Falkirk district rail passengers urged to check journeys ahead of changes to rail timetables

Services between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh, via Falkirk High, will increase to a 15-minute frequency on Saturdays in the latest changes.

The rail operator says this reflects growing numbers of customers now using the service out with peak times than before the pandemic. Saturday is now the busiest day on the route and a service every 15 minutes in each direction from 8.45am to 5.15pm is a welcome boost for customers.

The number of passengers using ScotRail services increased by 36 per cent in 2022/23 to 63.7 million from 46.8 million the previous year. As of March 2023, the numbers travelling off peak is comparable with the pre-pandemic levels, but commuting journeys are just under 65 per cent of what they used to be.

Due to issues created during the pandemic with driver training, ScotRail can’t operate as many trains as they’d like, and the total number of weekday services remains consistent with the December 2022 timetable at around 2,100 per day. The operator is continuing to recruit as many trainee drivers as the programme can accommodate but the result of this is that ScotRail is limited in the number of services which it can operate until the backlog is cleared.

With the new timetable coming into place, customers are encouraged to check their journey on the ScotRail website, mobile app, and through social media channels as train times may have changed.

David Simpson, ScotRail Service Delivery Director, said: “Our new timetable is another step forward for Scotland’s Railway, as we continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic. The way people travel has dramatically changed in the past two years, and we are doing everything we can to provide them with the best possible service.

“Increasing the frequency of trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow is a major milestone on the road to recovery, and we have essentially introduced entirely new timetables between Ayrshire and Glasgow, and Inverclyde and Glasgow. There is a lot of investment in Scotland’s Railway, with decarbonisation continuing and improvements across the network, and this new timetable is an important part of that.”