April 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Train journeys through Scotland offer spectacular scenery and connect major cities, but they can present unexpected challenges when severe weather strikes.
• Travelling from Edinburgh to Inverness via the scenic coastal route through Dundee and Aberdeen
• Strategic stops at St Andrews (via Leuchars) and Aberdeen's Maritime Museum
• Weather disruptions forcing schedule changes and an extended stay in Inverness
• Navigating cancellations by using alternative routes and transportation methods
• Comparing the coastal route with the Highland Main Line through the Cairngorms
• The importance of flexible tickets when travelling by train in Scotland
• Essential apps and preparation tips for train travel contingencies
• Accommodation recommendation: Blackfriars Hotel near Inverness Station
• Train travel offering a unique perspective of Scotland's diverse landscapes
For more information about train travel in the UK, check out our UK train travel e-book on the UK Travel Planning website. If you have any questions about train travel in Scotland or anywhere in the UK, leave us a voice message via SpeakPipe.
📝 Show Notes - Episode 145
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #73 - Exploring Scotland: Unforgettable day trips from Edinburgh by train
- Episode #43 - Unravelling the mysteries of train travel in the UK
- Episode #80 - Planning your perfect UK rail adventure
- Episode #2 - Tips for travelling the UK by train
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thinking about seeing more of Scotland by train.
In episode 145, I'm joined byDoug, who recently took some
scenic royal journeys fromEdinburgh, including one along
the coast to Inverness viaAberdeen and Dundee and a return
planned on the Highland mainline through Aviemore, pitlochry
and Perth, until a stormchanged his plans.
Doug shares what went right,what went sideways and why train
(00:21):
travel is one way to exploreScotland.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
Tracey Collins.
In this podcast, Tracey sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:48):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns so
(01:13):
hi everyone and welcome toepisode 145 of the uk travel
planner podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Now this week I thought I would chat to doug
about um some train travel thathe took earlier this year in
january and early february whenwe were staying up in sc in
Scotland.
Because we often get questionsabout train travel in Scotland,
what it's like and also what todo sometimes if things don't
necessarily work out as plannedwhen you're taking any train
travel um.
so this is going to be a a goodepisode to talk about, because
(01:39):
um to talk about those thingsand for Doug to share some tips
about general train travelreally, if things kind of go a
little bit wrong but also abouthis experience traveling by
train in Scotland, and then toshare some tips and ideas and
thoughts about about, actually,well, his trip in general, but
also about train travel inScotland.
(02:00):
So, hi, doug, good to have youback.
Hello, so let's start thebeginning.
What inspired this particulartrip by train from Edinburgh to
Inverness and back?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, easy answer to that one, to start with, is we
have an article on our UK travelplanning website about day
trips from Edinburgh.
I've won some Glasgow as well,but this because we're in
Edinburgh.
It seemed like a perfectopportunity to update the post
and just to see how the currentservices are running and
(02:32):
obviously me being me never turnup an opportunity to travel by
train.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Exactly so you know you chose the coastal route via
Dundee and Aberdeen on the wayup.
Can you describe that journeyfor us and what stood out for
you along the way?
And actually why did you choosethat journey?
I've got to ask well.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
As you well know, I do like circular train journeys,
so, if possible, if there's onedirection to go from A to B, I
always want to come back adifferent way.
As long as you know time, thecost is realistic and you have
the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
You chose that particularcoastal route, so we went via
Dundee and Aberdeen on the wayup.
So describe that particularjourney and what stood out along
the way.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, what stood out is the beautiful scenery.
When you're leaving edinburghto start with, you know you're
going to cross the, the railbridge, which is fantastic in
itself, but I wanted to stop offat two different places.
One I wanted to stop off atlucas lucas, depending on your
pronunciation and that's thehome of st andrews, the uh home
of golf yes so we did that acouple of years back and I just
(03:43):
want to double, double checkthat.
Um the services, the bus servicefrom lucas to st andrews was
just the same, so it was just aquick bus journey from, uh some
lucas train station to standrews to the bus station and,
yes, it's exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's better to buy a return ticket and and we
actually have got a short onYouTube which shows that journey
from Edinburgh to Lucas andthen on to St Andrews.
So if you listen to the podcastand you think you know actually
we actually fancy that day trip.
We know that's a very, verypopular day trip from Edinburgh
to go to see St Andrews A lot ofgolf fans out there.
(04:21):
So take a look at that short ifyou want to have a look and see
what that train journey lookslike.
And it's actually very easy.
It's a very easy trip.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's very easy.
I should qualify what I saidthere.
It's not a return bus ticket,it's a day ticket which works
out cheap.
It's only a couple of poundscheaper, but it's nevertheless
cheaper.
So it was a quick journey tothere.
Then I jumped back on the train.
One of the reasons I split thejourney as well was different
train stops used throughout,which obviously I wanted to
(04:50):
experience.
The different types of trainsand the different classes of
trains and the different cost oftickets, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Well, that's always really useful, because that
means your knowledge is updatedand then you can help people who
are planning their trips up todate.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And that's right.
So I traveled from then Lucasto Aberdeen.
You go past to Dundee, gotgreat views of the Vidal and the
coastline the coast beautifuland then to Aberdeen.
Just about a six-minute walkfrom the station is the Maritime
(05:23):
Museum, which I'd never been inAberdeen, so it was a quick
excursion straight to there.
Have a look around and back tothe station so what was it like?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
would you recommend it?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
it's a free museum, um, also it's good, but it's all
about the local history andobviously their maritime history
and also the whole sectionabout the oil rigs out of the
North Sea, which actually I knownothing, but I know a little
bit more now.
So that was worth visiting, andthen after that, I went back to
Aberdeen Station and jumped onthe train to Inverness, which
(05:52):
takes the coastal route all theway past Elgin and you also stop
off where you can catch theWhiskey Trail train from there,
which is worth doing SpeysideWhiskey Trail.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, so let's think.
