Highland passengers hit by more rail misery
There were more complaints about Highland rail services over the weekend.
On Saturday Trudy Morris, the chief executive of Caithness Chamber of Commerce, took to Twitter after both of her trains were cancelled.
She tweeted: "This morning, no 06.50hrs Thurso to Inverness (service), 16 passengers, one of them me, left stranded as no replacement service provided."
A spokesman from ScotRail responded online saying: "Sorry for the part cancellation of this service. Info was published on our website/app at 01.09hrs to give as much notice as we could (https://journeycheck.com/scotrail/)."
However Ms Morris felt this placed passengers without internet access at a disadvantage and was also critical there was no information displayed at the station itself.
Her train woes did not end there when, after watching a performance at the Eden Court Theatre, her return service was also cancelled.
Tweeting about that experience she said: "Guess what? 18.31hrs Wick/Thurso cancelled. @ScotRail supposed to be putting a bus on. My car-free day to Inverness not been best."
Ms Morris's cancelled morning service, normally running from Wick to Inverness, had to start at Helmsdale due to a broken down train, meaning it was unable to call at Wick, Thurso, Forsinard or Kildonan.
The evening return service was cancelled due to a shortage of train crew.
A ScotRail spokesman said: “We’re sorry to customers impacted by the two cancellations on the Far North Line on Saturday.
“Replacement transport was arranged to keep people moving and get them where they needed to be. Anyone who is delayed by 30 minutes or more as a result is entitled to claim money back through our Delay Repay Guarantee on our website or mobile app.”
Yesterday Andrew Thomson, from Inverness, also took to Twitter to complain about overcrowding on a train running to the city from Edinburgh.
He posted: "Epic fail @ScotRail on the 13.56hrs Edinburgh to Inverness service. Ridiculous number of people crammed into a tiny space."
Again ScotRail responded direct via social medai: "Hi Andrew, sorry about the crowding on your service. We always use every carriage that we can, especially during busy periods. I'll feed your concerns back."
