ScotRail is launching a new timetable tomorrow (Monday) – but despite an extra train being scheduled, there seems little hope of any respite for beleaguered Helensburgh commuters.
Earlier this year ScotRail scrapped express trains serving Helensburgh Central, but it was revealed here that since then more than two-thirds of the busiest morning trains had been at least five minutes late.
That’s bad news for people have to be in an office in Glasgow by 9am, but the peak-time train which has been ‘brought back’ by ScotRail offers little comfort – since it leaves Helensburgh later than the existing, notoriously late, 07.56.
And in the event of both trains being on time will arrive in Glasgow 13 minutes later, meaning the only improvement for commuters could be a choice of which train will make them late for work.
And if your working day finishes at 5pm, there will be no change to the current slow journey home – with the express cut, anyone who can’t move faster than Usain Bolt to catch the 17.01 train home will still have to wait until 17.31.
A top tip is to use the extra time to head for a station as far east as possible – on one occasion this week that train was so full that passengers at Charing Cross could not get on and had to wait another 30 minutes.
ScotRail Alliance’s managing director Phil Verster says ‘we are in the middle of a rail revolution’ – but perhaps he should remember the words of Fidel Castro: “A revolution is not a bed of roses.”
A PDF of the full timetable for the Dunbartonshire area is here: sr1612_a5_dunbartonshire_compiled-copy
Doesn’t give much confidence for a fixed link to Cowal and beyond, which may incorporate a rail system.