I was looking at a possible trip to Cupar from London, travelling up late on a weekday evening and coming back the following Sunday afternoon.
First, I discovered that Cupar is in something of a train-service wilderness: sandwiched between Leuchars (which unlike Cupar is served by fast Scotrail trains and by the East Coast trains to/from Aberdeen) and Ladybank (which is served not only by virtually all trains serving Cupar but also by trains to/from Perth).
Geography is geography, I thought, and guessed that the lower intensity of service would be compensated by sensible ticket pricing.
But no: it is almost impossible to get London-Cupar or Cupar-London Advances, and certainly not at times anywhere close to those at which I wanted to travel. I tried various options, but so far as I could see the problem is with Scotrail not offering "and connections" quota on many of its services to/from Dundee. I can sort of understand why there might not be such quota on peak commuter services into and out of Edinburgh, but I really fail to see the rationale for not offering "and connections" quota on e.g. the 2208 and 2308 from Edinburgh to Dundee on a weekday evening.
As for Sundays, not everyone travelling from Cupar to London wants to leave on the 0944. And even if afternoon trains into Edinburgh are busy, I cannot believe that there isn't scope for quota on the 1432 to Leuchars (which terminates at Dundee) to connect into the 1516 VTEC service to Kings Cross.
It seems to me that Virgin Trains East Coast should be putting pressure on Scotrail to provide the necessary quota.
Commercially, if they don't work together to sort this out then, from December when the Edinburgh Gateway station opens and radically improves connections from Cupar & the rest of Fife to Edinburgh airport, there will for Cupar-London and other Fife-London travellers be a step-increase in the attractiveness of flying from Edinburgh as compared with taking the train.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on all of this?
First, I discovered that Cupar is in something of a train-service wilderness: sandwiched between Leuchars (which unlike Cupar is served by fast Scotrail trains and by the East Coast trains to/from Aberdeen) and Ladybank (which is served not only by virtually all trains serving Cupar but also by trains to/from Perth).
Geography is geography, I thought, and guessed that the lower intensity of service would be compensated by sensible ticket pricing.
But no: it is almost impossible to get London-Cupar or Cupar-London Advances, and certainly not at times anywhere close to those at which I wanted to travel. I tried various options, but so far as I could see the problem is with Scotrail not offering "and connections" quota on many of its services to/from Dundee. I can sort of understand why there might not be such quota on peak commuter services into and out of Edinburgh, but I really fail to see the rationale for not offering "and connections" quota on e.g. the 2208 and 2308 from Edinburgh to Dundee on a weekday evening.
As for Sundays, not everyone travelling from Cupar to London wants to leave on the 0944. And even if afternoon trains into Edinburgh are busy, I cannot believe that there isn't scope for quota on the 1432 to Leuchars (which terminates at Dundee) to connect into the 1516 VTEC service to Kings Cross.
It seems to me that Virgin Trains East Coast should be putting pressure on Scotrail to provide the necessary quota.
Commercially, if they don't work together to sort this out then, from December when the Edinburgh Gateway station opens and radically improves connections from Cupar & the rest of Fife to Edinburgh airport, there will for Cupar-London and other Fife-London travellers be a step-increase in the attractiveness of flying from Edinburgh as compared with taking the train.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on all of this?