'Get back on track plea' as rail line loses passengers
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THE number of passengers using the ScotRail train service between Inverness and Wick has fallen in the last two years.
The figures from the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) show there were 50,000 fewer bums on seats in a 3.5 per cent drop.
A steeper decline was reported on the stunning Kyle line, which recorded a four per cent drop, suggesting nearly one in every 20 passengers abandoned the service.
The statistics come after ScotRail published figures in August revealing nearly half of all trains arriving in Inverness during July were late.
Highland and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant, vice-president of the Friends of the Far North Line campaign group, said more passengers are clearly choosing bus or car over trains because they have no faith in the service. And she said the statistics clearly showed a "woeful lack of service" to rail passengers Ross-shire.
Scotland’s rail network is facing mounting problems as performance targets are missed and overspending grows on upgrade work, the rail regulator ORR has warned.
Richard Ardem, of the Friends of the Far North Line, said the latest report showing the decline in passenger numbers made far from impressive reading.
It shows that on the Far North Line, Wick lost 1328 passengers, going down from 19,766 to 18,438. But Brora and Golspie bucked the trend with minor increases in rail users, from 5524 to 5616 and 5192 to 5718, respectively.
Alness also showed an increase of 2762, from 23,614 passengers in 2015-16 to 26,376 this year, along with Conon Bridge where passenger numbers rose by 218 to 15,494. But Dingwall train user numbers dropped by 1608 to 80,900. And at Muir of Ord, numbers showed a steeper decline of 2000, from 66,480 to 64,480. There was a dramatic drop in Beauly of nearly 7000 passengers, from 59,406 to 52,870.
And on the Kyle line, the number of passengers getting on at that stop went down by 3002 to 62,704.
At Plockton there was a fall of 1576 passengers to 9998 and at Strathcarron they went down by 484 to 7678.
Mr Ardem said: "We have seen this decline over the last few years because there have been problems with punctuality and various other problems. It’s slightly disappointing but we are hopeful that there will be some investment in the line in the next year or two that will enable more services to be run and the existing services to be run on time to mitigate delays. If we could get another passing place between Inverness and Muir of Ord that would make a great improvement to the operation."
MSP Rhoda Grant said: "The statistics continue to show the woeful lack of service to rail passengers in Sutherland, Caithness and Ross-shire. No wonder new figures record another fall in passenger numbers using the line. One of the key priorities has to be to reduce the rail journey time from Wick to Inverness, which has increased to four hours 30 minutes. It is only with a faster and more reliable service that we will see a move from road to rail."
A ScotRail spokesman said: "We are working hard every single day to improve the service we provide to customers on the Far North Line. We have made a number of improvements to the reliability of services on that line, and will continue to do the best we can. Work is progressing to improve boundary fencing to prevent livestock coming onto the track and delaying services. We have also increased the line speeds at a number of locations, with more to come next year. These measures will improve reliability and journey times."
