Just had an absolutely miserable experience travelling from Falkirk to Dundee for the Discovery Double, all 170s. The ~10 o'clock trip from Falkirk to Haymarket wasn't so bad, onboard 170396 and 158710 working in multiple (We were on the Turbostar portion of the train). The train was busy, although nobody was standing. The 170 however was pretty dirty, grime everywhere, stains on the backs of seats, dirt and debris on the carpets and seats. A pretty sharp departure from how I usually find the ScotRail 170s.
Then the ~10:50 trip from Haymarket to Dundee was hellish onboard 170432. Not sure what ScotRail are smoking, but a 3 car from Edinburgh to Aberdeen is completely bonkers, Sunday or not. There was about 40 people stood in the train in total with absolutely no seats. We had seats reserved but it was impossible to actually make our way to our assigned carriage - there was no signs inside or outside the train indicating which carriages were which anyway, so we would've had to force our way through a dense crowd to possibly not even end up in the right car. The service was meeting another 3 car set in Dundee to form one six car, which would've probably alleviated things for those that remained - not that it mattered, as there was a mass exodus at Leuchars, and we along with a lot of those left were getting off at Dundee for the railtour.
Again, the unit was absolutely filthy, dirt everywhere. Everything was stained and slightly sticky.
Thankfully, both units seemed in good mechanical condition with working air-con keeping the trains at acceptable temperatures. The toilets were also clean, as expected since they're probably cleaned most often. The driver was apologetic, which figured. Not remotely their fault anyway.
I've never had such terrible experiences with ScotRail, and usually their 170s are comfortable and clean enough, about what you'd expect for units their age and usage. Has anyone else had similar experiences?
