REGARDING the correspondence on the need for fairer rail ticket prices (Letters, July 24), may I add my own experience the very same day?
The 14.52 Aberdeen-London Virgin Trains East Coast was suddenly cancelled, and rather than take the replacement bus for my journey of Stonehaven-Edinburgh, I opted to buy a ticket for the following Abellio ScotRail train. I’d planned to work on the two-hour journey, and the bus would have been hopeless for this.
Let’s compare prices and conditions:
1) I paid £20.35 for a second class ticket on the 1619 Stonehaven-Edinburgh ScotRail service – using a train on which travel amenities are always second class.
2 Had I travelled Virgin Trains, my first class ticket was £16.50, providing everything that an Abellio ScotRail train doesn’t – comfort, quietness, legroom, two toilets per carriage, and free meals and refreshments at seat.
The purists will argue that it cost me more because I travelled on the day. The same purists might like to weigh in comparative costs against the comfort of a “real” train such as Virgin.
Abellio ScotRail trains have long been acknowledged as one-size-fits-all, suburban trains on what should be premier long-distance routes.
Gordon Casely,
Westerton Cottage, Crathes, Kincardineshire.
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