Scottish Infrastructure

[Ekhibee88]

29 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

Aye. I reckon those intercapital headline prices are subsidised by some pan-European train cabal fighting against low-cost airlines. From my experience living in places like Finland, Denmark and Italy your Arbroath-Stonehaven equivalent fare wasn't too different to the UK (though in Finland it was about twice the cost). No trains at all when I lived in Albania or Guatemala though so perhaps we should count ourselves lucky.

The trains in Albania are something else.

[Ekhibee88]

15 hours ago, GordonS said:

Lothian Buses are great, often ranked as one of the best in the UK. Cheap, reliable, regular, modern fleet and good routes. They got enough support from the council to fight off the Stagecoach and Firstbus mobs. While bus passenger numbers in Scotland have fallen 10% in 5 years, Lothian's numbers are up. 

Yep, frequent, dense network and mostly double deckers. They were slow to take up contactless but well jealous.

[Ekhibee88]

21 hours ago, 10menwent2mow said:

On 20/01/2021 at 12:08, GordonS said:

Buses are much slower, less reliable and less popular than trains, which is a large part of why bus use in Scotland and across the UK has been in major decline for decades while train use has been rising for 15-20 years. Three-quarters of public transport journeys are by bus but it's less and less popular, especially for commuters. Buses don't have the same capacity to get people out of their cars - ironic as the biggest problem buses face is being stuck in traffic.
Public investment is required in both, obviously.

For commuters yes but intercity train travel has become extortionate compared with the bus. A quick look shows that a typical megabus from Aberdeen to Glasgow tomorrow would cost less than £20 and take roughly the same time as the train which would cost £45.

I think at the moment Scotrail arent offering advance fares . I have a railcard which takes a third off the fares so makes it bit cheaper!

[Ekhibee88]

15 hours ago, cdisaaccie said:

The next big train infrastructure likely to get done will be Levenmouth.

After that the extension of the Borders railway back to Carlisle via Hawick with most of the original Waverley route - bar the section at Melrose Station but there's still enough room for single track - still clear to rebuild it in full.

Then looking at stuff like extending the Larkhall line back to Strathaven - with surely looking into a possibility of linking that up with a new extension to a Park & Ride station on the east side of EK (maybe sticking a station in at Chapelton too) which could finally provide a direct train link between EK & Hamilton.

Seeing as the original rail link that went from the current EK station in the Village to Hamilton via High Blantyre is completely built over both in EK & High Blantyre so isn't an option.
It was closed way back when EK was still a small village, hindsight & all that eh...

Would love a line from East Kilbride connecting to Hamilton etc. East Kilbride does poorly apart from a few buses that way. 

They are electrifying the East Kilbride line. Id like to see services that get you into Glasgow for 6am and a post midnight service back out.

 

[Ekhibee88]

14 hours ago, GordonS said:

Aye, I would call that a coach rather than a bus but it's lumped in the same category for stats. Shame, it would be interesting to see how passenger numbers have fared in recent years.

I never took a train outside Glasgow until I was 22, they were for rich people. Prices in the UK are bloody ridiculous, you can do a journey like Amsterdam to Copenhagen for 80 Euros return at a couple of weeks notice. On the same dates, if I wanted to visit my pal in Yeovil the cheapest return is £193.40. 

To be fair i have had cheap advance tickets on intercity routes booking short notice. Having a railcard also helped. Ive got advance out of London up to Glasgow for £20 TO £30 notes. Busy times and back holidays that goes out the window.

Used to do the megabus but not worth it being squeezed and taking a bit longer.

[Ekhibee88]

14 hours ago, Archie McSquackle said:

I worked in a shop in EK when I lived in Hamilton many years ago and a girl who also worked there and lived in EK asked me where Hamilton was. If only there was still a train line and she had some common sense she might have known it was the next town a few miles away.

That does not surprise me with East Kilbride. I bet there is people who haven't left the town. Some people have blinkers on.

[The Moonster]

On 19/01/2021 at 19:48, virginton said:

The number of stations is only proportionate to the significance of the metropolis. 

Correct. Hence, Dumbarton has 3 of its own stations. 

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, DiegoDiego said:

Aye. I reckon those intercapital headline prices are subsidised by some pan-European train cabal fighting against low-cost airlines. From my experience living in places like Finland, Denmark and Italy your Arbroath-Stonehaven equivalent fare wasn't too different to the UK (though in Finland it was about twice the cost). No trains at all when I lived in Albania or Guatemala though so perhaps we should count ourselves lucky.

