Nine more trains will call daily at Broughty Ferry from Monday, 12 December, it was announced today.
The new calls will improve local connections in the Dundee, Perth and Angus travel to work area – and connections southbound to the Central Belt. The services will also provide new day trip opportunities northbound to Aberdeen.
The enhancements follow Tactran, the Regional Transport Partnership for Tayside and Central Scotland, working with train operator ScotRail, Transport Scotland and Network Rail on proposals which had been identified in the Partnership’s Tay Estuary Rail Study.
The additional calls represent a significant increase to the current four daily calls at Broughty Ferry.
There will be five new calls northbound at Broughty Ferry – Mondays to Saturdays inclusive – at 06.31 (Perth-Inverurie service), 09.45 (Edinburgh-Inverurie service), and 11.07, 15.09 and 23.10, all Glasgow-Aberdeen services.
The four new calls – southbound – will be Mondays to Saturdays inclusive at 07.41 (Aberdeen-Glasgow service), 15.09 (Aberdeen-Edinburgh) and 17.11 (Inverurie-Edinburgh), and 23.38, Mondays-Thursdays, plus a 00.33 service after Friday midnight (Aberdeen-Perth).
They will operate initially for 12 months and be subject to review beyond December 2012.
The new stops will be achieved without any increase in scheduled end to end journey times of all the services.
Councillor Will Dawson, Chair of Tactran, said: “Tactran has worked in partnership with the rail industry for some time now to introduce improved local rail services to the area.
“The increase in calls at Broughty Ferry will provide passengers with more travel options and will complement the recently announced increase in Dundee to Glasgow rail services.”
He added: “There have been long-standing requests for additional train services at Broughty Ferry and we hope that the local community will demonstrate their support through using the new services.
“We continue to work with ScotRail, Transport Scotland and Network Rail to identify if there are further service improvement opportunities at other locations, such as Monifieth and Gleneagles.”
Steve Montgomery, ScotRail’s Managing Director, said: “We are delighted to introduce these new services. They will bring tangible benefits and encourage more people to switch to public transport.”
Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee City East said: “I have long campaigned for improvements to local/regional services, for increased commuting possibilities and for local train services at stations such as Broughty Ferry, where there are currently few trains stopping”.
“I have been calling for improvements for years and most recently wrote to Transport Minister Keith Brown reminding him of the campaign, so I am very pleased with the additional trains.
Shona added “I welcome this good example of effective partnership working by Tactran and ScotRail to bring about these additional trains at Broughty Ferry.
“I have always been convinced that if more trains stopped, more people would use them and particularly for short local trips into the city centre. Getting more people to use trains more often can only be a good thing for the environment.”
