I'm wondering, if given a choice of reinstating one but not both, whether the operator (West Coast Railways) of the Jacobite services had suggested that they wouldn't bother running if the FW sleeper wasn't operating?
I'm guessing the thinking was along the lines of the Aberdeen portion won't attract (m)any tourists and tourists spend money to help get ailing businesses going.
That is true. The only issue is that if lockdown in Scotland continues, there won’t be a single (legal) tourist (I do hope though, for Highland businesses’ sake, that we can get to a stage where tourism businesses and hotels can reopen in some capacity by August, for those who want to travel, although what their capacity will be is another matter). But if lockdown continues then it’s tough. At least if you reinstated the Aberdeen section, you’d get the odd utility worker or offshore worker who would find it useful.
In my view, WCRC have been slightly naughty/presumptuous in taking bookings for services on the Mallaig route when there is still no guarantee that these will be allowed to run. 15th July is entirely provisional, and they will look silly if they take a load of bookings for services which they just have to cancel again (especially if they pocket customers’ money for a ‘later date’, as is all too common these days). They were still under the illusion back in April that they’d be allowed to start operating in May, and were still taking bookings for services in May (when there was not the slightest chance of these being allowed to run). As they are not a National Rail service, and are more of a tourist attraction than a public service, it would have been much more public spirited of them to wait for an official announcement from the Scottish Government, confirming that they would be allowed to run trains for the general public, before taking bookings and setting a date for reopening.
I have no axe to grind with CS here at all; CS is a public service and can, of course, be used to support essential workers/funeral attendees/other essential travel- not all CS users are tourists/non-essential by any stretch of the imagination.
CS are between a rock and a hard place here, and I think have (perhaps rightly) concluded that a Fort William section which serves Glasgow is perhaps the most useful section to reinstate this summer (if a full service cannot be reinstated). Time will tell whether this was the right decision. Nowhere can stay in lockdown forever, and they may be in a good position to catch some late-season tourist revenue with the Fort William service (and of course the Inverness) between August and October.