So, that trip from Edinburgh upto Inverness and you stopped
off at a couple of places alongthe way how long did that take
you?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It took me just over six hours, because you choose,
obviously, the length of staysthat you want to stop off at
these places for, but thequickest you can do is about
four hours 40 minutes, I believe, and that's one stop off at
Aberdeen.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Okay, so how many stop offs did you?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
take Two, lucas and.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Aberdeen.
Okay, so you arrived atInverness, so what?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
was your planned return.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I'm jumping ahead here.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, I was planning on returning that day.
I had all my times laid out etcetera, and I was originally
going to stay, come back thatday after a few hours back in
Inverness.
But even before I'd leftAberdeen, I thought I had a
discussion with you, as werecall, and said you know what,
(06:57):
I'm going to stop off inInverness for the night and then
I'll come back the followingmorning as well, because it was
the end of January, it was themiddle of winter and there was
snow around and we knew therewas some rough weather coming.
But I still set out anyway.
Um, but on leaving Aberdeen,that's when things went a little
sideways.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Okay, so what happened?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So initially, the announcement on the PA or the
tunnel on the train said thatthere was bad weather heading in
and there'd been weatherwarnings for the entire east
side of Scotland.
Actually, it was countrywide,really, but specifically they
were talking it was a ScotRailtrain service, so they were
(07:38):
passing on reports from scottrail and there was going to be
delays and cancellations.
So obviously, as you canimagine, there's lots of people
then wanted to talk to the traincrew as regards ongoing
journeys, plans etc.
Etc.
But the train crew wereabsolutely incredible, I have to
say.
I'm always seeing the places ofuk railways, but the staff on
(08:00):
board that train were phenomenal.
They spent such a lot of timewith everybody.
Obviously I've got a lot ofexperience.
I was not pushing the pointbecause I you know, I I knew
what I was doing, but the waythat they were helping other
people was incredibly helpful,and so what they're saying was
the weather warnings were sayingthere was going to be no trains
(08:21):
running from scotland, in otherwords, no trains in scotland
past the end of that day right,okay, so we're still running
that day, yeah, but then theywere going to finish at the end
of that day, and I'll also justinterject at this point that I
was in edinburgh and had kind ofbeen watching this potential
storm coming and it was a bigstorm.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
This was a big storm that rolled through Scotland, um
.
So by this point, I think, whenwe spoke, I was, I was.
I had a fair inkling that youwere not going to be able to
make it, make it back that day,um, so decided to stay in
Inverness.
So did you.
Had you booked the hotel fromthe conversation, before you'd
be already been told that thetrains weren't coming back.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yes, because I decided I was going to just
spend a bit more time inInverness, because I do like
Inverness as well.
So the whole idea was I wasjust going to stay near
Inverness Station.
It was the Blackfriars Hotel,if you're listening, thank you,
great place.
And so then the weatherunfolded and so the plan was I
thought, well, I'm not going tomaybe get away tomorrow.
(09:22):
So I thought, well, I'll stayan extra night just to give them
a chance to sort things out,because from my real experience,
knowing that things don't comeback to normal straight away, it
takes a bit of time becausetrains staff in the wrong place.
They've got to make sure theline's clear and safe, so I know
how long these things take.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And obviously, at this point, you didn't know,
past the fact that there were notrains at the end of that day,
how long this was actually.
They hadn't made anyannouncement about how long they
thought this was going toimpact for did they?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
No, that's right.
They just said no trains thatday, but past that point there
was no.
They just said no trains thatday, but past that point they
were not saying well, tomorrowmorning at 6 o'clock the trains
will start running again.
They didn't make that statementeither.
Only my experience knows thatthey don't sort these things out
overnight very, very quickly.
It does take a bit of time.
So I was being a bitovercautious in the fact that
(10:14):
booking an extra night just incase this was going to take
longer.
And it was a decision thatturned out to be the the right
move, because by the time I didget to Inverness and I asked
them for an extra night and theysaid you are very lucky, it's
only because I booked the onenight before.
They've had lots of peoplecoming in, the whole coachloads
(10:37):
asking for rooms for the nextcouple of nights for this reason
.
So I was very, very luckyactually.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So I think what's really important from this is to
consider what tips that youwould offer any of our listeners
who may find themselves in thissort of situation.
So this was a cancellation ofthe trains due to the weather.
So we'll say this was acancellation of the trains due
to the weather.
So I will say this was injanuary february.
So if you're planning ever totravel up to scotland january
february, you do have to reallyconsider potential impacts of
(11:07):
the train.
And I know I think even maybe10 years ago we were planning to
take the caledonian sleeper andin fact I think it was a west
coast, uh, highland line.
The west highland line was washit by a massive storm and um,
and so we couldn't actually takethat, that, we couldn't take
that train.
So there's always a potentialin you know you've got to kind
(11:28):
of have that in your plans ifyou're trying to travel that far
north at that time of year thatthis can impact.
So what would you, what wouldyour tips be for travelers who
may find themselves in thissituation?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
well, the the preparation beforehand is, um,
while talking to the experts andknowing what are the
recommended apps to put on yourphone, which websites and I'm
not saying predict that there'sgoing to be problems.
But being prepared, I had anovernight bag with me, even
though initially, when I left,that was not the plan and, as it
(12:02):
happened, it turned out to bethe right move.
So the one is make sure youhave a phone that's working.
That's a really good point.
Most of the trains in the UKhave Wi-Fi, but you know you
cannot count on Wi-Fi, noobviously no.
When you're moving along, youcan lose a signal as well, which
can be very frustrating ifyou're depending on it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I want to say that we also have an article, if you're
wondering, about accessingWi-Fi in the UK.
