Station Square, Scotland, United KingdomAfter my second nights sleep in Edinburgh this morning I was continuing on to Inverness. At midnite last night I heard people speaking Hindi/Urdu coming down the hallway. Then they entered into the room next door continuing to talk loudly. I was trying to sleep for my next days travel so allowed them to settle in. They continued talking and banging their cases around and slamming the closet doors.
After about 20 mins they started playing youtube videos of "What to do in Edinburgh". Before they started their video calls to family members continuing to talk loud (I know my people) I started banging the room wall. They then went silent and I never heard them utter a word to each other before I left.
Before I left I also registered online for a Tesco Clubcard as members receive discount prices at Tesco stores. I left by 8am and stopped by at the Sainsbury's outside to get a sandwich for the trip.
Sunday morning it was a ghost town on my walk to Waverley Station. I retrieved my tickets that I had bought online for 28 Pounds from the machines. When I checked how much it was to buy a ticket to Inverness today it was 72 Pounds
Waiting at Edinburgh Waverley station for the 9.35 Inverness train the boards then changed to "Cancelled". Now what do I do? I went to the ticket office and she rerouted me on a train to Stirling, to connect to a Glasgow train to Inverness
My original ticket I had a reserved window seat all the way to Inverness for the four hour trip. Now I would have to take my chances on the rerouted trains.
At Stirling I had a one hour wait for the connecting train. The original train had been cancelled due to "lack of train crew" - calling in sick on a Sunday morning.
At Stirling a second Edinburgh train was rerouted bringing more passengers waiting for the connection. By about the 15 min mark even more crowds began to arrive from the nearby hotels. Many had large suitcases and I don't know if the train had capacity for everyone .
I made my way further down where I hoped the train would be less crowded and there were less people waiting on the platform. Luckily when the train pulled in the door stopped right in front of me so I was the first person in.
However this Glasgow train was already sold out with passengers standing in the aisles and blocking the doorway. There was no way it can take in two sets of passenger rerouted from Edinburgh and all the people with large suitcases. The train pulled out and most people were left standing on the platform particularly those with large suitcases. If that would have been me it would have really derailed my onward travel plans and day in Inverness.
So now I had the prospect of standing in the completely crowded aisle for the four hour ride to Inverness. A group of seated ladies were messaging ScotRail to complain about safety standards but they were wasting their energy in conversations with automated bot responses with generic comments thanking them for their feedback. I joked with the man standing with me also from Canada that I had "come for the scenic train ride"
Even more bizarre was that the machines were still selling tickets to Inverness this morning for 72 Pounds when there was no capacity. We slowly lost some people at local stops. After more than an hour two seats behind me opened up so I let the girl standing with me know so we both finally had seats. Her family was also from Canada here to see her brother who had fallen ill.
The two ladies in front of us were from Orkney, and four people across were also from Orkney and they all just met and became friends. Turns out Pink had a concert in Glasgow last night that apparently all of Scotland went too and was going back, hence train crews called in sick this morning
The group of four across had one very loud character. He kept announcing he "married a younger model so she could keep up with me" while his wife sitting across said nothing. When this went on for the 5th, 6th, 7th time in a crowded train announcing your personal lives to everyone I was wondering if this was either spousal abuse putting her down in public repeatedly or the way their relationship works and they both get off on it
The girl beside me was from Ottawa Canada, the lady in front was married to a Canadian. The four across and the three with me all became a big group chatting, comparing notes from Canada, totally ignoring me the brown guy from Canada (I must have been an asylum seeker). Anyway I was trying to rest and not impressed by the repeated put downs of the persons wife.
We finally arrived in Inverness at 3pm when my original arrival time was 1.19pm. I had planned to spend the afternoon in Inverness and goto Loch Ness but now I was very tight on time
They announced that as the train was more than 30 mins delayed that we were entitled to a 50% refund. I did submit my claim online on my return not knowing if it would be honoured but I was given a 14 Pound credit to my original ticket price. This was a very serious safety hazard if there was an emergency evacuation, medical emergency, person fainting, or emergency braking.
2025-05-23