - minorly scary experience on account of the bouncers keeping the "yoof" out), tram to York Place and back to Edinburgh Park before a final tram to Haymarket, arriving at the hotel just before 11pm.

I had hoped to do another Airport run but essentially ran out of time, plus doing the trams in the dark is significantly less fun than in the daylight!

One note of the trams is that sitting at the front gets the clicking of the indicators...and they do a lot of indicating! Best view in the house maybe, but also one of the most annoying after a few minutes! Still, they were pleasant.

I will continue with the final day later - it took a slight turn as any followers of another recent thread of mine will be aware!

Making use of the rather excellent free Wifi on the Scotrail network?

Sounds like you are having a good day in central scotland

Yes, the WiFi is fantastic on the most part! Other TOC's could learn a lot from ScotRail on that count. Impressed that on the approach to Carstairs my phone had zero signal yet I was on the WiFi experiencing no issue.

That was until the train I posted the above from, which I had to do on mobile data as the WiFi refused to accept my acceptance of the T&C's, so I gave up! Other than that, it was fine

The accounts have been (probably for the best) brief as all bar the first bit of post 1 and this post were done off an iPhone, which is hard work when used to a full sized keyboard!
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The final day got off to a leisurely start, not leaving the hotel until after 9:30. Down to Haymarket for one last time and it was time to head to Alloa. Double 158 turned up which I stayed on until Larbert for a station scratch (I have been to Stirling before). Soon after it was a 170 that appeared for Alloa, virtually empty. Passing through Stirling was interesting as last time I was hear the place was littered with semaphores, although I noticed that North of the station, semaphores remain. The hop to Alloa doesn't take long - I believe we were following a freight of some description, too, and on arrival a quick dash was made to Asda to get supplies

The return journey was somewhat busier all the way to Glasgow with a few standing by the time we were at Lenzie

On arrival at Glasgow I had the option of 10 or 40 mins to get to Central. Glasgow was naturally significantly busier than the last times I had walked through, so I took my time and took in some of the atmosphere of the street performers, the key one being Big Peat - a Scottish Street Band (though not mine, a video can be found here) - playing on Buchanan Street

After inadvertently walking too far down Buchanan Street, I just got to Central in time, lucky as it was starting to rain, in time to catch the train to Whifflet - starmill advising me previously of the significant developments on the line. Indeed, prepared with wires and DOO kit, it is ready for the change at the next timetable. Through to journeys end at Whifflet, not getting the earlier train here left a +1 connection to a Cumberauld service, but given the DMU arrived in good time, the connection was no issue and the 320 rolled in as I arrived on the platform for the quick hop up before alighting for the train to go to the siding, by which time it was rather wet though there is a rather nice waiting room which a few of us took shelter in. On the way back, it was off at Coatbridge Central for a walk to Coatbridge Sunnyside, which was, again, far from sunny! On the way, I came across an electrified single track line - took a while to work out what it was but soon realised it was the freight line connecting Coatbridge to Whifflet.

Having taken a while to walk across Coatbridge due to other things grabbing my interest, I missed the ex Milngavie service I intended to catch (on account of getting a nice speedy run through Caldercruix etc), but no matter I thought, the ex Helensburghs still get a decent run, so waited for the next service at 14:50. This was to prove an unfortunate option as the good luck of the time so far was to come to an end 8 minutes later at Drumgelloch where our 334 completely "sat down" with the entire train (even down to lights and all auxiliaries) losing power as soon as the driver set off. 4 attempted resets later and the unit was finally declared an absolute failure and after some time another double set had to assist the stricken unit, dead in "tow" (the failure was being pushed) and unbraked through to Bathgate and it was 2 hours before we got on the move again, by which time ScotRail had seemingly done a fantastic job of stranding most of the 334 fleet on the West side of the problem! After crawling to Bathgate, to our annoyance the train was terminated and we were advised to take buses, which I did. Long story short, not only did I miss my 17:00 East Coast service south, but also the last one at 19:00 and I ended up taking a 4 1/4 hour taxi journey back to Yorkshire - not quite the way I intended the adventure to end (especially as I was meant to be travelling back First Class on EC). Given my last foray into Scotland (also on a Central Scotland 3 in 7) hit problems as high winds cancelled virtually all trains out of Waverley, maybe Scotland is trying to tell me something :P