We do have an article all aboutSIMs and eSIMs.
We tend to use an eSIM thesedays when we travel.
I know that's what you have onyour phone.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
We have it now.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
We're actually recording this in Spain and we
have eSIMs on our phone as wellhere, so it's important to
ensure that you've got thatconnectivity.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, it is very important to have connectivity,
but, I think, knowing what appsto use I use the National Rail
Enquiries, live trains andjourney planning app because my
experience is that it's the mostreadily updated and accurate
and that's the one.
But also, I think whatparticularly with train travel
is have an idea in your head ofthe, the geography.
(13:10):
I don't mean every singlelittle station, because that'll
be over the top, but have anidea where you're running, to,
where your trains are going,just to have a bit more of a
root knowledge.
That, if you have to whichbecome more evident on the on
the journey back is if you haveto slightly change your plans.
You can't go from a to b, butyou've got to go from a to c to
(13:32):
d and then come back to b.
Have a bit of an understandingof the root knowledge.
But well, how would that go ifyou've got a, if you've got a
train ticket, which, and thencome back to B.
Have a bit of an understandingof the route knowledge.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
But how would that go if you've got a train ticket?
I know you're going to say itdepends on what sort of train
ticket, but how can you get thatflexibility?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
The best thing to do is to buy an anytime train
ticket, because if you, even ifyou haven't got an anytime train
ticket, if you are veryimpacted by weather and
cancellations, that often willcover you on a different,
different route, but that's upto the way you bought the ticket
(14:05):
from and the operator at thetime.
But to give yourself thatflexibility when you're buying
tickets is to buy an anytimeticket so that will cover you on
any route between two points.
So you're buying a ticketbetween A and B and if there's
two or three different routesbetween A and B, you can use any
(14:28):
of them Okay, whereas if you'rebuying an advance ticket that's
on one route between those twopoints on that particular train
on that day.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Well, what happens if you're planning to go 8 to B
but you end up having to go to 8to C to B, because that's the
only way to get from 8 to Bbecause of some problems?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
with the route.
That's the discussion you havewith the train crews and the
stations, and just to doublecheck because penalty fares are
quite steep.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Okay, so you stayed in Inverness for two nights and
you love the accommodation youstayed in, so let's give them
another shout out.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'll give another shout out to the Blackfriars
Hotel in Inverness.
I chose them because it wasclose to the Inverness train
station it's just out to theright and the staff, stephen and
Abby the lady that worked thereabsolutely phenomenal.
They were just so lovely, sokind, so accommodating and
(15:22):
flexible and they're justwonderful people to talk to
really.
And the food was nice as well Agreat Scottish breakfast.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Brilliant.
Okay, so after a couple of daysin Inverness and the storm kind
of blew through Ireland well,through Ireland and then through
Scotland, and I know because Iwas in Edinburgh and it caused
quite a lot of destruction inEdinburgh and I actually
couldn't go out for most of theday because it was too dangerous
actually to go out because itwas so windy.
So you did eventually return toEdinburgh.
(15:51):
So how did you manage to dothat?
What was that journey like andhow was the weather on your
return?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, that morning in Inverness there was no trains
heading out of Inverness beforemidday.
But I kept checking, I keptchecking the live trains on the
National Rail and I was alsolooking on the website and
ScotRail's site their own siteas well and then they seemed to
(16:17):
uncancel one or two services.
Okay, so to give the line itsproper name, it's the highland
main line and that one'sliterally straight down from
inverness.
And but they said there was atrain heading to perth.
So I thought, well, I'll jumpon the one heading south.
So I had no seat reservationsat this point.
It was every man for themselves.
(16:38):
Luckily I did not have muchluggage, but the frame train was
freezing so it obviously boughtit out from stock up there and
it was.
I thought it was going to bevery, very busy, but it wasn't
so and there was snow lyingaround.
As soon as we left invernessyou start heading down through
the cairngorms and there waslots of snow around and it was
icy, cold.
(16:58):
The beautiful scenery, mind.
As soon as the train warmed up,it was lovely to look at.
So I eventually got down andcome through Pitlochry and
beautiful, beautiful scenery.
I was talking to the train crews.
They were keeping everybody upto date with trains running from
Pitlochry, from Perth.
So I had a plan before I gotthere.
(17:20):
I was keeping my eye on trainsleaving Perth on Live Trains app
and I knew which train I wasgoing to catch.
So the plan was I was going tohead to Perth.
I'd already decided at thispoint I was going to have a
quick look around Perth as well,because the Stone of Destiny is
now from I think it was Marchlast year, in 2024, is now
(17:40):
returned to Scotland and in thenew Perth Museum.
So I went to see that that'sgood.
Now the trains coming out ofPerth they said there was one
running to Dundee, so I wasgoing to not be able to do the
line.
I was expecting to comestraight back down to Edinburgh.
So I went cross land and I wentto Dundee with the intention of
(18:04):
going from Dundee back down toEdinburgh.
That did not happen.
At some point when I was on thetrain to Dundee, the trains out
of Dundee had been cancelled.
There was nothing heading downfrom Dundee to anywhere at this
point.
So I arrived into Dundeethinking what am I going to do
(18:25):
now?
I might have to stay in Dundeefor the night.
And this is what happened.
This is what we talked aboutearlier is the fact that you've
got to be flexible.
You've got to think what areyour options at this moment in
time.
And I headed to the bus stationthinking I'll just have a look
see what buses are out.
And yes, there was a bus tooktwo and two and a half hours,
(18:46):
two hours, 20 minutes fromdundee bus station to edinburgh
perfect.
