Yes, there seems to have been a massive upswing in their use today. 1736 Edinburgh-Aberdeen, 1739 Edinburgh-Inverness and 1725 Inverness-Queen Street were all HSTs. They all made it to their destinations without breaking down, although the Aberdeen train lost more and more time and finally arrived 25 minutes late.
The set on the Edinburgh-Inverness train was okay in an old school First Great Western okay sort of way. It certainly gobbled up the Friday evening crowds - the TGS was no more than a third full after we left Haymarket, there would've been people standing everywhere if it had been a 170, although only having one publically available door might have helped keep the masses away from the front of the train.
There's no need for me to comment on the interior, it was blindingly brightly lit and over crammed with seats as ever - I heard another passenger ask his mate if he'd like some quick dental work while they could see what they were doing - but worst of all it rolled in empty from Haymarket depot full of unpicked litter. And I mean really full, like two trips worth.
Come on guys, you want us and Transport Scotland to take you seriously and you can't even remove the coffee cups between journeys. The depots aren't ready, the sidings aren't ready, the trains aren't ready, the staff aren't trained, clearly all complicated stuff beyond the wit of Abellio, but surely it's no more difficult to remove the rubbish from an HST than any other type of train?