Well, that's what they told you...

[Mark Connolly]

1 hour ago, MixuFruit said:

Aye. A Finnish pal couldn't understand peak prices or the idea a single wouldn't just be half the price of a return.

When I was at Uni, it was often cheaper to get a return from Queen St to Jordanhill than it was to get a single. 

[NotThePars]

26 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

When I was at Uni, it was often cheaper to get a return from Queen St to Jordanhill than it was to get a single. 

Seems common for within Glasgow. So much so that any sound conductor or ticket operator will just sell you a return regardless of what you ask for. 

Just checked there and it's 20p difference for a single or return between Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

[Detournement]

19 hours ago, cdisaaccie said:

Then looking at stuff like extending the Larkhall line back to Strathaven - with surely looking into a possibility of linking that up with a new extension to a Park & Ride station on the east side of EK (maybe sticking a station in at Chapelton too) which could finally provide a direct train link between EK & Hamilton.



 

Who in their right mind is going to get a train from Hamilton to EK that goes via Larkhall and Strathaven?

 

 

[10menwent2mow]

I think at the moment Scotrail arent offering advance fares . I have a railcard which takes a third off the fares so makes it bit cheaper!

Aye but that wasn't advance fares, that was to travel the next day.

[Duszek]

4 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

When I was at Uni, it was often cheaper to get a return from Queen St to Jordanhill than it was to get a single.

i lived in the Czech Republic and Italy where the train ticket cost is based on the number of kilometres travelled (shown on the ticket). Why complicate things?

[DiegoDiego]

i lived in the Czech Republic and Italy where the train ticket cost is based on the number of kilometres travelled (shown on the ticket). Why complicate things?

It wasn't like that with Trenitalia when I lived in Italy last year.

[welshbairn]

40 minutes ago, Duszek said:

i lived in the Czech Republic and Italy where the train ticket cost is based on the number of kilometres travelled (shown on the ticket). Why complicate things?

To encourage people to travel off peak? Not that I'm excusing our pricing system which came into effect with a last minute botched privatisation. It does mean that if you spend a bit of time splitting your fares, you can get some ridiculously cheap bargains sometimes though.

Edited January 21, 2021 by welshbairn

[Duszek]

9 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

40 minutes ago, Duszek said:

i lived in the Czech Republic and Italy where the train ticket cost is based on the number of kilometres travelled (shown on the ticket). Why complicate things?

It wasn't like that with Trenitalia when I lived in Italy last year.

Fair enough. I was there in the early 2000s. Liked the system at the time, though.

[DiegoDiego]

2 minutes ago, Duszek said:

Fair enough. I was there in the early 2000s. Liked the system at the time, though.

To save you asking, they've not got any quicker. I used to live in Slovakia and also liked the km * type of service coefficient = price, way of calculating. You never get any surprises and don't feel like you're getting ripped off. It'd be simple enough to adopt that system and add a multiplier for on/off peak. I expect it would result in the cheapest Aberdeen-Glasgow ticket ending up something like £80 though.

[cdhafc1874]

Who in their right mind is going to get a train from Hamilton to EK that goes via Larkhall and Strathaven?
 
 

Unfortunately a more obvious - and preferable - direct route via Blantyre isn't possible.

Believe it or not a train using that route would be roughly comparable time wise to the buses between EK & Hamilton which all take at least 25-30 mins from EK bus station to Hamilton.

Whilst opening up public transport links between EK & the rest of South Lanarkshire including Chatelherault Country Park - areas which from EK would otherwise only be served by various different bus changes across different operators.

It's not the worst idea though maybe not particularly high on list of priorities.

[MONKMAN]

A Dumfries to Carlisle return ticket is about half the price of a single, I’ve never understood that one.

[GordonS]

11 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

Aye. A Finnish pal couldn't understand peak prices or the idea a single wouldn't just be half the price of a return.

As others have said, there are plenty of journeys where the return is cheaper than one single.

Linlithgow to Edinburgh return at peak times is a funny one. If you're going in off-peak, but coming back peak, the cheapest way to do it is buy a return to Brunstane - because the journey from Brunstane doesn't include an evening peak, that only applies if you're departing Waverley or Haymarket. Doesn't apply to evening peak departures from Edinburgh Park either. Weird stuff.

It pisses me off the extent to which you need to be a wizard to find out all the cheapest ways of travelling by train in this country.