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Customer advice journey to Thurso with bicycle (24/05/21)

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Starmill

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Good afternoon

A friend is travelling with an Anytime Day Single from Lockerbie to Thurso, and a bicycle reservation at 1116 from Perth to Inverness and also at 1400 from Inverness to Thurso. They say they are currently at Kingussie where it's not clear if or how their train will be proceeding. I've not been able to find any useful information on National Rail Enquiries. They are understandably concerned about reaching their destination today, and had been hoping to be on tonight's ferry to Stromness. I think they accepted that they may not make it to Orkney today however before booking, but don't necessarily know if or where to look for a place to stay tonight because of a lack of information about the travel situation.

Does anyone know what's been happening and if a train from Kingussie to at least Inverness will be available to proceed today? Some customers have already apparently gone to use their tickets on the bus but of course they do not take bicycles. I was told that the train does not have a guard, which of course it must do but I take it to mean that the guard is not working from public areas of the train, no doubt for distancing reasons.

Thank you

Update: Apparently the train has now been taken out of service at Kingussie and everyone is waiting on the platform instead.
 
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D6130

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1H09, 10 10 Glasgow Queen Street - Inverness is shown on RTT as terminating at Kingussie due to 'severe flooding'. The following service has terminated at Perth.
 

1955LR

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Realtime trains has the following for 1116 from Perth

This service is partially cancelled​

This service was cancelled between Kingussie and Inverness due to severe flooding (X2).
 

Northhighland

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happens form time to time in extreme weather and today is extreme weather. A9 will be open, not much comfort for your friend. there are some Inverness taxi services that might take bikes.
 

trebor79

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It's only 150 miles from Kingussie to Thurso if he is an enthusiastic cyclist :idea:
You joke, but a friend of mine thinks nothing of such distances. Last year he cycled from Norwich to Newcastle to visit his family. Took him 14 hours.
 

Master29

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You joke, but a friend of mine thinks nothing of such distances. Last year he cycled from Norwich to Newcastle to visit his family. Took him 14 hours.
Good grief. I once heard of a guy who would run to Scottish football away games. The thought of crossing the Cairngorms on a dark January night to get to Elgin for a 7.30pm kick off didn't exactly endear me to a holiday there quite then.
 

Watershed

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You joke, but a friend of mine thinks nothing of such distances. Last year he cycled from Norwich to Newcastle to visit his family. Took him 14 hours.
On that note, it's "only" 47 miles to Inverness. That's a pretty long day's cycling, so probably too late to start now, but if this had happened a little earlier (and without today's weather) it might have been feasible. Especially as it's more downhill than up!
 

Starmill

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I've received another text and they're still on the station at Kingussie apparently. There's been no update about the possibility of bus or taxi onwards
 

D6130

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Update from RTT: HML seems to be open again. 1H11, 10 37 Edinburgh - Inverness, which was shown earlier as terminating at Perth, was allowed to go forward and departed from Blair Atholl 5 minutes late, before arriving at Dalwhinnie 105 minutes late, having presumably been used to examine the line. It called at Kingussie 15 01-02, so should have picked up the passengers from 1H09 there.
 

Glenn1969

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However the train service at Thurso has gone missing from RTT which shows Far North Trains as only serving Wick for the rest of the day. Have they got flooding as well ?
 

Highlandspring

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However the train service at Thurso has gone missing from RTT which shows Far North Trains as only serving Wick for the rest of the day. Have they got flooding as well ?
Flooding at Fearn, Dingwall - Evanton and Helmsdale - Forsinard, with a blanket 40mph emergency speed restriction over various sections. Thurso is only being served by Up direction (southbound) services to save extra delay from serving in both directions.
 

route101

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You joke, but a friend of mine thinks nothing of such distances. Last year he cycled from Norwich to Newcastle to visit his family. Took him 14 hours.
14 hours , that all? Thought it would take a lot longer than that.
 

trebor79

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14 hours , that all? Thought it would take a lot longer than that.
Yeah, the guy is an absolute machine. Set off at 5pm and cycled through the night.
But we digress, we'll be getting told off for being off-topic ;)
 

Starmill

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Thank you for updates all.

An update from my friend apparently another train has now taken them into Inverness.

A further update they'll be on the 1831 departure from Inverness to a point en route where they've been told that ScotRail have taxis to Thurso

Thank you for updates all.

An update from my friend apparently another train has now taken them into Inverness.

A further update they'll be on the 1831 departure from Inverness to a point en route where they've been told that ScotRail have taxis to Thurso
It would appear that they are now en route on the Wick service.
 
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rower40

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Cycling over Drumochter pass, on the old A9 (now a cycle route) was one of the highlights on my 2001 Lands-End to John O'Groats. Fortunately the weather was lovely. I did Blair Atholl to Inverness in a day, then Inverness to Wick the next.
 

Starmill

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Apparently there was quite a gathering of people stuck at Kingussie this afternoon hoping to make it to Orkney. It seems they booked into the same hotel in Thurso where they arrived just before half past ten this evening, apparently in the end the train did take them to Thurso.
 

Andy Pacer

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Apparently there was quite a gathering of people stuck at Kingussie this afternoon hoping to make it to Orkney. It seems they booked into the same hotel in Thurso where they arrived just before half past ten this evening, apparently in the end the train did take them to Thurso.
It's good to hear they they at least got to Thurso, but must have been quite nervy when being left on the platform at Kingussie with seemingly little guidance.
 

Bletchleyite

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It's good to hear they they at least got to Thurso, but must have been quite nervy when being left on the platform at Kingussie with seemingly little guidance.

If anything I'd rather get stuck at Inverness, because (a) there are more hotels, and (b) the railway would be liable if they couldn't get them to Thurso by the end of the day, but presumably they weren't liable for a missed ferry.
 

Andy Pacer

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If anything I'd rather get stuck at Inverness, because (a) there are more hotels, and (b) the railway would be liable if they couldn't get them to Thurso by the end of the day, but presumably they weren't liable for a missed ferry.
Fair point. I guess it depends how much of a delay to their trip only ending up as far as Inverness last night and then having to continue North today would affect their plans.
 

Starmill

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As I understand it, the full cost of the ticket will be repaid in compensation for the four and a half hour delay, and this was very slightly greater than the hotel bill. Thus the net effect is close to zero.
 
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