And when I arrived intoedinburgh, I thought I'll have a
quick walk down to Waverleytrain station and what I found
out was there was no trainsnorth out of Edinburgh for the
foreseeable because of debris onthe line.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Right, and I guess that's a point to make as well
because even though the stormhad passed through, it was still
causing cancellations, becausethere was, you said, debris,
branches and all sorts of debrison the train lines.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It was still windy, it was still very windy, and you
can't run trains unless they'recertified that the line is
clear and safe to run services,right, right.
So, yes, it was an interestingexcursion, but with a footnote
to all this me being me.
The following morning, what didI do?
I had to head straight backfrom Edinburgh to Perth.
(19:37):
I wanted to complete thejourney by train, by train.
Well, I'd started, so you didthat.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So for anybody listening that are considering
this, I'm going to ask you, doug, would you recommend both of
those routes, the coastal andthe Highland main line,
considering this, is heading upto Inverness, so we're talking
about kind of that eastern sideof Scotland.
So we're talking about kind ofthat eastern side of Scotland.
Those are the routes we'retalking about from Edinburgh, so
we're kind of going north here.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We're heading north.
Yes, so if you think of it aslike a circular route, you come
from Edinburgh via Aberdeen, youtake the coastal route to
Inverness and then the Highlandmain line is.
It says it's the main line,it's the fastest service
straight down the middle ofScotland back to Edinburgh or
Glasgow so if you were trying toget to inverness quickly, which
(20:22):
would be the route that youtake.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You take the highland main line and if you were
considering which was the mostscenic, which route would you
take?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
is that a hard question?
That's that's a hard questionbecause if you get an answer
where they're going, the uh thehighland main line through the
cairngorms is beautiful, but Ialso like the sea views on the
east side of Scotland.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So I'm thinking that you can go up and back in one
day doing that circular route.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Which was my original plan.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Which is what your original plan was.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
If you want to go from Edinburgh up to Inverness
the fast route, because you get,say you arrived in Edinburgh,
you've done a few days inEdinburgh and you want to get
yourself up to Inverness.
Maybe you're picking up a tourin Inverness, Maybe you just
want to spend some time inInverness.
What's the quickest, what's thekind of quickest time to do
that?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's a few hours.
It's much less.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's much less.
It depends which service youcatch, or if you're changing at
Perth or if you're changing atPerth, but yeah, it is
considerably quicker.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Okay, so now, what would be your key tips for
anyone considering rail travelin Scotland, especially when
travelling between cities likeEdinburgh and Inverness, and
also, I think, probablyconsidering the time of year is
probably something you're alsogoing to cover but I think what
would be the key tips foranybody planning their sort of
train journeys?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
What I would recommend is having the most
flexible train ticket youpossibly can, and that's the
anytime train ticket, which willgive you that little bit of
flexibility if things do gopotentially awry.
I will add a little footnote toall of that is that don't
assume in summer months thatthere is no delays and things
(21:58):
don't happen.
There is a different array ofpotential issues on train lines,
but I would always keep theflexible train ticket as you
most possibly can.
Yes, it is more expensive, butit can save you money in the
long term.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Okay, now what about if I decide to?
Obviously we're talking aboutday trips here, but if people
are kind of doing it at theirmoving destinations, there's
enough kind of luggage storageon those trains is absolutely
okay, it's not a problem.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah there's not a problem.
Yes, I was traveling a lot onthis occasion, but we have
traveled with luggage on both ofthese routes.
Yeah, there's plenty there, butit's the same.
Rules apply is to try not totake any luggage on board that
you're not able to lift.
Keep as light as possible, keepyour personal items, your
(22:44):
valuable items, with you in aseparate small bag and take.
Make sure you have somerefreshments, especially drinks,
and don't count on them beingprovided yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So if someone had a few days based in Edinburgh,
what are your toprecommendations for train day
trips?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Well, we've covered this before, I believe, in a
podcast, episode number 73.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah.
So if you want to figure out orwant to hear about the best day
trips from Edinburgh by train,we've got an entire podcast
episode about that, which willnot only talk about the trains
that actually doug's talkedabout this episode, but we'll
talk about some other traintrips that you can take from
edinburgh, because there arequite a few different
destinations that you can choosefrom yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
There's plenty of options there and we've covered
them all on the website as wellyeah, so we've got articles
about train travel, we've gotthe podcast about train travel.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We've got a lot of articles about traveling around
edinburgh, whether it's by trainor actually, if you want to do
it by car.
Um, so I would definitely takea look at articles and obviously
we've got some podcasts as well.
About edinburgh uh, visitingedinburgh, things to do in
edinburgh uh tips.
Visit in edinburgh, day tripsfrom edinburgh by train or, if
you want to just do them bytours or by car.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And equally from Glasgow.
We've also covered similaritineraries and recommendations
from Glasgow and from Inverness.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So I'm going to ask the final question, because this
is the question I always ask atthe end of every episode and
you've probably kind of coveredit.
But I just want to go over thisagain.
What would be your one tip forsomeone planning a train trip in
Scotland?
Have as flexible train ticketas you.
Over this again, what would beyour one tip for?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
someone planning a train trip in scotland.
Have as flexible train ticketas you possibly can perfect.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So thanks, doug, for sharing both the highs and the
lows well, not really lows, butthe unexpected challenges of the
scottish train adventure not aproblem, I thoroughly enjoyed it
.
You've got to be flexible and Ihad a great time brilliant now,
if you're planning to explorethe uk by train, don't forget to
check out our UK train travele-book, which Doug wrote.
(24:45):
I did Free resources and moreover at uktravelplanetcom.
Any questions leave us a voicemessage via speakpipe.
It's been brilliant.
We've had some great questionscome through and it's been so
lovely because we can respondverbally to you and send you a
message back.
So if you've got any questionsabout train travel in Scotland
or train travel in the UK, getback to us via the SpeakPipe
(25:08):
link.
