Jacobite 2024

I haven't travelled on the Jacobite, although I have done the route with RTC before. What I did see looking at next years service, is that a single passenger can't book a seat in first class.

This from the fare prices page: " There is a minimum booking of two passengers in first class. Single passengers can travel in standard class."

Has this applied before?

Dave B

 

I don't remember seeing it before, but it's been a while since I last looked at their website. It's getting awfully expensive now isn't it? £105 for First Class is just £10 less than Standard on an RTC full-day tour like the CME. Plus there is no catering included (other than a single hot drink in each direction), so after the £105 you still need to pay another £28 if you want a scone with jam in a box. Plus there is a £3.75 booking fee as well.

 

I seem to remember comments along the lines of "They could just increase the fares to pay for..........." Time will tell of course.

 

A slight "diversion" away from the present-era operation to Mallaig, the link below is for a video that popped-up on my YouTube feed this evening, the soundtrack is a bit, erm, clunky, but there are some good video sequences of another, long gone world:



Cheerz,

Alan

 

Brilliant!

 

That’s a documentary made in 1960, I remember my mother calling me in from the garden to watch it, I was 13 years old! I’ve got it on DVD

 

It is a beautifully evocative record of the West Highland at the end of the steam era. By the summer of 1962 steam had all but finished up there and who could have forseen that it would return so successfully two decades later.

I'm just surprised that this well known gem has taken so long to be aired on YouTube

Peter

 

What a wonderful documentary.

 

Brings back memories of joining train at Berwick on Tweed in the (very) early hours in 1968 during a ScotRail Rover Ticket (£7:50 for 4000 miles travel) for a long sleep then waking up on the climb to Crianlarich for breakfast of kippers and toast as we entered Crianlarich - all the while serenaded by the engine of the Class 21 hauling the train. When I awoke the train was climbing through clouds hence the imagining that I was in heaven following an accident - but the drone of the Class 21 quickly dispelled that thought.

 

@Chris86 is perfectly correct as why restriction increases year on year.
However !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-41621266

The location where that sequence takes place is at the far side of Loch Eilt from the road, which would be a lengthy walk in either direction (I've done it from a couple of places on the roadside).
There was one of the many lengthmens cottages on the loch side below the railway, now demolished, they weren't located for convenient access to the nearest roads; one of the remaining ones can be seen at Achallader near Bridge of Orchy.



It is a fantastic film, I've had it on DVD for some years and it well captures what can now be described as a lost world; no doubt anyone who visited the Mallaig extension when the steam services started in 1984 will recall how bad the Road to the Isles was in those days, little better than a tarmac surfaced cart track in places particularly west of Lochailort, but that wasn't uncommon in the north and west even as late as the 80s.

 

Well remember the 1984 weekend when little Maude made a grand entrance involving ALL the county's fire brigades and the Sunday charters went tits up ! Someone in England thought it would be a good idea to operate a bus to follow the train which would stop at opportune locations to get the "rare" shots. Unfortunately they forgot 3 important factors : (1) the road beyond Glenfinnan was narrow with passing places (2) the train ran over a Bank Holiday Weekend when extra traffic would be on the road and (3) the traffic from Mallaig returning home after the Bank Holiday weekend proved unexpectedly heavy. As NOT expected the bus travel to Mallaig took longer than the train journey and those expecting to return on the train delayed the first Mallaig by some time - not helped by Maude's fireworks display !

One humorous response was that the expected 14:00 departure from Fort William finally left at 16:00 thus allowing the Banavie shot from the loch side with Ben Nevis in the background. My shot was used by the Scotsman calendar for its 1985 calendar and when I visited the scene during my honeymoon in 1985 I was amused at the number of photographers arguing about where to stand for their photograph of the morning departure given the view that had been published showed the sun on the loch side and the morning sun was on the mountain side.