ScotRail

SUPER SPRINTERS SUCK (when full). Otherwise.. i had a nice time on the rails in Scotland.

I took a 158 from Edinburgh to Inverness via Perth (i was ten.. TEN minutes late for a GNER service ) We sit in a table.. more people.. more people.. its standing room only until after the Forth bridge (which is an awesome sight) still a bit crowded for a while.. but then most of the people get off at Perth (i think) for the last hour of our trip to Inverness there were @ 15 people in our car.. so we had a few rows to ourself (did i mention the toilets broke?.. we stopped extra long at Aviemore so passengers could relieve themselves) We passed the Calendonian sleeper (which was an amazing purple and white sight after 2 hours of nothin but sheep and by then the fog was rollin in.. and we were just about 20 min from 'Inbhir Nis' (Celtic.. i think). We arrived.. i took a few digitals of our train and we walked to the immediatly adjacent "station hotel" or Royal Highland Hotel (Nice hotel.. except for the room.. i didnt get a reciept... we dont know how much they charged!) Next day we took a 0800 train to Kyle of Localsh.. here we had a reserved table to ourselves for the 3 hour ride... boy was it scenic!!! After arriving..we explored Kyle and the Isle of Skye (was looking forward to the ferry.. but they built a bridge still.. very nice folk up in Scotland. We took a train back to Inverness.. where we ate dinner and boarded the Inverness-London Euston sleeper. Boy was that an experience... We had booked our tickets from a old, almost blind, computer illiterate GNER clerk in Edinburgh.. who really screwed us over. We were ticketed like this:

Me & my brother in 1 room.. and my mom by herself in a single room

.. or so we thought.

Upon talking to the attendant for our journey we found out that i could not go into the single..because it was not a single.. my mother was booked to share the room with another lady! Now i did not know they did this in England.. and not only was i very pist off.. i felt bad for my mother who is claustrophobic and not apt to sharing a small sleeping compartment. I was talking to the attendant so we could resolve this situation and he said he would try and put us in a connecting room (that way my mom would feel better). Thus he did after we left Inverness..and i tipped him graciously (20 quid.. overkill... mabye.. but justified in my book). We had a good nights sleep.. at least i did.. my mother was still feeling uneasy and could not really sleep (add to that the fact that she did not like fumes from a class 47 which was just ahead). But sleep we did.. and i awoke to moving in the other direction.. we combined trains with the Fort William sleeper in Edinburgh (19 cars! I didnt even see a freight that long in UK!) and added a EWS class 90 on the front.

Well.. that was just a short description of my travels on Scotrail.. i think i will write a travelogue on it.

I am going to Cannes.. then Rome later this week.

-Euro(for now)Justin

PS.. of course i wrote down all the car numbers.. just lookin for them headcodes!

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Alan:
I very rarely travel by train these days, so I do not know how good or bad things are for travellers in the UK. But I do know that when I have travelled in other parts of the European mainland, things are much better!!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well i'll see about that one... im taking a train from Paris Gare de Lyon to Roma Termini tommorow evening. We will be in a double and single wagons-lits compartments. Hope we fare better on SNCF!

Justin