You have to just make sure thatyou leave your name and email
so that we can respond to you,but then we'll be able to get
back to you straight away.
That link to the SpeakP pipe isin the show notes.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
This episode, but as always, uh, I think that just
leaves us to stay until nextweek.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Doug happy uk travel planning thank you for joining
us on this episode of the globaltravel planning podcast.
For more details and links toeverything we discussed today,
check out the show notes atglobaltravelplanningcom.
Remember if you enjoyed theshow, please consider leaving us
a review on your favoritepodcast app, because your
feedback helps us reach moretravel enthusiasts, just like
(25:47):
you.
Anyway, that leaves me to say,as always happy global travel
planning.
Thank you.
Thinking about seeing more of Scotland by train.
In episode 145, I'm joined byDoug, who recently took some
scenic royal journeys fromEdinburgh, including one along
the coast to Inverness viaAberdeen and Dundee and a return
planned on the Highland mainline through Aviemore, pitlochry
and Perth, until a stormchanged his plans.
Doug shares what went right,what went sideways and why train
(00:21):
travel is one way to exploreScotland.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
Tracey Collins.
In this podcast, Tracey sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:48):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns so
(01:13):
hi everyone and welcome toepisode 145 of the uk travel
planner podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Now this week I thought I would chat to doug
about um some train travel thathe took earlier this year in
january and early february whenwe were staying up in sc in
Scotland.
Because we often get questionsabout train travel in Scotland,
what it's like and also what todo sometimes if things don't
necessarily work out as plannedwhen you're taking any train
travel um.
so this is going to be a a goodepisode to talk about, because
(01:39):
um to talk about those thingsand for Doug to share some tips
about general train travelreally, if things kind of go a
little bit wrong but also abouthis experience traveling by
train in Scotland, and then toshare some tips and ideas and
thoughts about about, actually,well, his trip in general, but
also about train travel inScotland.
(02:00):
So, hi, doug, good to have youback.
Hello, so let's start thebeginning.
What inspired this particulartrip by train from Edinburgh to
Inverness and back?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, easy answer to that one, to start with, is we
have an article on our UK travelplanning website about day
trips from Edinburgh.
I've won some Glasgow as well,but this because we're in
Edinburgh.
It seemed like a perfectopportunity to update the post
and just to see how the currentservices are running and
(02:32):
obviously me being me never turnup an opportunity to travel by
train.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Exactly so you know you chose the coastal route via
Dundee and Aberdeen on the wayup.
Can you describe that journeyfor us and what stood out for
you along the way?
And actually why did you choosethat journey?
I've got to ask well.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
As you well know, I do like circular train journeys,
so, if possible, if there's onedirection to go from A to B, I
always want to come back adifferent way.
As long as you know time, thecost is realistic and you have
the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
You chose that particularcoastal route, so we went via
Dundee and Aberdeen on the wayup.
So describe that particularjourney and what stood out along
the way.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, what stood out is the beautiful scenery.
When you're leaving edinburghto start with, you know you're
going to cross the, the railbridge, which is fantastic in
itself, but I wanted to stop offat two different places.
One I wanted to stop off atlucas lucas, depending on your
pronunciation and that's thehome of st andrews, the uh home
of golf yes so we did that acouple of years back and I just
(03:43):
want to double, double checkthat.
Um the services, the bus servicefrom lucas to st andrews was
just the same, so it was just aquick bus journey from, uh some
lucas train station to standrews to the bus station and,
yes, it's exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's better to buy a return ticket and and we
actually have got a short onYouTube which shows that journey
from Edinburgh to Lucas andthen on to St Andrews.
So if you listen to the podcastand you think you know actually
we actually fancy that day trip.
We know that's a very, verypopular day trip from Edinburgh
to go to see St Andrews A lot ofgolf fans out there.
(04:21):
So take a look at that short ifyou want to have a look and see
what that train journey lookslike.
And it's actually very easy.
It's a very easy trip.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's very easy.
I should qualify what I saidthere.
It's not a return bus ticket,it's a day ticket which works
out cheap.
It's only a couple of poundscheaper, but it's nevertheless
cheaper.
So it was a quick journey tothere.
Then I jumped back on the train.
One of the reasons I split thejourney as well was different
train stops used throughout,which obviously I wanted to
(04:50):
experience.
The different types of trainsand the different classes of
trains and the different cost oftickets, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Well, that's always really useful, because that
means your knowledge is updatedand then you can help people who
are planning their trips up todate.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And that's right.
So I traveled from then Lucasto Aberdeen.
You go past to Dundee, gotgreat views of the Vidal and the
coastline the coast beautifuland then to Aberdeen.
Just about a six-minute walkfrom the station is the Maritime
(05:23):
Museum, which I'd never been inAberdeen, so it was a quick
excursion straight to there.
Have a look around and back tothe station so what was it like?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
would you recommend it?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
it's a free museum, um, also it's good, but it's all
about the local history andobviously their maritime history
and also the whole sectionabout the oil rigs out of the
North Sea, which actually I knownothing, but I know a little
bit more now.
So that was worth visiting, andthen after that, I went back to
Aberdeen Station and jumped onthe train to Inverness, which
(05:52):
takes the coastal route all theway past Elgin and you also stop
off where you can catch theWhiskey Trail train from there,
which is worth doing SpeysideWhiskey Trail.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, so let's think.
So, that trip from Edinburgh upto Inverness and you stopped
off at a couple of places alongthe way how long did that take
you?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It took me just over six hours, because you choose,
obviously, the length of staysthat you want to stop off at
these places for, but thequickest you can do is about
four hours 40 minutes, I believe, and that's one stop off at
Aberdeen.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Okay, so how many stop offs did you?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
take Two, lucas and.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Aberdeen.
Okay, so you arrived atInverness, so what?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
was your planned return.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, I'm jumping ahead here.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, I was planning on returning that day.
