Multi modal Mallaig and back

Saturday 24th September 2022

An annual ride on the wonderful West Highland Line is a personal must in my book so having missed a full blown Glasgow to Mallaig journey during the pandemic (I managed one trip as far as Tyndrum) it was good to be back on board on Monday last week.

It was a multi modal affair too, taking easyJet from Gatwick to Glasgow airport then transferring into the city centre on First Glasgow’s lucrative route 500.

From Sussex this enables a decent morning arrival into Glasgow to catch the 12:22 departure for Fort William and Mallaig. Its 17:43 arrival in Mallaig ensures the complete five hour 21 minute journey can be completed in daylight at this time of year.

First task was to get from my home station, Hassocks, to Gatwick with sufficient time to pass through security (always unpredictable). “Gate close” time was 07:40 so the 06:29 from Hassocks arriving Gatwick 06:54 seemed just the job. But the first rule of Brighton Main Line travel is ‘Check your train online as soon as you wake up’ and good thing too as it was showing “Delayed” not having even reached East Croydon on its previous southbound journey due to “over running engineering works” which inevitably meant it became cancelled and terminated at Three Bridges to return north.

Not risking a later arrival at Gatwick I opted for an earlier train and with plenty of slack now in the schedule ended up breezing through security (always the way) only to find the easyJet flight due to depart 08:20 showing as “Expected 08:45”.

We eventually got away almost an hour late at 09:15 apparently with a stand-by crew summoned from home and an engineer needing to attend the aircraft “due to a computer problem”.

We touched down in Glasgow over an hour late at 10:25 and then endured a further 15 minute wait for a set of steps.

Air travel is cheap and quick once you’re in the air but boy, is there a lot of faffing around at the airport.

Straight on to an already almost full First Glasgow route 500 at 11:00 for the fifteen minute ride into central Glasgow which at £9 single (£8.50 on the app) was the most expensive journey per mile of the trip.

The Class 156 was waiting on Glasgow’s Queen Street’s platform 2 in good time and by midday although not listed on the departure board, one or two passengers in the know were gathering by the locked doors.

Those even more in the know avoided the rear two coaches which were almost full with reservation slips in the seat tops ….

…. and headed for the front coach of the middle two which attracted very few passengers making it easy to grab a table seat with good window views. (The very front two coaches head off to Oban at Crianlarich.)

It turned out one of the two reserved coaches was a party being met by a road coach at Spean Bridge and the other similarly at Fort William.

It truly is a wonderful five hour and 23 minute train journey all the way through to Mallaig. The scenic views just get better and better the further the train travels through the West Highlands.

We kept perfectly to time throughout the journey and only the section of route between Fort William and Mallaig saw very few passengers – in fact we had what was now the rear coach to ourselves (having lost the front two for Oban at the Cranlarich split and a direction change at Fort William).

Here are a few of my favourite window views….

It had taken eleven and a half hours using two trains, a bus and an aeroplane. It was certainly worth it.

Mallaig is a lovely fishing port for an overnight stay. The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry arrives and departs for Armadale on Skye. Sadly bus connections from Armadale are now extremely limited (once a day) making for a round trip returning via Portree and Kyle of Lochalsh very difficult to schedule, so instead we headed back from Mallaig, but chose to take the bus and coach which offer an equally excellent scenic delight as the train.

So Tuesday morning saw us waiting for the first bus of the day at 07:15 on Shiel Buses route 500 to Fort William. The route largely follows the railway line (crossing it eight times; four under, three over and once at a level crossing)….

… but passes along opposite sides of the scenic Loch Eig offering a different perspective of the scenery.

There were already three passengers waiting when we arrived at the Boat Yard bus stop in the centre of Mallaig two of whom travelled just up the road to Morar and the other to Fort William.

We picked up two more in Arisaig and arriving into Lochallart at 07:49 our scheduled bus change was waiting and the three on board with us changed on to this route 502 which had come from Acharacle, with two already on board, and off we continued.

Route 502 takes a slightly different route in Fort William to serve the town’s High School but schools seemed to be off on Tuesday so we skipped that and arrived ahead of the scheduled 08:47 time at 08:30 instead.

Which gave a comfortable connection with our next journey at 09:10 on CityLink 914 to Glasgow.

Before boarding that we quickly realised what a good call it had been to have taken the train on our outward journey to Mallaig and make the return by bus and coach as it turned out deep in the bowels of ScotRail’s website was news there were no trains between Fort William and Crianlarich on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week with replacement buses offering two alternative routes for those stations unserved.