Either way, the time there was great fun and even the time watching the drama at Drumgelloch was quite interesting (plus an unintended shack scratch!) and I hope to go back again sometime soon

 

[Techniquest]

A good time had all in, bar the farce on the 334s! Hope for better luck up there next time!

 

[me123]

Jesus, you walked through Coatbridge? Alone? And survived? The worst place in Scotland by far, absolute dump. Sunnyside is very much a misnomer, about as sunny as a badger's backside. By comparison, I'm sure being stuck in Drumgelloch for 2 hours was all the more pleasant than what came before! (Well, perhaps you'll be glad if you haven't seen this lovely news story?)

That single track line leaves the North Clyde line just West of Sunnyside and joins the line just South of Whifflet (the 156s certainly used to sit here between Whifflet runs; for a while they ran down the line to Mossend, RTT suggests that they're using the loop again). It gets almost no traffic otherwise - I don't think I've ever seen a train on that line in 20 years of living there! I assume it was electrified purely to plug the gap and at least give it potential to be useful? However, it has seen some use in days gone by; apparently in the early '90s Lanark services were diverted via the North Clyde Line to Queen Street LL (due to engineering work) and supposedly used this line.

 

[Buttsy]

That single track line leaves the North Clyde line just West of Sunnyside and joins the line just South of Whifflet (the 156s certainly used to sit here between Whifflet runs; for a while they ran down the line to Mossend, RTT suggests that they're using the loop again). It gets almost no traffic otherwise - I don't think I've ever seen a train on that line in 20 years of living there! I assume it was electrified purely to plug the gap and at least give it potential to be useful? However, it has seen some use in days gone by; apparently in the early '90s Lanark services were diverted via the North Clyde Line to Queen Street LL (due to engineering work) and supposedly used this line.

Back in the 80s, I seem to remember that a line was noted in a plan for closure and services diverted via this link line to still serve Airdrie, so my feeling is that the North Clyde line from Sunnyside to Bellgrove was under some sort of threat at one point (though I am probably wrong).

 

[me123]

Back in the 80s, I seem to remember that a line was noted in a plan for closure and services diverted via this link line to still serve Airdrie, so my feeling is that the North Clyde line from Sunnyside to Bellgrove was under some sort of threat at one point (though I am probably wrong).

Would be surprised if it was ever seriously under threat. Services have always been frequent and well used on this busy line, even in the '70s and '80s (according to my family who used it daily); although perhaps the building of the M8 out to Monklands in c1980 wrongly fooled people into thinking that the motorway would replace the railway?

Any diversion via this route would presumably see Airdrie trains run through the low level at GLC and would need to reverse West of Sunnyside? I can't imagine that would be feasible; perhaps it was electrified to allow diversion during engineering works? (FWIW, that has never happened to the best of my knowledge, and when the line is closed it's on the buses).

By any standards, it's got to be one of the most successful routes in Scotland. Busy in the rush hours, moderately well-loaded off-peak with 6tph, recent extension to Edinburgh has boosted passenger numbers... Travel on the route on a typical Sunday and you'll find that the 2tph is actually becoming close to insufficient for the traffic flows at times!

 

[Buttsy]

Would be surprised if it was ever seriously under threat. Services have always been frequent and well used on this busy line, even in the '70s and '80s (according to my family who used it daily); although perhaps the building of the M8 out to Monklands in c1980 wrongly fooled people into thinking that the motorway would replace the railway?

