YESTERDAY (August 27) I travelled in either direction between Polmont and Glasgow Queen Street on the new Class 385 electric units being progressively introduced. I found it an enjoyable experience both in quality of the product and the performance. The ascent of the one-time fearsome Cowlairs incline passes in mere seconds.
What was particularly edifying in discussion with both onboard staff and an off-duty train driver at my destination was that they all expressed evident pride in the trains and were delighted to be associated with them. House-proud could be a term used and even extended to a chap bearing a mobile vacuum cleaner to take care of some errant crumbs on the carpeted floor. Woe betide the passenger who spills coffee ...
As a former railwayman myself, I was greatly taken by their enthusiasm and the pride of those who, fortunately, have not been discouraged by the disparaging remarks by one of your letter writers last week (August 24) on the whole aspect of ScotRail as being a "Toytown" railway. I am not surprised that such denigrating comments over the years have not been responded to by management.
Not everyone will ever be totally pleased with the railway "product" and valid complaints and criticism are acceptable and welcome. The system, in total, operates as best it can within the means it has at its disposal.
John Macnab,
175 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston, Falkirk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel