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COLUMN: I am shocked and appalled by the cuts to our train service


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Stone's Throw by Jamie Stone

I’m in my 60s now – but you could say that I was once one of the railway children. I was brought up beside the railway line. I used to run across the field to wave at the drivers of the engines hauling goods and passengers to Wick and Thurso – firstly the old black steam engines and then later, the green diesels that succeeded them.

Jamie Stone is the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.
Jamie Stone is the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

The railways are in my blood – I remember travelling with my grandfather from Tain to Beauly and back, for him to buy a new suit – surely an act of faith when you’re 94. As a student, I travelled up and down from Tain to Leuchars.

Once, after a heavy night, I woke up to find my carriage parked in a siding in Glasgow. What happened I know not – and I can tell you, it was a long walk from the marshalling yard back to the station.

So it is against these rosy memories that I find myself shocked and appalled by the cuts in our rail services that are being imposed on the Highlands. The new timetable, north and south from Wick and Thurso to Inverness, means that if you want to make a return trip on a weekday, then you only have the shortest possible time at either end of the journey to complete your tasks or see the people you want to, before the last train to home departs.

The final train from Inverness to the Far North leaves at 2pm, having arrived from Wick just over two hours earlier. What earthly good is that if you have to go to a vital appointment at Raigmore Hospital? Always assuming, of course, that the hospital can give you an appointment in that time frame.

These cuts, which amount to 60 per cent north and 57 per cent south – as opposed to lesser cuts of 30 per cent in other parts of Scotland, such as the central belt – demonstrate how deeply unfair these decisions are.

Cutting train services between Edinburgh and Glasgow by 30 per cent still means that you have a number of train services left. Doing this in the Highlands, which start from a lower number of services in the first place, means that you are left with almost nothing.

Quite apart from medical services (believe you me, the argument to increase the number of medical services locally is as strong as ever), we have the issue of people commuting by train to work. The Far North line is also essential to many of our visitors.

You want to encourage economic development in the Far North – and you cut back the railway services? That’s as ludicrous as the near miss we’ve had with Wick Airport. When businesses are making decisions about whether or not to locate themselves in the Far North, then they’re going to take a long look at the transport services available. If they’re rubbish, then it’s all too easy to say it’s lot less hassle moving elsewhere.

So, if the Scottish Government and ScotRail have taken these decisions in isolation, then they are bonkers. Health, economic development, tourism and the environment (travelling by rail is green) all have a say in the continuation of properly timetabled services. Is this joined-up government? I think not.

At the end of the day, it’s about fairness and the rights of travellers in the Far North. Anyone who cares about this issue should speak up now very loudly indeed, and shame the Scottish Government and its publicly owned railway, ScotRail, into changing their minds.

Jamie Stone is the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

ScotRail is now run by a company owned by the Scottish Government.
ScotRail is now run by a company owned by the Scottish Government.


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