I think this is what the poster was getting at - that given the relative speeds / timings, one might get rather more bang for bucks by investing that money currently being spent on various bits of Scotrail on coach travel of varying timings / comfort levels.
I suppose to ask that question in another way, were for example the Kyle line not to exist, how many users would be required to make the "business case" for it to be built. I suspect it is rather more than the current annual ridership, and rather a lot of entirely "free" luxury coaches could be run from Inverness for the construction cost.
So many people only engage with some forms of travel every now and then, and reputation or damage to it can be so long lasting, I do wonder whether longer term service reduction may be the outcome of some of these current disputes. Which would really be a tragedy.
You made my point with rather more eloquence.
That is the question. I love travelling by train. When I go to our office in Berlin each month I leave on a Friday or Saturday and take the train. It costs more than a business class flight from City Airport so I put my hand in my pocket but it is worth it. We used to travel to London weekly, but when the strikes were at their peak we had to make other arrangements for time critical meetings and we haven't gone back in bulk - it was a struggle to accept road transport as being more reliable than a train. I love traveling in Scotland, even though I always feel a bit guilty hiding my glass of wine in a coffee flask so I would love trains to be the right answer.
At the moment though it is tough to see that it is. I know that this is heretical on a rail forum. Commuter routes into large conurbations and intercity travel between then is one thing but inter-rural travel is a different challenge.
Industrial relations are in the toilet and with all due respect to the hard-working railway staff, I don't believe that the solution lies solely on one side of the argument and nationalisation brings its own challenges. Having worked in many industries over the decades, many of them where safety is critical and/or regulation is very tight, I have never seem anything even remotely similar to the railways here. Fixing it is the work of a decade even with good will on both sides, which most certainly doesn't exist at the moment.
Doing anything on the railways takes a decade and costs billions. I know that it is difficult to maintain victorian infrastructure, our loading guage is unique and were are doing everything it seems for the first time so it is not a criticism to those involved with the work - but it is a fact. I had high hopes for HS2 but lady luck farted in my face there too. I live in a village in rural cheshire which is rabidly anti-HS2 so there was a pretty good party when it was cancelled.
I can't help wonder if a terribly good bus network is not a more useful and useable and cost effective and practical solution for public transport other than high volume commuting and intercity travel. I'd be delighted to be wrong.
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