Any diversion via this route would presumably see Airdrie trains run through the low level at GLC and would need to reverse West of Sunnyside? I can't imagine that would be feasible; perhaps it was electrified to allow diversion during engineering works? (FWIW, that has never happened to the best of my knowledge, and when the line is closed it's on the buses).

By any standards, it's got to be one of the most successful routes in Scotland. Busy in the rush hours, moderately well-loaded off-peak with 6tph, recent extension to Edinburgh has boosted passenger numbers... Travel on the route on a typical Sunday and you'll find that the 2tph is actually becoming close to insufficient for the traffic flows at times!

I have no doubt that the route has been and is successful, but I do remember from a Modern Railways in the 80s a discussion involving using the line you refer to as a way of getting to Airdrie with a reversal at Sunnyside (the layout being amended to allow for this) rather than using the Easterhouse route. I believe it was scotched around the time of ScotRail being launched.

 

[me123]

Glad they never did that then. Would have obliterated railways in Monklands completely. Express buses to Glasgow would have won (IIRC they've now given up completely?). Would have struggled to believe that there was ever a real case for it, though. Perhaps the aim was to bypass the poorly used stations in the East End, but I would think that closing any poorly performing stations would have been a much easier solution!

Which, given the improvements in rail service to the area in the last 30 years, would have been a big mistake. Since then, we now have 6th via the North Clydes, 4tph to Edinburgh, 2tph to Glasgow via Whifflets, 1tph to Cumbernauld, and soon to have 2tph (in effect) to Motherwell and Hamilton (and again, on to Glasgow the long way). Can't think of another town that has anything as good, except perhaps Motherwell.

 

[Buttsy]

Glad they never did that then. Would have obliterated railways in Monklands completely. Express buses to Glasgow would have won (IIRC they've now given up completely?). Would have struggled to believe that there was ever a real case for it, though. Perhaps the aim was to bypass the poorly used stations in the East End, but I would think that closing any poorly performing stations would have been a much easier solution!

Which, given the improvements in rail service to the area in the last 30 years, would have been a big mistake. Since then, we now have 6th via the North Clydes, 4tph to Edinburgh, 2tph to Glasgow via Whifflets, 1tph to Cumbernauld, and soon to have 2tph (in effect) to Motherwell and Hamilton (and again, on to Glasgow the long way). Can't think of another town that has anything as good, except perhaps Motherwell.

Thinking more about it, it could have been a diversion for Cumbernauld services to close the old Caley route into Glasgow and it would have been a in part a new line to connect Sunnyside with the Cumbernauld - Motherwell route by extending the feight route to the north. Certainly remember various shennanigans around that area in the BR rationalisation period.

 

[me123]

More inclined to believe Cumbernauld actually! Until the early 90s, Cumbernauld had no direct link to Glasgow. Instead, the train went to Springburn where the passengers caught a North Clyde service to GLQ and beyond (probably to Milngavie). It was only in the early 90s that the chord was built to allow the trains into GLQ. And some 20 years later, the Springburn reversal has made a comeback! (Temporarily).

Given that that was an inefficient and probably unpopular way of serving Cumbernauld, and given that there were no intermediate stations at that time, perhaps they we're looking at a way of closing the Cumbernauld line and finding a more efficient way of serving the town by tagging it onto the Argyle line (or perhaps another option of getting to Glasgow Central.

Interestingly, Cumbernauld to GLC low level had happened now (on the rather convoluted route via Hamilton), and will be hourly come December. This supplements the reversing EMUs at Springburn and the hourly DMU to the High Level. Seems that we've still yet to find an efficient option for Cumbernauld!

 

[Techniquest]

Jesus, you walked through Coatbridge? Alone? And survived? The worst place in Scotland by far, absolute dump. Sunnyside is very much a misnomer, about as sunny as a badger's backside

I've done it too ages ago, Sunnyside to Central. I mentioned this bit in my trip report for The Epic 10 Year Anniversary Bash, 22nd to 24th September 2013, although I've just re-read it and there's not a great amount of mention of Coatbridge, apart from this bit:

What a rough looking station though, good golly gosh [I'm sure you can imagine I didn't actually think that at the time, much less polite language came to mind! - Ed] I don't want to come back to here!

