TEX & E11: two spectacular rides across Scotland’s two National Parks

Thursday 18th September 2025

Scotland has two National Parks: Loch Lomond & The Trossachs and The Cairngorms. I enjoyed an absolutely brilliant day on Tuesday sampling two of Britain’s most scenic journeys – one across each National Park. If you enjoy a scenic bus and coach ride, I heartily recommend adding these two to any ‘to do’ list you might have.

First up was a ride on route TEX, the Trossachs Explorer, from Drymen across to Callander via Aberfoyle and Loch Katrine taking a bus along roads not normally served by public transport.

This bus route funded by the National Park and Transport Scotland ran for the first time last year and thankfully returned for a second outing for three months this year beginning on 7th July and running through until 5th October, for what is being called “an expanded pilot”.

Last year’s service was run by McGills but this year Alexandria based McColls has won the contract and are using two branded Mercedes Sprinter minibuses with an Enviro200 MMC as backup.

Four regular drivers are on the rota for the service and I was lucky to meet up with Ronnie on the journey I took. He told me all four have had coach driving experience and understand the importance of giving the best customer service and Ronnie was certainly an exemplar of that.

Alighting from the train at 07:58 at Alexandria station, one stop before Balloch, the terminus of the branch line, and ideal for its location right next to where boat trips on Loch Lomond launch, I was greatly reassured to see a Trossachs Explorer liveried bus already waiting at the bus stop for the 08:18 departure which feeds into Drymen.

Alexandria is connected into the timetable by two early morning journeys at 07:03 and 08:18 on route 309T via Balloch to Drymen from where the same two buses continue on their Trossachs Explorer day’s work proper to and from Callander.

The last two journeys arriving back at Drymen in the early evening also continue back to Alexandria where the buses are based.

Ironically the 08:18 is followed two minutes later by a standard route 309 journey to Drymen which continues from there to Balmaha.

We took five passengers into Drymen who would normally catch that 309 behind as well as three passengers who wanted to continue on to the Trossachs Explorer.

As you can see the 309 was operated by the Enviro200 with Trossachs Explorer vinyls and Ronnie told me the bus is not only used as a backup if needed but its larger capacity has been helpful at busy weekends.

From Drymen (now as a route TEX proper) there were just the four of us on board (the aforementioned three and myself) including two German tourists and a pass holding local senior enjoying a concessionary ride. I’d paid for a single from Alexandria to Callander which wasn’t cheap at £9.50 but also acted as a day ticket if I needed it. A day ticket on route TEX itself (rather than including the connecting 309T) is just £6.

It’s a 20 minute journey north to Aberfoyle from where Midland Bluebird operates a two-hourly route X10A across to Stirling (as part of its Glasgow-Stirling routes) via the direct route along the A811 and one appeared in front as we arrived.

Route TEX takes the less busy and indirect A821 through the Achray Forest up to Loch Katrine.

The bus calls in at The Lodge in the depths of the forest where there were no takers for us then up a long winding road (A821)…

… offering spectacular viewing points across the forest.

Ronnie kindly added an unscheduled stop in a lay-by alongside Loch Achray for us to take some photographs and savour the views.

Just after that we called into Ben Venue where a passenger was waiting and joined us to travel across to Callander.

The bus then double runs to the edge of Loch Katrine where my three original fellow passengers alighted and Ronnie had a chat with his colleague already arrived on the Drymen bound bus as the timetable in both directions includes a five minute pause with toilet facilities and refreshments available.

Ticket deals are available for the boats that leave here for a sail around the loch with discounts for those arriving by bus.

We continued over to Callander with more great views for the final 25 minutes of the journey…

…arriving at the terminus there at 10:00 and I bid a fond farewell to Ronnie as he returned to Drymen on the next, 10:15 departure.

Information and publicity for the Trossachs Explorer is excellent with timetable leaflets on board buses as well as information about the boat trips and walks.

Indeed there’s large scale maps showing walks posted inside the bus too.

Bus stops are all clearly marked with Trossachs Explorer branding throughout the route with details of timetables clearly shown.

It’s an absolutely first rate exemplar of how to do it.

No wonder, as Ronnie told me, journeys have been very busy with standing room only at peak weekends even though the timetable is enhanced on Thursdays and Fridays as well as weekends.

It’s a shame the ‘pilot’ service started rather late this year and here’s hoping funding can be in place for a much earlier start – maybe from Easter – in 2026 and after the investment McColls has clearly made it will be great if they can do a second season.

If so, my only suggestion would be to lose the posters on the front offside window and behind the driver so views of the spectacular scenery are uninterrupted for passengers.

After an hour’s break in Callander I caught Midland Bluebird’s 11:00 route 59 for the 51 minute journey across to Stirling and then my plan was to take ScotRail up to Aberdeen with an arrival at 14:09 for my second spectacular ride of the day across the Cairngorms.

This is the latest addition to coach company ember’s growing network. Route E11 connects Aberdeen with Dundee but instead of taking the hourly direct route (including journeys through the night) ember have been running for some time, the E11 offers a truly amazing 120 mile ride following an indirect trajectory taking in a large section of the wonderful Cairngorms on a section of route not previously served by bus or coach south of Braemar.

