ScotRail ‘sorry’ after Edinburgh Fringe passengers ‘crammed’ on late …
Edinburgh passengers were crammed on the second-last train to Fife[1] on Saturday night.
With the Fringe[2] in its final week, many are flocking to Edinburgh to enjoy the festival before the venues and beer gardens wrap up.
On Saturday, August 19, after spending the day in the city, one of our reporters headed over the water to Fife. But at 10.22pm, hundreds piled onto the second-last service to Glenrothes with Thornton.
The conductor urged people to remove bags off seats to make room but before the train even left Waverley, commuters were shuffling into corners with one passenger describing it as ‘being packed like sardines’ between each carriage.
Our reporter took to sitting on the floor after a long day of walking around Bistro Square and the Old Town.
While the doors opened at each stop, not much room was left for people to jump on and some were seen left waiting at the platform, hoping to squeeze onto the next train an hour later.
ScotRail has been warning passengers throughout August to expect busy trains and over the month added extra carriages and services throughout the central belt to accommodate the Fringe.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail Customer Operations Director, said: “We are sorry to any customer who experienced overcrowding or disruption on their journey on Saturday as we know that one of the biggest concerns for our customers is busy trains.
“We have made significant enhancements to our services to support travel throughout the Edinburgh Festivals by providing more trains, and tens of thousands of extra seats at the times when they are needed the most, however services were particularly busy at the weekend.”
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References
- ^ Fife (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ Fringe (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ Edinburgh teen gang ransack shop of booze and vapes before posing for selfies (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ breaking news (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ coronavirus (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
- ^ here (data.reachplc.com)