I have to admit to raising an eyebrow when I heard the Scottish Green party is holding its Conference in Dumfries. 'How will they get there?' was my first thought.Dumfries is a lovely part of the country but it's tricky to get to if you don't want to drive.
If someone wanted to get to Dumfries from the transport hub that is Edinburgh it would take over two hours (or three in some instances) and either one or two connection changes.
According to Wikitravel:
By rail the former journey (from Glasgow) is slower and the latter (from Carlisle) quicker, due to the long route of the railway through Ayrshire.
So Scottish Greens travelling from Carlisle will have an easy journey at least.
The train, clearly, is far from ideal, particularly for Scots north of the Central Belt. (What will new North East Green recruits Debra Storr and Martin Ford make of it I wonder)
So what about the bus?
Again, thanks to Wikitravel:
Stagecoach operate the majority of the local buses in the area, as well as services to Carlisle and Ayr.
It doesn't sound like a comprehensive service that's heading Dumfries' way.
So an odd choice from the Scottish Greens I reckon, unless the majority of its members can cycle like Chris Hoy down the M74 and A9.
Even though I like to subscribe to the philosophy of taking the plank out of my own eye before pointing out the skelf in another's, I can't help but hope that the Conference venue comes with a very big carpark for the Greens this weekend.
8 comments:
We organised buses from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Others took the train to Dumfries or Lockerbie or took other public transport. Some cars but they're mostly from stallholders bringing stuff.
In defence of the train journey, it's actually incredibly easy to pop down to Carlisle then across to Dumfries. Or, as GreenKeane says, get the train to Lockerbie & then a bus. There are plenty of trains plying those routes.
On the other hand, if you went by car and relied on the roadsigns, who knows where you'd end up? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8334170.stm
This excellent blog post should be read as one of a set with Jeff's famous "If Green bloggers care about climate change, why do so many waste so many photons by using black text on a white background?" item. Keep up the good work!
Having done it, I would now say that Saturday travel central belt to Dumfries is best by train and Sunday travel Dumfries to central belt is best by bus. Journey times the same in both cases but more buses than trains on sundays.
All in all not too bad, but what that tells us is that we should exert more effort on public transport for the Borders than we do on propping up air travel.
Why exactly do you think that 'greens' shouldn't use cars every now and then? Have you read their transport policy? There's nothing in there about them not using cars... it mentions limited and responsible car use when public transport alternatives aren't available, which you seem to think is the case to Dumfries.
I thought much the same. But in practise, getting there was fine. Coming back the bus turned into a fun mini-conference and it was only being faced with train cancelled at Edinburgh due to the floods that was a downer.
Maybe it's good company that is important?
Assorted Greens, thanks for your comments.
Even though this was a less-than-serious post I've still been won over that you can be Green while getting to a Green Conference in Dumfries.
To answer individual points:
Greansteam, travelling one way by train and another by bus can be expensive, with return journeys typically a fraction more expensive than a single. Great point in terms of better travel to the Borders, particularly as I think I'm right in saying that Swinney has just announced a 1 year delay to the borders rail link!
DURB, I'm not saying that Greens shouldn't use cars every now and again but I think it's fair to say that of all parties it would be the greens who would be most likely to pick somewhere that is best served by public transport. And it seems Debra has backed me up there as she admits it crossed her mind too.
I just thought that significantly more car usage would be required for Dumfries than, say, Perth or Inverness or Edinburgh. I did not, however, legislate for organised buses.
Debra, I don't tend to expect people I mention in blog posts to reply in person so thanks for that. And you paint a very appealing picture with the 'mini-conference on a bus' description, not to mention the good company. It certainly puts my rather dull commute back from SNP Conference in the shade!
Maybe I'll go along next year as I believe it's open to non-members. Unless it's being held at transport-unfriendly Ardnamurchan or Drumnadrochit, of course.
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