When using "spirit of Scotland" (either 4 in 8 or 8 in 15) travel pass to ride non-national-rail services, does that alone count as a travel day?

Hi,

I graduated from uni and my time in the UK is counted. I need to breath in the air of Scotland for the last time.

Because I will ride many trains (try to reach 100% Scotland railway coverage - see (Scotland Railway Coverage at trainlog, now 93%) ), I am considering to buy a rover.

Only "Spirit of Scotland" includes all the remaining parts - strange that suburban network of Glasgow is not included in Central Scotland...

There are only "4 in 8 days" or "8 in 15 days" options, not consecutive travel days options. This makes me think, does riding non-national-rail services alone, like Glasgow Subway, Edinburgh Trams, Scottish Citylink Coaches, Ferries (discounted, not included), heritage railways (discounted, not included), count as one travel day? I cannot figure it out on the ScotRail website. If so, then I have to buy 8 in 15 for my about-8-day travelling, since local public transport...

Thanks

@John FRANKLIN. Good question! As the "Spirit of Scotland" Rover/Travelpass is essentially a multi-modal product, I'd say that if used on a particular day for non-rail travel, then that counts as one of its days of use. Likely an 8 in 15 days pass will prove best.

Do, of course, check if it makes more sense to use a 4 in 8 day ticket plus some normal tickets - Edinburgh Trams and the Glasgow Subway both have some quite affordable day tickets.

Mcr Warrior said:

@John FRANKLIN. Good question! As the "Spirit of Scotland" Rover/Travelpass is essentially a multi-modal product, I'd say that if used on a particular day for non-rail travel, then that counts as one of its days of use.

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I agree with this. The similar North and Mid Wales Rover expressly states it can be used on buses on all days, unlike this one.

If you're travelling north of the Central Belt check fares online if Citylink, Megabus or Ember go your way, as there is now a fare cap across much of Scotland that might make buying single tickets better value than using a day of your pass.

Gaelan said:

Do, of course, check if it makes more sense to use a 4 in 8 day ticket plus some normal tickets - Edinburgh Trams and the Glasgow Subway both have some quite affordable day tickets.

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Add to that most participating bus routes (as well other bus routes in the Highlands) are within the £2 bus fare area so likely to be cheaper to pay separately than using the pass.

Hi, thanks for all your help. I have found a better and cheaper solution to my problem. Strathclyde roundabout is not on ScotRail website, but it exists, incredibly cheap, and solves my problem completely. I think I will no longer buy a Spirit of Scotland, and ride £2 buses instead (since I have already traversed all highland)

Thanks! I will depart tonight, finally, for the first and last time, in the sleeper coaches (Classic, and Club Ensuite back) of Caledonian Sleeper!

John_Franklin said:

Hi, thanks for all your help. I have found a better and cheaper solution to my problem. Strathclyde roundabout is not on ScotRail website, but it exists, incredibly cheap, and solves my problem completely. I think I will no longer buy a Spirit of Scotland, and ride £2 buses instead (since I have already traversed all highland)

Thanks! I will depart tonight, finally, for the first and last time, in the sleeper coaches (Classic, and Club Ensuite back) of Caledonian Sleeper!

Click to expand...

Just wanted to clarify the £2 bus cap area, as it is easy to think it is wider than it actually is. It covers only the Western and Northern Isles, Highland, Moray and Argyll & Bute. Flixbus is the only major operator not taking part in it.

In practice, looking at the rail map, the area covered by the cap is west and north of Tyndrum (towards Oban and Fort William), north of Dalwhinnie (going towards Inverness), and west of Huntly (going from Aberdeen to Inverness). Travel between Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh and Glasgow is not covered by the cap. Full details are here.

Enjoy your trip, there is some very good weather up here.

John_Franklin said:

Hi, thanks for all your help. I have found a better and cheaper solution to my problem. Strathclyde roundabout is not on ScotRail website, but it exists, incredibly cheap, and solves my problem completely. I think I will no longer buy a Spirit of Scotland, and ride £2 buses instead (since I have already traversed all highland)

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Just a note on the Roundabout - you can buy it from a ticket machine (search for the destination 'roundabout') or at a Scotrail ticket office, but to use it on the Subway you need to present it at a Subway ticket office, where they'll mark it and give you a separate all-day ticket for the Subway ticket gates.

Enjoy your travels!

John_Franklin said:

Hi,

I graduated from uni and my time in the UK is counted. I need to breath in the air of Scotland for the last time.

Because I will ride many trains (try to reach 100% Scotland railway coverage - see (Scotland Railway Coverage at trainlog, now 93%) ), I am considering to buy a rover.

Only "Spirit of Scotland" includes all the remaining parts - strange that suburban network of Glasgow is not included in Central Scotland...