I had all my times laid out etcetera, and I was originally
going to stay, come back thatday after a few hours back in
Inverness.
But even before I'd leftAberdeen, I thought I had a
discussion with you, as werecall, and said you know what,
(06:57):
I'm going to stop off inInverness for the night and then
I'll come back the followingmorning as well, because it was
the end of January, it was themiddle of winter and there was
snow around and we knew therewas some rough weather coming.
But I still set out anyway.
Um, but on leaving Aberdeen,that's when things went a little
sideways.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Okay, so what happened?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So initially, the announcement on the PA or the
tunnel on the train said thatthere was bad weather heading in
and there'd been weatherwarnings for the entire east
side of Scotland.
Actually, it was countrywide,really, but specifically they
were talking it was a ScotRailtrain service, so they were
(07:38):
passing on reports from scottrail and there was going to be
delays and cancellations.
So obviously, as you canimagine, there's lots of people
then wanted to talk to the traincrew as regards ongoing
journeys, plans etc.
Etc.
But the train crew wereabsolutely incredible, I have to
say.
I'm always seeing the places ofuk railways, but the staff on
(08:00):
board that train were phenomenal.
They spent such a lot of timewith everybody.
Obviously I've got a lot ofexperience.
I was not pushing the pointbecause I you know, I I knew
what I was doing, but the waythat they were helping other
people was incredibly helpful,and so what they're saying was
the weather warnings were sayingthere was going to be no trains
(08:21):
running from scotland, in otherwords, no trains in scotland
past the end of that day right,okay, so we're still running
that day, yeah, but then theywere going to finish at the end
of that day, and I'll also justinterject at this point that I
was in edinburgh and had kind ofbeen watching this potential
storm coming and it was a bigstorm.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
This was a big storm that rolled through Scotland, um
.
So by this point, I think, whenwe spoke, I was, I was.
I had a fair inkling that youwere not going to be able to
make it, make it back that day,um, so decided to stay in
Inverness.
So did you.
Had you booked the hotel fromthe conversation, before you'd
be already been told that thetrains weren't coming back.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yes, because I decided I was going to just
spend a bit more time inInverness, because I do like
Inverness as well.
So the whole idea was I wasjust going to stay near
Inverness Station.
It was the Blackfriars Hotel,if you're listening, thank you,
great place.
And so then the weatherunfolded and so the plan was I
thought, well, I'm not going tomaybe get away tomorrow.
(09:22):
So I thought, well, I'll stayan extra night just to give them
a chance to sort things out,because from my real experience,
knowing that things don't comeback to normal straight away, it
takes a bit of time becausetrains staff in the wrong place.
They've got to make sure theline's clear and safe, so I know
how long these things take.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And obviously, at this point, you didn't know,
past the fact that there were notrains at the end of that day,
how long this was actually.
They hadn't made anyannouncement about how long they
thought this was going toimpact for did they?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
No, that's right.
They just said no trains thatday, but past that point there
was no.
They just said no trains thatday, but past that point they
were not saying well, tomorrowmorning at 6 o'clock the trains
will start running again.
They didn't make that statementeither.
Only my experience knows thatthey don't sort these things out
overnight very, very quickly.
It does take a bit of time.
So I was being a bitovercautious in the fact that
(10:14):
booking an extra night just incase this was going to take
longer.
And it was a decision thatturned out to be the the right
move, because by the time I didget to Inverness and I asked
them for an extra night and theysaid you are very lucky, it's
only because I booked the onenight before.
They've had lots of peoplecoming in, the whole coachloads
(10:37):
asking for rooms for the nextcouple of nights for this reason
.
So I was very, very luckyactually.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So I think what's really important from this is to
consider what tips that youwould offer any of our listeners
who may find themselves in thissort of situation.
So this was a cancellation ofthe trains due to the weather.
So we'll say this was acancellation of the trains due
to the weather.
So I will say this was injanuary february.
So if you're planning ever totravel up to scotland january
february, you do have to reallyconsider potential impacts of
(11:07):
the train.
And I know I think even maybe10 years ago we were planning to
take the caledonian sleeper andin fact I think it was a west
coast, uh, highland line.
The west highland line was washit by a massive storm and um,
and so we couldn't actually takethat, that, we couldn't take
that train.
So there's always a potentialin you know you've got to kind
(11:28):
of have that in your plans ifyou're trying to travel that far
north at that time of year thatthis can impact.
So what would you, what wouldyour tips be for travelers who
may find themselves in thissituation?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
well, the the preparation beforehand is, um,
while talking to the experts andknowing what are the
recommended apps to put on yourphone, which websites and I'm
not saying predict that there'sgoing to be problems.
But being prepared, I had anovernight bag with me, even
though initially, when I left,that was not the plan and, as it
(12:02):
happened, it turned out to bethe right move.
So the one is make sure youhave a phone that's working.
That's a really good point.
Most of the trains in the UKhave Wi-Fi, but you know you
cannot count on Wi-Fi, noobviously no.
When you're moving along, youcan lose a signal as well, which
can be very frustrating ifyou're depending on it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I want to say that we also have an article, if you're
wondering, about accessingWi-Fi in the UK.
We do have an article all aboutSIMs and eSIMs.
We tend to use an eSIM thesedays when we travel.
I know that's what you have onyour phone.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
We have it now.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
We're actually recording this in Spain and we
have eSIMs on our phone as wellhere, so it's important to
ensure that you've got thatconnectivity.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, it is very important to have connectivity,
but, I think, knowing what appsto use I use the National Rail
Enquiries, live trains andjourney planning app because my
experience is that it's the mostreadily updated and accurate
and that's the one.
But also, I think whatparticularly with train travel
is have an idea in your head ofthe, the geography.