I refer to Coatbridge Central, I should clarify. Mind you, further on in said trip report, I found this mention of Saltcoats and I'm unable to tell which area was worse!

380011 is next and dud on the insect leap to Saltcoats, and I now have some time between trains to stock on some food supplies. Nothing obvious in the town centre, and by gosh isn't it a dump! No offence to anyone living there, but what you see when you come off the train is extremely rough, on a par with the walk from Stapleton Road to Lawrence Hill in Bristol!

 

[D6975]

I've done the Coatbridge walk, dodgy, but not as bad as the Springburn-Eastfield walk used to be.
PS I live in Bristol and don't recommend visiting Stapleton Road after dark.

 

[Techniquest]

PS I live in Bristol and don't recommend visiting Stapleton Road after dark.

I don't recommend it much during the day either, keeping your wits about you is more than recommended! Lawrence Hill isn't quite so bad in my eyes, the station there does feel a lot safer (well, the northbound side does at least!) but I still wouldn't rush to go back!

I'm told Easterhouse in Glasgow is definitely one to avoid though.

 

[me123]

I refer to Coatbridge Central, I should clarify. Mind you, further on in said trip report, I found this mention of Saltcoats and I'm unable to tell which area was worse!

You may think I'm crazy, but I've got a soft spot for CBC. I think it's the little features that tell you how important the station once was, and it's now relegated to just 1tph on an extremely quiet branch line through Lanarkshire that serves no major station. Very few local people even know about the service. Never seen a load greater than about 20 on those trains. May all change come December with onward services to Hamilton?

Sunnyside road is a particularly dodgy area and I'd be very wary of walking there at night. You do pass the hilariously named, but actually rather good, Bon Appetite Chinese restaurant though.

Easterhouse ain't too bad now. Easterhouse station isn't in one of the worst parts of Easterhouse itself, and with Barlanark nearby isn't too rough. Indeed, some would argue that Easterhouse station isn't in Easterhouse. Easterhouse proper isn't served by rail and is decidedly dodgy. You're taking your life in your hands in the Shandwick Centre for certain.

Interestingly, the more affluent people in the East often come close to the really bad areas without actually going anywhere near them. For example, the busy Glasgow Fort shopping centre is very close to the Shandwick Centre. And Coatbridge has developed a rather affluent community who spend as little time in the town centre as possible - and would certainly never walk there alone! Let's face it, there's nothing in Coatbridge that would appeal to anyone unless you've got some dodgy gold to sell.

Being familiar with the East End of Glasgow though, I'd much rather be there than the more dodgy parts of London, Bristol etc... purely because I know them.

 

[PHILIPE]

Post deleted

 

[Kite159]

All the major cities & towns have their 'dodgy' part, where you don't want to end up late at night having to walk through.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I had been sheduled to work in Bathgate on the Sat evening and travel there by rail but firstly spotting Crossovers thread on the disruption and following it up with a quick look at NRE had me ringing up the driver of the van containing the disco equipment and arranging a pickup at Ingliston P and R instead, the result being Iv now made 2 journeys on the tram Its got to be said that service recovery onn the A To B when it does go wrong is at best poor. Were the buses you were instructed to use rail replacements or the regular First Scotland East Bathgate>Edinburgh (Via the world) service Bus? The only thing they usually get done propperly when this line disintigrates is a Waverley>Bathgate shuttle and this is without fail quicker than any bus, replacement or otherwise, a fact which was I think refered to in the disruption thread. Its interesting too as the A and B is so often used when other routes, chiefly the 1 via Falkirk get disrupted that its almost like they dont have a contingency for when the A and B goes tits up, something I hope that after this week, which will have seen many a delay repay claim, will change. BTW how was 4.5hrs in a black cab? Not something Id fancy.

