A councillor is calling for better information for passengers using Broughty Ferry railway station.
Laurie Bidwell, Labour member for the Ferry ward, has written to First ScotRail asking for an electronic display board to be installed in preparation for new services.
He said he welcomed confirmation of more stops at Broughty Ferry (link) but felt this meant it was a perfect time for more upgrades.
”While there will be some more trains stopping, I have not heard about any plans for enhancing passenger information at the station,” he said.
“I have written to First ScotRail to demand improvements in two ways. Firstly, to make provision for at least a poster of the train timetable to be displayed on the up platform. Secondly, in an unstaffed station, it would be helpful and reassuring if there were a electronic display showing the upcoming arrivals and whether they are running late or are cancelled.”
Mr Bidwell said he could imagine real-time service updates being of use to a passenger standing on the down platform on a Friday night waiting for the last train, which carries on to Dundee and runs through to Perth, due at just after half past midnight.
”This is a potentially useful service because the last bus for Dundee would have left hours before. It could be a lonely and worrying wait.
”The last train heading north towards Aberdeen would have stopped on the opposite platform more than an hour before, so it’s pretty certain that there would not be any folk waiting or alighting on the other platform.
”So as you wait you are bound to wonder whether you have missed the train. Maybe your watch is running slow? It is only when the level crossing barrier drops that you are reassured a train is on its way.”
While welcoming the extra services that will stop at Broughty, he said he regretted that First ScotRail had not comprehensively implemented what the Tayside and Central Scotland Transport Partnership had recommended in its Tay estuary rail study.
”A regular hourly timetable of services would have meant potential rail users would have got the hang of the services that connected Broughty Ferry with Dundee and heading north to stations towards Aberdeen.
”As it is, we will have trains with long gaps between services. For example, if you miss the 11.07 train to Aberdeen you will have a four-hour gap until the 16.09 pulls in. Similarly, if you miss the 07.41 train to Glasgow you would have to wait for the 10.43 train.”
His message to rail users is that the new services are not necessarily a permanent fixture, adding: ”So it’s either use it or we lose it.”