(13:10):
I don't mean every singlelittle station, because that'll
be over the top, but have anidea where you're running, to,
where your trains are going,just to have a bit more of a
root knowledge.
That, if you have to whichbecome more evident on the on
the journey back is if you haveto slightly change your plans.
You can't go from a to b, butyou've got to go from a to c to
(13:32):
d and then come back to b.
Have a bit of an understandingof the root knowledge.
But well, how would that go ifyou've got a, if you've got a
train ticket, which, and thencome back to B.
Have a bit of an understandingof the route knowledge.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
But how would that go if you've got a train ticket?
I know you're going to say itdepends on what sort of train
ticket, but how can you get thatflexibility?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
The best thing to do is to buy an anytime train
ticket, because if you, even ifyou haven't got an anytime train
ticket, if you are veryimpacted by weather and
cancellations, that often willcover you on a different,
different route, but that's upto the way you bought the ticket
(14:05):
from and the operator at thetime.
But to give yourself thatflexibility when you're buying
tickets is to buy an anytimeticket so that will cover you on
any route between two points.
So you're buying a ticketbetween A and B and if there's
two or three different routesbetween A and B, you can use any
(14:28):
of them Okay, whereas if you'rebuying an advance ticket that's
on one route between those twopoints on that particular train
on that day.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Well, what happens if you're planning to go 8 to B
but you end up having to go to 8to C to B, because that's the
only way to get from 8 to Bbecause of some problems?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
with the route.
That's the discussion you havewith the train crews and the
stations, and just to doublecheck because penalty fares are
quite steep.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Okay, so you stayed in Inverness for two nights and
you love the accommodation youstayed in, so let's give them
another shout out.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'll give another shout out to the Blackfriars
Hotel in Inverness.
I chose them because it wasclose to the Inverness train
station it's just out to theright and the staff, stephen and
Abby the lady that worked thereabsolutely phenomenal.
They were just so lovely, sokind, so accommodating and
(15:22):
flexible and they're justwonderful people to talk to
really.
And the food was nice as well Agreat Scottish breakfast.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Brilliant.
Okay, so after a couple of daysin Inverness and the storm kind
of blew through Ireland well,through Ireland and then through
Scotland, and I know because Iwas in Edinburgh and it caused
quite a lot of destruction inEdinburgh and I actually
couldn't go out for most of theday because it was too dangerous
actually to go out because itwas so windy.
So you did eventually return toEdinburgh.
(15:51):
So how did you manage to dothat?
What was that journey like andhow was the weather on your
return?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Well, that morning in Inverness there was no trains
heading out of Inverness beforemidday.
But I kept checking, I keptchecking the live trains on the
National Rail and I was alsolooking on the website and
ScotRail's site their own siteas well and then they seemed to
(16:17):
uncancel one or two services.
Okay, so to give the line itsproper name, it's the highland
main line and that one'sliterally straight down from
inverness.
And but they said there was atrain heading to perth.
So I thought, well, I'll jumpon the one heading south.
So I had no seat reservationsat this point.
It was every man for themselves.
(16:38):
Luckily I did not have muchluggage, but the frame train was
freezing so it obviously boughtit out from stock up there and
it was.
I thought it was going to bevery, very busy, but it wasn't
so and there was snow lyingaround.
As soon as we left invernessyou start heading down through
the cairngorms and there waslots of snow around and it was
icy, cold.
(16:58):
The beautiful scenery, mind.
As soon as the train warmed up,it was lovely to look at.
So I eventually got down andcome through Pitlochry and
beautiful, beautiful scenery.
I was talking to the train crews.
They were keeping everybody upto date with trains running from
Pitlochry, from Perth.
So I had a plan before I gotthere.
(17:20):
I was keeping my eye on trainsleaving Perth on Live Trains app
and I knew which train I wasgoing to catch.
So the plan was I was going tohead to Perth.
I'd already decided at thispoint I was going to have a
quick look around Perth as well,because the Stone of Destiny is
now from I think it was Marchlast year, in 2024, is now
(17:40):
returned to Scotland and in thenew Perth Museum.
So I went to see that that'sgood.
Now the trains coming out ofPerth they said there was one
running to Dundee, so I wasgoing to not be able to do the
line.
I was expecting to comestraight back down to Edinburgh.
So I went cross land and I wentto Dundee with the intention of
(18:04):
going from Dundee back down toEdinburgh.
That did not happen.
At some point when I was on thetrain to Dundee, the trains out
of Dundee had been cancelled.
There was nothing heading downfrom Dundee to anywhere at this
point.
So I arrived into Dundeethinking what am I going to do
(18:25):
now?
I might have to stay in Dundeefor the night.
And this is what happened.
This is what we talked aboutearlier is the fact that you've
got to be flexible.
You've got to think what areyour options at this moment in
time.
And I headed to the bus stationthinking I'll just have a look
see what buses are out.
And yes, there was a bus tooktwo and two and a half hours,
(18:46):
two hours, 20 minutes fromdundee bus station to edinburgh
perfect.
And when I arrived intoedinburgh, I thought I'll have a
quick walk down to Waverleytrain station and what I found
out was there was no trainsnorth out of Edinburgh for the
foreseeable because of debris onthe line.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Right, and I guess that's a point to make as well
because even though the stormhad passed through, it was still
causing cancellations, becausethere was, you said, debris,
branches and all sorts of debrison the train lines.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
It was still windy, it was still very windy, and you
can't run trains unless they'recertified that the line is
clear and safe to run services,right, right.
So, yes, it was an interestingexcursion, but with a footnote
to all this me being me.
The following morning, what didI do?
I had to head straight backfrom Edinburgh to Perth.
(19:37):
I wanted to complete thejourney by train, by train.