There are only "4 in 8 days" or "8 in 15 days" options, not consecutive travel days options. This makes me think, does riding non-national-rail services alone, like Glasgow Subway, Edinburgh Trams, Scottish Citylink Coaches, Ferries (discounted, not included), heritage railways (discounted, not included), count as one travel day? I cannot figure it out on the ScotRail website. If so, then I have to buy 8 in 15 for my about-8-day travelling, since local public transport...

Thanks

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When I used one a few weeks ago on the Glasgow subway the subway ticket office person carefully checked it was valid before giving me a subway ticket.
But that day I’d travelled from Inverness to Glasgow so my spirit pass was already dated for use that day. So not much of a test.

I did wonder if he was looking at it carefully because he didn’t see them very often….

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2026 ==

Also I got my spirit pass from staffed ticket window at Queen Street. They were helpful but have no printed info about validity or route maps. Just referred me to website pages.

Also the pass came as a flimsy paper arrangement (aka bog roll ticket) not the better card ones. Not easy to use nor a good souvenir.
Maybe there is somewhere to buy one in more traditional ticket format. Maybe ticket machine?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Jul 2026 ==

John_Franklin said:

Hi, thanks for all your help. I have found a better and cheaper solution to my problem. Strathclyde roundabout is not on ScotRail website, but it exists, incredibly cheap, and solves my problem completely. I think I will no longer buy a Spirit of Scotland, and ride £2 buses instead (since I have already traversed all highland)

Thanks! I will depart tonight, finally, for the first and last time, in the sleeper coaches (Classic, and Club Ensuite back) of Caledonian Sleeper!

Click to expand...

But don’t miss chances of HST trip.
I did a circuit Glasgow to Aberdeen then Aberdeen Inverness (this leg takes care as I think only 2 HSTs per day each way) then Inverness Glasgow
Well worth one of my 4 in 8 spirit pass days.
Esp as guard asked where I was going (I was sat in 1st class) after Aberdeen departure and I said Glasgow via Inverness and he booked the £15 first class upgrade all the way for that price.
Worth every penny imho for the comfort and ambiance of the HST first class.
Those HSTs probably won’t be there anymore soon.

final report: I 100%'ed Scotland's Passenger Rail Tracks.

My travel expense on public transport would pretty much be similar whether I bought the Spirit of Scotland or not. I rode Ember buses pretty often but they seem to be not included in the pass.

I will leave the UK on 5th of August and fly back home in China, and one month later I will be in Copenhagen for postgraduate.

It has been a lovely time staying in Britain and I hope I could visit it again in the future. Probably more Wales and Northern Ireland since I have only been to Wales briefly once, and never NI.

John_Franklin said:

Hi, thanks for all your help. I have found a better and cheaper solution to my problem. Strathclyde roundabout is not on ScotRail website, but it exists, incredibly cheap, and solves my problem completely. I think I will no longer buy a Spirit of Scotland, and ride £2 buses instead (since I have already traversed all highland)

Thanks! I will depart tonight, finally, for the first and last time, in the sleeper coaches (Classic, and Club Ensuite back) of Caledonian Sleeper!

Click to expand...

Just a word of warning - check whether the Strathclyde roundabout really does still exist. AFAIK it was withdrawn a couple of years back. The Roundabout Glasgow ticket still exists, but with a much more limited area of validity (doesn’t reach much beyond Paisley, for example)

The exile said:

Just a word of warning - check whether the Strathclyde roundabout really does still exist. AFAIK it was withdrawn a couple of years back. The Roundabout Glasgow ticket still exists, but with a much more limited area of validity (doesn’t reach much beyond Paisley, for example)

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OP has finished his trip, as per previous post.

But the withdrawn ticket you are referring to was the Daytripper which covered a much larger area and was also valid on most buses.

John_Franklin said:

final report: I 100%'ed Scotland's Passenger Rail Tracks.

My travel expense on public transport would pretty much be similar whether I bought the Spirit of Scotland or not. I rode Ember buses pretty often but they seem to be not included in the pass.

I will leave the UK on 5th of August and fly back home in China, and one month later I will be in Copenhagen for postgraduate.

It has been a lovely time staying in Britain and I hope I could visit it again in the future. Probably more Wales and Northern Ireland since I have only been to Wales briefly once, and never NI.

Click to expand...

Good luck with your travels and glad you enjoyed it here!

Flying Snail said:

OP has finished his trip, as per previous post.

But the withdrawn ticket you are referring to was the Daytripper which covered a much larger area and was also valid on most buses.

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Should read more carefully

I once showed this to a Stagecoach Highlands driver, without a dated box, and asked them if I needed to pay or could travel with the rover. He said I could travel. So your mileage may vary.

I believe that journey was from Fort William to Kyle of Lochalsh though, so perhaps the fare for that is now £2 anyway.