Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder and as you may

possibly hear from the noises off I'm still in lovely Italy today I am at the cafe

Matzini in Rapallo on the Ligurian Riviera and I strongly recommend it. I've got my

cafe Macchiato, shot of espresso and a bit of milk in a glass and it's a fine day. But I'm going to be

talking about trains in a very different part of the world, in Scotland

indeed, because ScotRail, as you may have seen, has launched a social media campaign that is saying to people,

don't, in capital letters, catch the 1051 AM from Inverness to Edinburgh.

Now, why would they be doing that?

All sorts of reasons, really.

The main one is that it's very in demand.

Lots of tourists use it, as you can imagine.

A train about 11 o'clock in the morning. Very convenient. You get up, you have your breakfast, you pack stuff up, and then it's time to

head south. Furthermore, there aren't that many trains from Inverness to Edinburgh and that's probably the most civilised one in terms of timing.

It will get you there in about three and a half hours.

So they are saying do not catch this train. Now, there's nothing to stop you.

Actually, if you've got a 50 pound any time day single, there's nothing to stop you. Actually, if you've got a 50-pound, any time day single,

there's nothing to stop you getting on.

In Scotland, in the rest of the UK, in Northern Europe,

the assumption is that if you've got a valid ticket

and you don't mind standing for, well, over three hours between Inverness and Edinburgh, then you

should be able to travel. That might be uncomfortable, but I think a lot of people will be

keen to take advantage of that rather than finding themselves in a position of not being able to travel at all.

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