North Coast 500 by Public Transport Michael & Jenny Willmot An account of a journey undertaken in September 2019 [email protected] with recommendations for improvements & developments 1. Introduction 2. Slow Tourism 3. Travel Planning 4. The Journey 5. Observations 6. Recommendations Appendix Distances, Details and Fares for our version of Public Transport North Coast 500 Cartoon (commissioned for this project) by Nigel Sutherland www.nigelsutherland.co.uk 1. Introduction The North Coast 500 (www.northcoast500.com) has been a marketing success. Some say almost too successful when traffic on narrow roads is slowed by a procession of camper vans or made hazardous by those who are eager to ‘shoot the route’ at dangerous speeds. Whereas private vehicles insulate travellers from those who live in the landscape, using public transport offers the opportunity to absorb the culture and heritage of the area through meeting local residents. Public transport is also environmentally friendly with reduced CO2 emission per passenger-mile gained not only in not driving round the route but also, for many, in avoiding the added miles of driving north from their starting point to Inverness. Furthermore, rural transport services are supported since the more these carry tourists, the more likely they are to be maintained or even strengthened, benefitting local residents. Public transport is just one example of rural services under threat: banks, shops, pubs and cafés in small communities are all at risk. Their demise in turn can aggravate the decline in rural population, very evident in the North Highlands1. Of necessity travelling light, all our provisions and accommodation were purchased en route, assisting local traders and rural communities. We undertook the travel described here between Friday September 13th and Saturday September 21st 2019. 2. Slow Tourism Travel by public transport is a style of slow tourism which takes into account local communities, making the travel a social part of the journey through providing opportunities for contact with residents and, at 1 Figures in Highland Council’s current corporate plan forecast dramatic declines between now and 2041 in Caithness (-21%), Sutherland (-11.9%) East Ross (-13.8%) and Lochaber (-5.9%) 1 the same time, giving opportunity both to enjoy the views on many scenic routes and also to be active in selecting what to see and do. It is also about climate change: reducing the travellers’ carbon footprint by avoiding rushing from one place to another, often in low occupancy vehicles. For us, the real incentive for attempting this style of travel, feelings of environmental or social virtue apart, was through meeting people and catching glimpses of community life as we travelled. We spoke to those who tussled with the limited public transport daily. We heard about the car share schemes and the dial-a-bus arrangements available to a few. We learnt from one resident of his impending and sad move to Inverness because the local secondary school could not provide good Scottish Highers provision for his daughter due to the small class size. We fell into conversations at a bus stop with another looking forward to her day out with a friend in Garve – a monthly highlight. We heard of worries about declining wild salmon stocks; anxieties about land management; difficulties with rising deer numbers; concerns about human waste discharges by camper vans in lay-bys. We learnt of people’s love for, apprehensions about, and pride in, the local landscape. On our travels we could see how these rural bus services were a lifeline to non car owners in remote areas. The community service that Durness Bus provides in the far north west is outstanding, delivering passengers of limited mobility to their front doors, often with the driver helping to take bags and shopping over the threshold. But these services are infrequent. How appropriate it would be if tourists and visitors enjoying the spectacular scenery, the heritage of the local communities, could at the same time support these communities’ lifelines. Durness: where the wind blows strong; an inventive method is needed for displaying the bus stop sign! 3. Travel Planning Public transport in the North West Highlands is scarce. Many services run only on alternate days or once or twice a week, so some flexibility in travel dates has to be accepted. Subsidised bus fares are cheap but bus and train times are often not co-ordinated. Planning travel to enable visits to sites of interest requires time and patient timetable research. The most useful planning tool was Traveline Scotland [www.travelinescotland.com], commendable for the accuracy of its information. 