Bizarre Wick train cancellation announcements have public bamboozled
Confusion followed announcements of a train cancellation on the Wick to Inverness service on Tuesday morning (January 21) but ScotRail says the crew needed a “mandatory rest period”.
An official post from ScotRail stated that the 12.34pm train from Wick to Inverness was cancelled due to the “crew being delayed” but another from Real Time Trains (RTT) said that the issue was due to “an unexpected number of passengers joining/alighting the service”.
When screenshots were shared on the Facebook page ‘Caithness Transport’, many locals described the issue as a total “shambles” and queried what actually led to the cancellation.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail customer operations director, said: “We know how frustrating it is for customers when cancellations occur, but hope that on this occasion they can understand.
“Anyone whose journey was delayed by 30 minutes or more due to the cancelled 1234 Wick to Inverness service is entitled to claim compensation through our Delay Repay Guarantee.”
A spokesperson for ScotRail provided some additional background information that helped provide some clarity. He said that the information shared on the ScotRail app was correct and that the train crew had been working at Inverness on the Wick service on Monday evening. “It was running 30 minutes late as there were two vulnerable passengers on board who were alighting at Thurso,” he told the Groat.
“They had a taxi booked to collect them to take them to a hotel but when the train arrived in Thurso the taxi wasn’t there. The train crew didn’t feel comfortable leaving and heading off from Thurso with two vulnerable people left at the station with no transport.”
According to the spokesperson, the crew waited until alternative transport could be sourced for the two passengers but that led to the train being “substantially late” getting into Wick. The train crew were supposed to work a shift the next day but there was a mandatory rest period between clocking off and back on again. “They weren’t able to work that shift as they hadn’t had enough rest. It’s a mandatory regulation and that’s the reason why the service was cancelled.”
He said that RTT information is not generated by ScotRail and was unable to comment on the details shared on that app. It was suggested that some apps are run by rail enthusiasts “who pull information from all sorts of places” and are not always accurate as a result.
“The crew actually went above and beyond to wait with these customers and not leave them abandoned at Thurso.”
Matt Towe who runs the Caithness Transport Facebook page said that RTT is “like any other tracking app and “great when it works but it can lag at times”.
“To be fair the actual tracking of train movements is usually pretty reliable, that's why it's so popular. They only put on what information they get from the railway operators anyway.
“It’s the same problems with apps like Stagecoach and bustimes.org etc. Whatever problems they have, it's a great deal better than it was when I was a young trainspotter. At least you usually know these days, well in advance, that your train or bus is cancelled or running late instead of waiting and waiting.”
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