It seems I’ve earned a day out on my own – where shall I go? I’ve been on the rails at Perth several times in the last couple of years – passing through as part of a longer journey, often in the dark… Let’s go and take a look at its magnificent station!
The 09.11 from Dunbar will be perfect – it’s 20 minutes late today, so I don’t need to hurry. At Waverley, I’ll board a train to Perth via the Forth Bridge and Ladybank. It’s running late too – I’ve time to see what is else is happening. The Royal Scotsman train is at platform 19: its passengers will have paid more than 100 times more than me for their trip – admittedly three days-worth – I wonder if they gained 100 times more enjoyment?
The Perth train arrived, very shortly after another arrival at the same platform, causing some confusion for waiting passengers. There have been problems today – a bridge strike, a broken down train, and the new ScotRail ticketing app is misbehaving… Nevertheless, my trip to Perth runs smoothly.
I’ll return by a different route, pausing at Stirling – again, a most attractive station – to take a short trip to Alloa and back. Closed in 1968, the 6.8 mile stretch to Alloa was reopened in 2008. Ten years later, electric trains began running, a through service between Alloa and Glasgow, with excellent connections at Stirling. In the most recent accounting period, over half a million passengers used its unassuming and functional modern terminus.
In addition to Alloa – Glasgow, a similarly-frequent electric service runs through Stirling between Dunblane and Edinburgh. One of the latter whisks me back to Waverley, where I’m just in time for a Dunbar service.
I haven’t mentioned the view from the train window – north of the Forth it’s a very pleasant and scenic journey – just under 200 miles in total, a most enjoyable day out!