I welcome the recent announcement about improvements to the schedule of trains that will stop at Broughty Ferry Station when the new rail national timetable comes into force on Sunday 11 December. This includes four more trains a day going south and three more trains a day heading north.
I regret however that First Scot Rail have not comprehensively implemented what the Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership (Tactran) recommended in their Tay Estuary Rail Study. A regular hourly timetable of services would have meant that potential rail users would have got the hang of the services that connected Broughty Ferry with Dundee and heading north to stations towards Aberdeen. As it is, we will have trains with long gaps between services. For example, if you miss the 11:07 train to Aberdeen you will have a four hour gap until the 16:09 pulls in. Similarly, if you miss the O7:41 train to Glasgow, you would have to wait for the 10:43 train.
While there will be some more trains stopping, I have not heard about any plans for enhancing passenger information at the station. I have written to Scotrail to demand improvements in two ways. Firstly to make provision for at least a poster of the train timetable to be displayed on the up platform. Secondly, in an unstaffed station, it would be helpful and reassuring if there were a electronic display showing the upcoming arrivals and whether they are running late or are cancelled.
Imagine standing on the down platform on a Friday night waiting for the last train south (towards Dundee which runs on to Perth) due at just after half past midnight (00:33). This is a potentially useful service because the last bus for Dundee would have left hours before. It could be a lonely and worrying wait. The last train heading north towards Aberdeen would have stopped on the opposite platform more than an hour before so it’s pretty certain that there would not be any folk waiting or alighting on the other platform. So as you wait you are bound to wonder whether you have missed the train. Maybe your watch is running slow? It is only when the level crossing barrier drops that you are reassured that a train is on its way.
If an electronic display can be mounted in a bus shelter in the city to provide live updates on bus services, surely the equivalent should be supplied in our station?
Finally, the new services are, we have been warned, not a permanent fixture so it's either use it or we lose it."
Timetable of Trains running from Broughty Ferry
from Monday 12 December 2011
(Monday to Saturday unless otherwise specified)
from Monday 12 December 2011
(Monday to Saturday unless otherwise specified)
Northbound Trains
06:31 to Inverurie
09:45 to Inverurie
11:07 to Aberdeen
15:09 to Aberdeen
17:47 to Inverurie (Existing Service)
19:00 to Carnoustie (Existing Service)
23:10 to Aberdeen
Southbound Trains
06:29 to Dundee
(Existing Service)
07:41 to Glasgow
10:43 to Glasgow
(Existing Service)
15:09 to Edinburgh
17:11 to Edinburgh
23:38 to Perth
(Monday to Thursday)
00:33 to Perth
(Friday Only)