 

[me123]

I had been sheduled to work in Bathgate on the Sat evening and travel there by rail but firstly spotting Crossovers thread on the disruption and following it up with a quick look at NRE had me ringing up the driver of the van containing the disco equipment and arranging a pickup at Ingliston P and R instead, the result being Iv now made 2 journeys on the tram Its got to be said that service recovery onn the A To B when it does go wrong is at best poor. Were the buses you were instructed to use rail replacements or the regular First Scotland East Bathgate>Edinburgh (Via the world) service Bus?

I did predict that issues could be had with this line when it opened. You're combining Partick-Hyndland and Edinburgh-Haymarket - these are the two busiest lines in Scotland. If something goes wrong at either place (and it does not infrequently), you have the potential for knock on delays in the other area. Thankfully, the services remain pretty reliable on the whole from my experience and my worst fears were never realised.

Clearly in disruption they need a plan. However, there are so many flows on the route now that no plan is going to keep everyone happy. In this case, by turning trains back at Bathgate, they were presumably trying to maintain the service through Glasgow - which is important. But you've then also withdrawn the important flow from West Lothian to Edinburgh. Cue East vs West debate. In all likelihood, the Airdrie-Bathgate section will probably be the first to get cut back in this scenario as it's relatively new, has relatively low passenger loads and is far from the core section of the route. Most passengers at Airdrie will be going to Glasgow, and most at Bathgate to Edinburgh.

I see no reason why things shouldn't be better. Edinburgh, Bathgate, Airdrie, Yoker, and Helensburgh all have the potential to have extra trains ready during the off-peak, and we certainly have enough stock to be able to remedy many problems.

Sad to see that communication has hardly improved since the Winter of 2010 though, when I was stood at Patrick station and quickly realised that my brief glance of the emergency timetable earlier in the morning made me more knowledgable than Scotrail's staff. And planning's not much better (I remember they'd inadvertently withdrawn local services via Yoker for about 2 hours; which lead the staff at Partick to accidentally send passengers via Singer instead )

 

[Blindtraveler]

Firstly I agree with you that it is as a rule reliable - far more so esp in times of disruption than travel via Falkirk! Not having a good enough understanding of the issues in Glasgow and onto the North Clyde via Partic etc I cant make judgements about service recovery there. However, given that every day Ba Sunday theres an hourly semi fast to Edinburgh from Livi South plus the stopper, if trains must be turned at Bathgate then taxies to connect with this service for through pax would make sense?↲

 

[Crossover]

Apologies it has taken me this long to get back here - last week was a bit manic!

Jesus, you walked through Coatbridge? Alone? And survived? The worst place in Scotland by far, absolute dump. Sunnyside is very much a misnomer, about as sunny as a badger's backside. By comparison, I'm sure being stuck in Drumgelloch for 2 hours was all the more pleasant than what came before! (Well, perhaps you'll be glad if you haven't seen this lovely news story?)

That single track line leaves the North Clyde line just West of Sunnyside and joins the line just South of Whifflet (the 156s certainly used to sit here between Whifflet runs; for a while they ran down the line to Mossend, RTT suggests that they're using the loop again). It gets almost no traffic otherwise - I don't think I've ever seen a train on that line in 20 years of living there! I assume it was electrified purely to plug the gap and at least give it potential to be useful? However, it has seen some use in days gone by; apparently in the early '90s Lanark services were diverted via the North Clyde Line to Queen Street LL (due to engineering work) and supposedly used this line.

I refer to Coatbridge Central, I should clarify. Mind you, further on in said trip report, I found this mention of Saltcoats and I'm unable to tell which area was worse!