The new route commenced on 23rd July offering two return journeys a day with an end to end journey time of three hours and 40 minutes. Departures from Aberdeen are at 07:19 and 14:38 and from Dundee at 08:13 and 14:25 utilising two of ember’s recently delivered very smart battery electric Yutong GTe14 coaches.

I booked a ticket on the 14:38 from Aberdeen with the coach commencing its journey outside the Lemon Tree theatre on West North Street, a 13 minute walk from the city’s bus and rail stations.

A planned 29 minute connection from my train arrival in Aberdeen from Stirling gave no cause for concern, until it came to an abrupt halt outside Dundee station. Checking the reason online I found to my horror the line north had been severely disrupted all morning due to a “safety inspection of the track” with trains cancelled or delayed by well over an hour. As luck would have it the line just reopened at 13:00 when we reached Dundee and after a long pause we headed on north behind two very delayed trains which to cut a nerve wracking, tortuous story short meant an arrival into Aberdeen at 14:26 giving me just 12 minutes to hike across to the Lemon Tree.

Not being as fit as I once was (age creeping up on me) and not knowing how delayed we’d be into Aberdeen, as we approached, I took the precaution of ringing ember’s easily available control phone number and the kind gentleman who answered said he’d let the driver know I was on my way in case I was a minute or two late. This was so reassuring and hugely appreciated after all the tension of whether I’d make it or not.

In the event I hot footed it enough to arrive out of breath at 14:36 to find no coach and reassuringly one passenger waiting.

The coach duly arrived within an couple of minutes and we were both welcomed on board by driver Keith who told me he’s been with ember since day one and throughly enjoys working for the company which I can believe, knowing their excellent customer service and guessing it’s similar for their staff relations and motivation.

Route E11 is a route in four quarters. The first takes you out of Aberdeen heading north westwards to serve the city’s airport before turning back south again to reach the A93 for the next phase eastwards.

I had my doubts whether the time penalty of including the airport was worth it. Stagecoach’s route 201 to Braemar, observing all stops, takes 33 minutes running direct to reach Petercutter on the A93 whereas the E11 takes 37 minutes running nonstop save for the Airport stop itself. But we picked up two passengers from the airport who’d been on the morning outward journey on the E11 presumably for a few hours plane spotting and enjoying a drink or two in the bar, so I suppose it was worth it.

The second section of route is then westwards along the Dee Valley through Banchory, Ballater and Balmoral to Braemar.

I described this route in my blog about route 201 in 2023 so I won’t go into detail again here…

… other than to say it’s obviously still as spectacular as then and worth every mile of window gazing.

We arrived into Braemar at 16:35, the approximate half way point, and had a short stop for a few minutes with two passengers boarding and a short additional wait in case the third booked passenger turned up, but she was a no show.

There’s not been a bus or coach route beyond Braemar south to Blairgowrie on the A93 in living memory, or maybe ever, but ember’s E11 has now filled that gap on the public transport map and what a truly wonderful gap-filling journey it is.

(Update – see in the comments for details of other routes that have come and gone south of Braemar.)

This E11’s third sector of 20 miles travelling south provides thirty minutes of unrivalled scenery on any bus and coach route in Britain. In fact I’d go as far as to say it is the most scenic coach journey I’ve ever taken.

Simply the best.

Here’s a short video clip to try and capture the essence of the wow factor.

But a camera phone just doesn’t do it justice. It has to be seen and experienced to appreciate the full glory.

Passing the chair lift (photo below) reminded me this part of Britain can see severe weather in winter so I’m guessing the E11 may experience some disruption in the coming months but on Tuesday the sun was shining, making for perfect weather conditions.

The three passengers who’d boarded in Aberdeen alighted in Blairgowrie where we arrived exactly three hours after leaving Aberdeen with the final 40 minutes being the fourth and final segment of the journey down to Dundee.

This section also see’s Stagecoach route 59 running a regular service and although offering less spectacular scenery nevertheless it’s beauty is still worthy of note.

After the 120 mile journey we arrived into Dundee impressively one minute early at 18:17 dropping off the two passengers who’d boarded in Braemar including Ron who finally worked out where he’d seen me before, being a fan of Geoff Marshall’s YouTube videos. Nice to meet you Ron.

And many thanks to driver Kieth for his superb driving skills and unwavering concentration during the whole journey – it’s not easy on some sections of the route.

At a price of £8.90 for a single ticket (and concessionary travel available for Scottish residents up to age 22 and over 60) route E11 really does offer excellent value for money and I just hope ember has hit upon another successful development for its expanding network which has also seen Fort William (from Edinburgh and Glasgow) and Thurso (from Inverness) added to the map this year.

Long may the route continue, but five passengers a profit does not make so with the winter season approaching I’d say a huge good luck for the coming months. I just hope ember’s masterminds, Keith and Pierce, can keep it going. My only suggestion is to add a “via” box to their otherwise straightforward online booking webpage so passengers can actually book on the E11 for an end to end journey rather than being directed to the direct service.

I resorted to ringing the contact centre where a very helpful woman was able to work around the system and book me from end to end, but the system needs its own workaround to enable passengers to book their own end to end journey on this spectacular coach route.

Oh; and driver Keith kindly lifted the sun visor over the nearside of the windscreen for me and I hope this will be standard practice to ensure passengers towards the front of the coach can enjoy those unrivalled views.

Two truly great rides. Both highly recommended.

Roger French

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