2 The most transport restricted part of the journey is along the North Coast where there is only one bus a week – on Saturdays – between Thurso and Durness. Also there is one section between Scourie and Inchnadamph (or Lochinver), 18 miles, where there is no public transport available. 4. The Journey Details of our journey are given in the appendix on pages 8 & 19 In the face of scepticism about whether this public transport journey was achievable, we resolved to tackle it. In outline we explored the east coast by using the Far North Line between Inverness and Wick & Thurso; although the X99 bus service provides alternative transport on this section – hugging the coast more closely north of Helmsdale. Here the railway line strikes inland and provides the opportunity to visit the lonely, spectacular Caithness Flow Country and the RSPB reserve at Forsinard, not so easily accessible by road. On the Far North Line, the Wick & Thurso bound train passes Loch an Ruthair and Creag Sail a Bhathaich, south of Forsinard As already mentioned, the north coast section has the most restricted public transport with a Saturday only service between Thurso and Durness (the service runs between Thurso and Tongue on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Travel planning has to revolve around the timetable of this service (Durness Bus service 803). How sad that postbus alternatives are no longer available. Down the west coast between Durness and Gairloch bus services run several times/week. Lochinver with Sulven behind 3 However there are timetable variations depending on whether it is school term time. Also there is a serious gap on the 18 miles between Scourie and Inchnadamph (or Lochinver) where there is no public transport (the best advice Traveline can offer is a 7 hour, 150 mile, journey via Lairg, Dingwall and Ullapool!). Since we had an onward service to catch we had to use a taxi for this section. South of Ullapool we were keen to spend an afternoon at Inverewe gardens. We caught the Citylink bus to Braemore Junction and hitch hiked from there. Public transport was available for this section but we would have had to wait until the 18.10 Ullapool departure. We could have dwelt longer in Wester Ross, perhaps visiting Applecross and/or Torridon, and followed the NC500 route more closely by taking the Kyle line back to Inverness. We chose rather to extend our journey by crossing on to Skye, visiting Broadford and the gardens at Armadale and catching the ferry to Mallaig, thence the West Highland line to Fort William and, after a stay, the Citylink bus to Inverness. Not the NC500 route, but there are other options that can take the public transport traveller away from the designated route; some are mentioned in the appendix. 5. Observations 1. Ticket prices for each leg of the journeys are noted in the appendix. Rail and Citylink fares quoted are for advance purchase tickets. In the case of rail fares, the walk-on price is almost double the advance purchase price. Mobile phone apps make the purchase of advance tickets easier although phone connection in the North Highlands remains patchy on some networks. Across our journey the average price/person/mile Rail Citylink Local bus services 15.2 p/mile 25.5p/mile 19.1p/mile The most expensive mileage rate was for the 11 miles between Ullapool and Braemore junction, A single ticket £7 on Citylink, working out at 64p/mile. For two of us a taxi might have been cheaper! The best value was Durness Bus between Thurso and Durness, 71 miles for £10.30 ~ 14.5p/mile. Advance purchase rail fares were good value (and even better for us, travelling with Senior Citizen railcards). 2. The ScotRail timetable does advertise the following: 4 However, checks are needed before travel as for most of these services there is no co-ordination of bus and train times and some services do not exist on many days. For example, the first entry in the table, the Arday – Scourie service: Durness Bus 805, runs on Saturdays only, departing Ardgay at 16.55 (both north & southbound trains arrive at 15.30). No public transport is available on other days. In the above table it is not made clear that the Forsinard – Melvich & Bettyhill Dial-a-Bus service is only available for residents2. 3. The lack of co-ordination of train and bus times is unfortunate. Examples on the East Coast: NORTHBOUND X99 bus Train SOUTHBOUND X99 bus Train Inverness 13.40 14.00 Wick 06.20 06.18 Golspie 15.45 16.10 Helmsdale 08.11 08.00 Helmsdale 16.10 16.36 Golspie 08.36 08.25 Thurso 17.55 17.50 Inverness 10.04 10.35 There are four trains and three buses in each direction each day, so ideally you might hope for a service every two hours if uniformly distributed, in fact there are gaps of up to 3½ hours. An opportunity for train-bus-ferry co-ordination occurs at Thurso for the NorthLink Orkney ferry. This was once effective, but now no attempt is made.