MY wife and I got caught up in Storm Ali last Wednesday (September 19), during our exploration of the scenic rail routes in the west of Scotland. We were travelling from Oban, on the midday Scotrail train, for a connection at Crianlarich, there to enjoy a cup of tea and a scone, before travelling onwards on the down train to Fort William.
Our train, a busy one, ground to a halt just beyond Dalmally and the word spread that there was a tree on the line. The train guard and driver donned their hi-vis vests and jumped down and pulled the tree away. I saw the guard holding back the large branch whilst the driver eased the train past him. He then climbed back on the train and off we went again. Great effort, guys. Sadly we stopped again in a few minutes and were told that there was a full tree across the line. The guard politely refused a gung-ho offer from a group of young American passengers to mobilide a workforce to shift the tree, having “done it before in the States”. The train trundled back to Oban – the only option – where we were told, quite fairly, that no alternative transport was to be provided, owing to the state of road and rail at that time. Specifically, there were no available buses and it was doubtful whether or not they would reach Glasgow anyway. Refunds were offered on-the-spot or online, and that was that. Fair enough – these were extreme circumstances. Half-an-hour later, we saw a ScotRail station employee assisting a disabled lady on to a coach some 400 metres away from the station. Well done ScotRail, and all your staff in and around Oban. You handled a large and unexpected crowd with skill and some compassion. We used our initiative and travelled on to Fort William in a very comfortable coach, skilfully driven through Benderloch and Appin (a bonus), and returned to Glasgow by train the next day enjoying sunny views of Rannoch Moor.
From my experiences last week, I honestly believe that we have too many trees. There appears to have been no expenditure by any authority on coppicing – anywhere. As a result, trees rattle against trains, views, road signs and information notices are obscured by them, roads and rail lines get slippy from their leaves in autumn and winds blow them down on to key thoroughfares. This short-sighted lack of maintenance and control, over at least a generation, now frequently causes problems and costs big sums of money.
I propose a national coppicing programme – tied into any of the many state-funded programmes such as community service, youth employment and so on. That would provide a great service to the public and could generate mountains of fuel for biomass boilers. Who knows – it might even be possible to admire The Cobbler from the train at Arrochar, rather than a wall of vegetation.
Dr David Sutherland,
1 Lochend Road, Troon.
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