February 6.
Whoever wins in the battle of rail privatisation, we in the South-west
will, as usual, be the losers.
Our line from Ayr to Stranraer has probably never been profitable
since the war (though I have seen it occasionally crowded with Irish
students going home for the holidays).
The Irish commercial trade has taken to the roads, the village
stations long since gone, the prestigious Irish boat trains, the daytime
and night-time Paddy, all axed.
Who wants us? And the principle of the busy lines paying for the likes
of us seems to have gone, too.
A correspondent pointed out that the obvious alternative was to
replace the train with a bus from Ayr to Stranraer. I have news for him
-- there has been a bus service to Stranraer for years, but he, living
in Maybole, probably hasn't tried it. I have.
As a Wigtownshire pensioner I can travel free to Glasgow. I did that
recently -- in a draughty, rattly, veteran to Ayr --
one-and-three-quarter hours instead of one-and-a-quarter -- a quick
change into another of the same, and arrived in Glasgow much later than
my normal, comfortable, warm ride with refreshment available.
I can travel by bus, but there are many who are physically unable to.
Our railway line doesn't have the prestige or the publicity of the
Inverness-Wick line (though we don't need any bridges built), but the
penalty of living in this beautiful, peaceful part of Scotland is that
we miss out on a lot of things.
Taking away our railway won't help.
Jean D. Andrews,
The Old Schoolhouse,
Sandhead,
Stranraer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article