Has there ever been a Thurso-Wick shuttle service?

[Oliver]

It's not the extreme North of Scotland. Thurso is closer to Edinburgh than it is to the top of Shetland. Milan and Lerwick are the same distance from London (~600 miles).

There is a lot more of the UK north of Thurso.

Yes, the northern isles are marvelous places, partly due to the sparseness of their population. I hope nobody is seriously going to start proposing building a line across Orkney and Shetland. So their inhabitants' reliance on rail travel will primarily be when they are visiting the UK mainland. Very few of them do that by taking a boat to Caithness and catching a train southwards. They either put their car on a ferry or fly to somewhere close to their destination. In that aspect they are lucky that the oil industry has supported direct flights to many destinations. (In contrast, residents of the Western Isles have a much narrower choice of routes, and mainly have to go via Glasgow.)

All of the above means that for practical purposes Caithness is as far north as railways need to look for business, and the value of a Wick - Thurso shuttle would be very limited.

A comparison with the Cornish branches also warrants comment; roads in Caithness are relatively good for the amount of traffic, and the influx of summer visitors is modest. In contrast St Ives, Falmouth and Looe all have difficult road access and get very congested in the summer. The Gunnislake branch remains in use because it crosses three estuaries which have no convenient road bridge. Newquay, and its branch line, don't seem to know what they want to be, and deserve their own thread.

 

[AJP62]

In the 80s a Class 26 & coaches ran between Thurso and Geogemas Jcn to connect with the Inverness to Wick services and vice versa.

From memory the services from Inverness divided at Geogemas Jct with a portion to both Wick and Thurso, the buffet car going in the Wick portion. A 26 was stationed up there to run the Thurso portions.

 

[Blindtraveler]

how many 158s are stabled at Wick each night? And how many crews?
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Off topic, but good luck and congratulations.

thanks!

 

[IanD]

It's not. I lived in Shetland for 20 years. Muckle Flugga (or Out Stack) is over 230 miles north of Thurso, The 60,000 odd inhabitants of the "offshore islands" should not be ignored.

Maybe the should rename the "Far North Line" to the 'Central Scotland Line" or the "Nowhere Near As Far North As You Can Get In Scotland Line". It would avoid all this geographical confusion.

 

[cf111]

how many 158s are stabled at Wick each night? And how many crews?
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thanks!

2 158s, one each for the 0620 and 0812. Not sure about crews.

 

[83G/84D]

Oliver, with regard to Newquay the older population stay away in the Summer mainly because of the reputation the town has.The young people arriving by train frequently have any alcohol confiscated by police so some have moved to other cornish sea side towns for their holidays.

Throw in the ban on surfboards on Cross Country trains to and from the resort and the bad weather we seem to have most summer's and you will find loadings on summer staurday trains have been less than in previous years.

Throw in poor air links at Newquay airport and it gives the impression the town is in a bit of decline.

 

[Liam]

Yes, the northern isles are marvelous places, partly due to the sparseness of their population. I hope nobody is seriously going to start proposing building a line across Orkney and Shetland. So their inhabitants' reliance on rail travel will primarily be when they are visiting the UK mainland. Very few of them do that by taking a boat to Caithness and catching a train southwards. They either put their car on a ferry or fly to somewhere close to their destination. In that aspect they are lucky that the oil industry has supported direct flights to many destinations. (In contrast, residents of the Western Isles have a much narrower choice of routes, and mainly have to go via Glasgow.)

The handfull of Northern Islanders I know get the ferry to Aberdeen then train onward from there. I think only one of them has ever flown into the islands.

 

[Hellfire]

Many Shetlanders don't consider themselves Scottish...not surprising given they are closer to Norway and the dialect is as much Scandanavian sounding as it is Scottish.

There was a report a short time ago that the majority of Shetlanders reject Scottish plans for independence and want to remain in the UK.

There is a myth that the nearest railway station to Shetland is Bergen in Norway. While this is not strictly true, Bergen is not that much further away than Wick.

Interestingly Shetland did once have a railway system, a number of narrow gauge lines mainly serving the fishing industry and local quarries. There was a proposal for a line between Scalloway and Lerwick but it never happened.

A small book was published a few years ago detailing the history of Shetland railways.

 

[Oliver]

Oliver, with regard to Newquay the older population stay away in the Summer mainly because of the reputation the town has.The young people arriving by train frequently have any alcohol confiscated by police so some have moved to other cornish sea side towns for their holidays.

Throw in the ban on surfboards on Cross Country trains to and from the resort and the bad weather we seem to have most summer's and you will find loadings on summer staurday trains have been less than in previous years.

Throw in poor air links at Newquay airport and it gives the impression the town is in a bit of decline.

All true. Add in a rail service which compares poorly with almost all the other branches in the region, and you can see why I choose St Ives every time.