Well, I'd started, so you didthat.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So for anybody listening that are considering
this, I'm going to ask you, doug, would you recommend both of
those routes, the coastal andthe Highland main line,
considering this, is heading upto Inverness, so we're talking
about kind of that eastern sideof Scotland.
So we're talking about kind ofthat eastern side of Scotland.
Those are the routes we'retalking about from Edinburgh, so
we're kind of going north here.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
We're heading north.
Yes, so if you think of it aslike a circular route, you come
from Edinburgh via Aberdeen, youtake the coastal route to
Inverness and then the Highlandmain line is.
It says it's the main line,it's the fastest service
straight down the middle ofScotland back to Edinburgh or
Glasgow so if you were trying toget to inverness quickly, which
(20:22):
would be the route that youtake.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You take the highland main line and if you were
considering which was the mostscenic, which route would you
take?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
is that a hard question?
That's that's a hard questionbecause if you get an answer
where they're going, the uh thehighland main line through the
cairngorms is beautiful, but Ialso like the sea views on the
east side of Scotland.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
So I'm thinking that you can go up and back in one
day doing that circular route.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Which was my original plan.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Which is what your original plan was.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
If you want to go from Edinburgh up to Inverness
the fast route, because you get,say you arrived in Edinburgh,
you've done a few days inEdinburgh and you want to get
yourself up to Inverness.
Maybe you're picking up a tourin Inverness, Maybe you just
want to spend some time inInverness.
What's the quickest, what's thekind of quickest time to do
that?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's a few hours.
It's much less.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's much less.
It depends which service youcatch, or if you're changing at
Perth or if you're changing atPerth, but yeah, it is
considerably quicker.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Okay, so now, what would be your key tips for
anyone considering rail travelin Scotland, especially when
travelling between cities likeEdinburgh and Inverness, and
also, I think, probablyconsidering the time of year is
probably something you're alsogoing to cover but I think what
would be the key tips foranybody planning their sort of
train journeys?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
What I would recommend is having the most
flexible train ticket youpossibly can, and that's the
anytime train ticket, which willgive you that little bit of
flexibility if things do gopotentially awry.
I will add a little footnote toall of that is that don't
assume in summer months thatthere is no delays and things
(21:58):
don't happen.
There is a different array ofpotential issues on train lines,
but I would always keep theflexible train ticket as you
most possibly can.
Yes, it is more expensive, butit can save you money in the
long term.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Okay, now what about if I decide to?
Obviously we're talking aboutday trips here, but if people
are kind of doing it at theirmoving destinations, there's
enough kind of luggage storageon those trains is absolutely
okay, it's not a problem.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah there's not a problem.
Yes, I was traveling a lot onthis occasion, but we have
traveled with luggage on both ofthese routes.
Yeah, there's plenty there, butit's the same.
Rules apply is to try not totake any luggage on board that
you're not able to lift.
Keep as light as possible, keepyour personal items, your
(22:44):
valuable items, with you in aseparate small bag and take.
Make sure you have somerefreshments, especially drinks,
and don't count on them beingprovided yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So if someone had a few days based in Edinburgh,
what are your toprecommendations for train day
trips?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Well, we've covered this before, I believe, in a
podcast, episode number 73.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah.
So if you want to figure out orwant to hear about the best day
trips from Edinburgh by train,we've got an entire podcast
episode about that, which willnot only talk about the trains
that actually doug's talkedabout this episode, but we'll
talk about some other traintrips that you can take from
edinburgh, because there arequite a few different
destinations that you can choosefrom yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
There's plenty of options there and we've covered
them all on the website as wellyeah, so we've got articles
about train travel, we've gotthe podcast about train travel.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We've got a lot of articles about traveling around
edinburgh, whether it's by trainor actually, if you want to do
it by car.
Um, so I would definitely takea look at articles and obviously
we've got some podcasts as well.
About edinburgh uh, visitingedinburgh, things to do in
edinburgh uh tips.
Visit in edinburgh, day tripsfrom edinburgh by train or, if
you want to just do them bytours or by car.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And equally from Glasgow.
We've also covered similaritineraries and recommendations
from Glasgow and from Inverness.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So I'm going to ask the final question, because this
is the question I always ask atthe end of every episode and
you've probably kind of coveredit.
But I just want to go over thisagain.
What would be your one tip forsomeone planning a train trip in
Scotland?
Have as flexible train ticketas you.
Over this again, what would beyour one tip for?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
someone planning a train trip in scotland.
Have as flexible train ticketas you possibly can perfect.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So thanks, doug, for sharing both the highs and the
lows well, not really lows, butthe unexpected challenges of the
scottish train adventure not aproblem, I thoroughly enjoyed it
.
You've got to be flexible and Ihad a great time brilliant now,
if you're planning to explorethe uk by train, don't forget to
check out our UK train travele-book, which Doug wrote.
(24:45):
I did Free resources and moreover at uktravelplanetcom.
Any questions leave us a voicemessage via speakpipe.
It's been brilliant.
We've had some great questionscome through and it's been so
lovely because we can respondverbally to you and send you a
message back.
So if you've got any questionsabout train travel in Scotland
or train travel in the UK, getback to us via the SpeakPipe
(25:08):
link.
You have to just make sure thatyou leave your name and email
so that we can respond to you,but then we'll be able to get
back to you straight away.
That link to the SpeakP pipe isin the show notes.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
This episode, but as always, uh, I think that just
leaves us to stay until nextweek.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Doug happy uk travel planning thank you for joining
us on this episode of the globaltravel planning podcast.
For more details and links toeverything we discussed today,
check out the show notes atglobaltravelplanningcom.
Remember if you enjoyed theshow, please consider leaving us
a review on your favoritepodcast app, because your
feedback helps us reach moretravel enthusiasts, just like
(25:47):
you.
Anyway, that leaves me to say,as always happy global travel
planning.
Thank you.
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