Joined up thinking

So, the Edinburgh festival kicked off at the weekend, and I had a fantastic Sunday through in the capital. Took in a few shows, enjoyed the ambience in the High Street, the beauty of our ancient capital and the joy of great company.

I wasn't the only one though. There were thousands of people there on Sunday, and so there should have been for it was the day of the festival cavalcade.

So, bearing in mind that Edinburgh in August is one of the world's great jamboree's, where artists and entertainers from all genres gather to celebrate their vocation, you might think that the powers that be, who we trust to run our country might manage to think about how people will be getting over to enjoy this extravaganza.

The obvious way to get from Glasgow to Edinburgh is to jump on the train at Queen street, where the service typically takes around 50 minutes as it rattles through Croy, Falkirk and Linlithgow.

On a Sunday, there is one train an hour from Queen street up until 12:30. After that, the service doubles to 2 trains per hour. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the 11:30am train on Sunday morning resembled a high speed sardine can when it left Queen street. The level of discomfort then endured by people paying £10.80 for a return journey as our fellow passengers at the subsequent stations joined us, is indicative of the contempt in which Scotrail holds us. Is it really too much to ask that the people responsible for our transport infra-structure remove their heads from their arses and have a think about where people are likely to want to go and when. Big events require integrated thinking. We never get it!