Maybe it was just as well that I didn't know that before I ventured there! I have to say that Coatbridge Central gave me a slightly uneasy feeling, especially as I had to use what turned out to be an underpass to go down and then back up to the opposite platform to get out. Interesting that CBC also has the adjacent loop avoiding the platform that is electrified, too. Beyond that, it was quiet and whilst nothing to shout about, seemed to be relatively OK. Just as well it was middle of the afternoon, perhaps!

Interesting to know about the loop - I took some pictures (and survived that also!) which I will try post at some point - it did look somewhat out of place!

I had been sheduled to work in Bathgate on the Sat evening and travel there by rail but firstly spotting Crossovers thread on the disruption and following it up with a quick look at NRE had me ringing up the driver of the van containing the disco equipment and arranging a pickup at Ingliston P and R instead, the result being Iv now made 2 journeys on the tram Its got to be said that service recovery onn the A To B when it does go wrong is at best poor. Were the buses you were instructed to use rail replacements or the regular First Scotland East Bathgate>Edinburgh (Via the world) service Bus? The only thing they usually get done propperly when this line disintigrates is a Waverley>Bathgate shuttle and this is without fail quicker than any bus, replacement or otherwise, a fact which was I think refered to in the disruption thread. Its interesting too as the A and B is so often used when other routes, chiefly the 1 via Falkirk get disrupted that its almost like they dont have a contingency for when the A and B goes tits up, something I hope that after this week, which will have seen many a delay repay claim, will change. BTW how was 4.5hrs in a black cab? Not something Id fancy.

Glad to know the thread was of some use to someone! The time in the taxi was alright - no-one really spoke too much - had been a long day all round. It passed by surprisingly quick and it was interesting some of the surroundings we travelled through. Though the green signals of the WCML as we went down the M74 were just mocking us, I felt!

The bus was a rail replacement - some initial confusion over whether it was an all shacks or express to Haymarket - it ended up as the latter, though not without protests from a bunch of girls about making a call near Murrayfield to save them doubling back (I very nearly suggested they think about the time taken to drop them may have impact on the rest of us, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle!) but the driver ignored them, thankfully!

The only hitch was a major road through Haymarket being shut and having to divert through some random streets, so the driver didn't end up where he hoped at Haymarket, Had I recognised where the drop had been there, I may have left for a train (I would have been likely at least 10 mins quicker) but it was a random backroad I didn't recongise. Unfortunate as the problem was compounded with Princes Street being one way and such and having to detour via York Place to get round to Waverley

Clearly in disruption they need a plan. However, there are so many flows on the route now that no plan is going to keep everyone happy. In this case, by turning trains back at Bathgate, they were presumably trying to maintain the service through Glasgow - which is important. But you've then also withdrawn the important flow from West Lothian to Edinburgh. Cue East vs West debate. In all likelihood, the Airdrie-Bathgate section will probably be the first to get cut back in this scenario as it's relatively new, has relatively low passenger loads and is far from the core section of the route. Most passengers at Airdrie will be going to Glasgow, and most at Bathgate to Edinburgh.

I see no reason why things shouldn't be better. Edinburgh, Bathgate, Airdrie, Yoker, and Helensburgh all have the potential to have extra trains ready during the off-peak, and we certainly have enough stock to be able to remedy many problems.

I think the key thing is not to strand all the units at one side of the blockage. They clearly expected the driver to get the unit going again and not be sat there for 2 hours. In those 2 hours, everything was coming the other way on the usual 15 min frequency - a mix of singles and doubles and only after they got the failure moving did services stop coming westbound )presumably they ran out of stuff TO send!). So aside from what was already over Glasgow (and we know already there were two double sets behind us as one rescued the failure and the other came to collect us), I reckon at least another 10 units went west, so they completely stuffed up the East! It does sound like they terminated at Bathgate to get the units back westbound right time, but that didn't do much for us then stuck at Bathgate!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Having since spoken with a mate who was also caught up in this it would seam your rite. I still say that rather than bustitution to Edinburgh a bus or taxies to Livingston South would have made more sense!