Except poor old Corrour and Rannoch which had no service at all. That really was a close call.

Fort William’s bus station is a row of shelters alongside a Morrisons supermarket conveniently adjacent to the railway station. It has a real time display which is always reassuring when making a long distance journey….

…. but sadly wasn’t working last Tuesday morning, showing departures from an hour or so earlier.

Luckily the West Coast Motors owned coach in CityLink branding arrived in good time at 09:00 and an impressive number of passengers – 23 ticket holders and seven turn-up-and-pay or concessions – boarded and we left spot on time at 09:10.

The coach follows a different route to the train as far as Bridge of Orchy by taking the direct trajectory on the A82 through the wonderfully scenic Glencoe.

Here are a few of my favourite window views….

13 more passengers boarded during the three hour 11 minute journey to Glasgow – mostly in Ballachulish and eight alighted at various stops making for quite a busy journey. Incidentally Ballachulish has the country’s most delightful hardware shop if you can find it open and work out where the entrance is.

Although running a few minutes behind schedule our driver still gave everyone a five minute comfort and cigarette pause in Crianlarich – I’d noticed no passengers had used the on board toilet during the journey.

After that pause, we passed by the wonderful tea room on Crianlarich station’s platform recalling its historic association with trains pausing to allow passengers time to alight, have a refreshment break, and get back on board.

I’d also spotted work underway on the railway line between Upper Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy explaining why there were no trains for three days.

The superb scenery continues on part two of the journey particularly as the coach continues to follow the A82 for a wonderful view-fest stretching 23 miles alongside Loch Lommond offering vistas you don’t get on the train.

As we headed towards Glasgow I spotted a Tweet from Avanti West Coast advising of trouble on the West Coast Main Line which had been our intended next journey leg.

It turned out the “freight train” (why the distinction of what sort of train?) wasn’t so much “late running” as broken down. Disruption to our plans and schedule looked inevitable. I wasn’t prepared to trust things getting back to normal on the West Coast Main Line any time soon.

Seeing LNER was still offering cheaply priced advanced single tickets on the 14:00 Edinburgh to Kings Cross we decided to grab two of the “three remaining tickets” and head over on ScotRail’s express via Falkirk High to enjoy an East Coast Main Line LNER ride instead.

The revised plan worked a treat especially as the intended 13:34 Glasgow Central to Euston was showing “Delayed” for a time. It eventually left Glasgow Central 42 minutes late and arrived into Euston 34 minutes late at 19:08 (thank you, Delay Repay).

Our 14:00 LNER from Edinburgh arrived Kings Cross at 18:46, just five minutes down.

And of course although there are some stunning views on the WCML especially near Shap, the ECML probably has more landmarks.

Here are a few of my favourite window views…

A quick transfer to St Pancras and on to the Brighton Main Line which was still experiencing disruption following a “person being hit by a train” near Three Bridges at lunchtime, saw us heading towards home again. Thanks to a slick change at East Croydon on to a “rammed” Southern train I arrived back at Hassocks just 15 minutes later than originally planned at 20:15, exactly 13 hours after leaving Mallaig using a bus, a coach and four trains.

I’d like to thank my brother Jonathan for accompanying me on this splendid trip. It really was a wonderful experience and luckily we were blessed with fantastic weather.

And that’s Mallaig visited for another year.

Finally for those interested in these things check out these bargain fares (who said public transport is expensive?) ….

EasyJet Gatwick – Glasgow cost £26.99 purchased on 9th August.

Avanti West Coast Glasgow – Euston cost £41.40 for standard premium class with a Senior Railcard purchased on 9th August.

LNER Edinburgh – Kings Cross cost £47.15 standard class with a Senior Railcard purchased on 13th September.

ScotRail walk up fare Glasgow – Mallaig cost £26.45 with Senior Railcard.

Shiel Buses walk up fare Mallaig – Fort William cost £6.60 and CityLink fare Fort William – Glasgow cost £21.10 purchased on 9th August (making a comparable £27.55)

Glasgow – Fort William takes three hours 47 minutes on ScotRail and three hours and 11 minutes on CityLink

Fort William – Mallaig takes one hour and 24 minutes on ScotRail and one hour 15 minutes on Shiel Buses.

The scenic delights on both train and bus/coach are equally as good. it’s really worth enjoying both modes. What a pity there’s not an “integrated ticket” aimed at tourists offering flexible travelling across both modes – it would be hugely popular.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS …. but look out for a Sunday Special blog tomorrow about this weekend’s shambles at Northern Trains.