ScotRail > Reviews > Sun, sea, sand and Scotrail

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Good
Reliability of trains	Mostly on time
Comfort of trains	Very comfortable
On-board facilities	Good

Advantages:	Breathtaking scenery, clean trains
Disadvantages:	Very slow and useless North of Inverness

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Let’s set the scene. It is a bank holiday weekend. My girlfriend and I have left the safety of the city to travel up to the Highlands and visit my parents, always a daunting experience. We get there and the weather is fantastic, the sun beating down on us for three whole days. As they live beside the sea we even manage to go to the beach and bask in the May Day holiday sun. Life could not get any better. (Well it probably could but I have very little imagination) Suddenly a dark cloud spoils the day. Not a rain cloud but the metaphorical cloud of Scotrail. How could I enjoy a day that was going to end on the Inverness to Edinburgh train? (Actually I thought about it once and then promptly forgot all about it until it was time to go for the train)

Now I was staying in Embo. Embo is a tiny village near Dornoch, which is where Madonna had her son christened. Now Dornoch is about an hours drive from Inverness so why did I choose to get the train from Inverness and not a bit closer? The answer to this is simple. There are very few train stations north of Inverness, the nearest to Dornoch is Tain which is 12 miles away. So it would not be too much hassle getting to Tain you ask? Well it is not that easy. Train services north of Inverness are as common as winning the lottery. A couple of trains a day and less on a bank holiday. Then there is the time they take. It takes longer to get a train from Inverness to Tain than it takes to walk it (walking at a brisk pace mind you). So my Dad’s car to Inverness it is.

So we are in Inverness station. W H Smith has provided me with reading material, crisps, coke and sweets. So I am ready for my four-hour train marathon (actually it was 18.30 to 22.20 which is only three hours and fifty minutes but hey I am forever exaggerating). I have often wondered why the train takes so long, when we travel down to Darlington from Edinburgh (on our way to see my girlfriend’s Mother) it only takes us two and a half-hours. The distance between Edinburgh and Darlington is only a mile less than the distance between Edinburgh and Inverness.

I guess Scotrail are not off to a good start. Before we have even boarded the train we know that they are slow and that the service is no good if you want to go anywhere other than a main station. Did I forget to say that the only reason that we get the train is that my girlfriend gets sick on the bus?

So Scotrail are going to have to pull something good out of the bag to win me over and we have not even got on the train yet. Then I see the train. They are moving up in my estimations.

The train is big enough to comfortably hold all its passengers, a novelty in this day and age. This should not have been an issue however as we had apex tickets and hence our seats were booked. That is our seats would have been booked if the Scotrail staff had bothered to put the reserved tickets out. This led to us walking along looking at seat numbers and then finding a family of fat Americans in our seats. Now being as Scotrail have not bothered to put out the reserved tickets it is not the Gargantuan Americans faults that they are in our seats so I did not take issue with them. (That plus the fact that I was terrified that one of them might eat me.) Scotrail quickly plummets down in my estimations now.

So one we move to the next carriage. We moved carriage simply because the noise of the Yanks moaning about how they never saw the Loch Ness Monster is already annoying me and I have only been in their company for thirty seconds. I am suddenly struck (ouch) by another surprise from Scotrail. The carriage is empty except for some old dear who is knitting and reading the People’s Friend (I am not joking, I wanted to take a photo for my stereotypes album). Again Scotrail begin to ascend in my estimations.

The train is spotlessly clean. The carriages are new and the seats are nice. I do not mean the upholstery, which is a hideous purple, but rather that there are none of those black sticky marks or threadbare patches.

The pair of us promptly took up all four seats at a table and spread out our magazines, snacks and drinks and wait for the train to slowly move off. Then the cheeriest voice I have ever heard booms out over the tannoy. He welcomes us to the train, lets us know where we are going and tells us about the trolley service. Then the train slowly moves out of the station.

I do not know if you have been on the track between Inverness and Edinburgh but the scenery is breathtaking. I have made the journey countless times and each and every time I am blown away by the beauty of it. This is not something that Scotrail have a hand in but it certainly helps on the journey. As the hills roll by and the sun slowly sets I actually begin to enjoy the journey.

The train makes a number of stops on the way but never fills. We are happily left to enjoy a table for four between the pair of us for the entire trip. The trolley service slips past three times during the journey but I cannot comment on the food as I refuse to pay the ludicrous prices. I can tell you that the food is ludicrously over priced if that is of any use.

The train ambled along the hills of the Highlands, the valleys of Tayside and the coast of Fife at a leisurely pace. We arrived in Edinburgh bang on time at 22.20. The journey had been slow and sleepy. However the train was big enough, delivered exactly what it promised and even the toilet was clean. I have to say if this is the kind of journey I can expect from Scotrail then they must be doing a good job.

At £22 each the train was cheap (only a couple of quid more than the bus). These were Apex tickets but you only have to book 48 hours in advance with Scotrail. The journey is long and it is actually quicker by car (I cannot drive so that is of little relevance to me). Trains from Edinburgh to Inverness are very regular but do bear in mind that if you are going anywhere further north or east of Inverness then they become slightly more erratic.

All in all I was surprised though. The journey was pleasant and the train was on time. This just leaves the question is this normal?