The train journey between Wick and Inverness is\napproximately 4 1\/2 hours long. Taking the same length of time to travel\nbetween Edinburgh and London, the journey between the towns in the Far North\nand their nearest city is double what it would take you by road. Rather than\nfollowing the A9 road down the coast, the train makes several detours inland\nand acts as a lifeline travel service for residents in the communities that\nwere left isolated with the building of the Dornoch Bridge at the start of the\n1990s, at that time the longest bridge in Europe, and for those in north west\nSutherland who make the trek to Lairg to connect with the train as the public\ntransport in that area is so sparse. The Dornoch bridge cut at least an hour\noff the travel time north by road and was only possible because of European\nfunding as were many other lifeline projects in the Highlands around this time;\nthe Highlands will forever be in debt to Europe as, if it had been left to our\nown Government, these would never have been made possible. The original bridge\nplans were to cover both road and rail but the Tories pulled the plug on the\nrail option. I doubt very much now if it will ever go ahead not least because\nthe communities that add so long onto the rail journey will be left with no\npublic transport option. Already reliant on community transport initiatives for\njourneys by road, the loss of a train will have a devastating effect on these\nfragile villages where the nearest school or church or shop or doctor is\nalready many miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the younger generations move ever south as their needs\ncannot be met in the communities in which they were raised the vacant houses do\nnot stay empty for long, instead being filled by the newly retired who dream of\na lifestyle change. Having holidayed here for so many years, they are truly in\nlove with the beauty and isolation of the Highlands in the same way as those of\nus who have lived here forever are; they too feel the lump in the throat and\nthe tear in the eye at the sound of a special piece of music or upon catching\nsight of an imposing mountain range. Their desire to make the Highlands their\nhome is to be embraced wholeheartedly yet, with their arrival, the population\ncontinues to stagnate or indeed, decrease. Although they are happy to be\nwithout the facilities nearby that they younger generation tend to want, with\nadvancing age comes increasing care needs which place a massive strain on the\nalready stretched budgets of the local NHS board. Everybody needs and fully\nexpects to receive the same treatment options throughout the country but\nsometimes, if not already raised with the knowledge that for certain services\nyou have to travel, this is a source of disquiet; what recently was quaint and\nfun to take a day off once a month to do the big shop is no longer so enticing\nwhen you have weekly hospital appointments or the nearest care home is several\nhours away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The journey north, no matter the length, is truly\nmagnificent. From the more built up areas of the Moray Firth basin leading to\nthe oil rigs of the Cromarty following the coastal road, the route then veers\ninland to follow the old road as it skirts the Firth for an hour where the cars\ncontinue straight onwards over the bridge. The converted train carriages in\nRogart, now holiday accommodation, always make me smile and, at this time of\nyear, the fields are full of new lambs. This part of the journey is abundant\nwith trees and birds before you pass under the road bridge at the Mound and hit\nthe coast again at Golspie. At Helmsdale, you again head inland right into the\ncentre of the north Highlands. This time the scenery is bleak, moorland\nstretching for miles either side of you as you traverse the Flow Country. I\u2019ll\nnever forget the incongruous sight of somebody walking here as the train\ncrossed; this is truly one of the most isolated parts of the country and seeing\nsomeone strolling across the moor has been a never repeated experience! Taking\nthis trip south, the moment when you leave the peatlands at the Strath of\nKildonan and turn the corner into Helmsdale to be faced with the sea is simply\nbreathtaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The train is always relatively quiet, certainly in contrast\nto those which head south from Inverness. With such a long journey, many people\nheading north for a meeting take advantage of the tables to complete work or\nprepare for their meetings on the way and I am always amused by how, caught up\nin their own little bubble around a table, they forget that they are on public\ntransport. One of my favourite overheard conversations has to be that of\nseveral Highland councillors detailing just \u201cwhat\u201d they were going to say to\ntheir Caithness counterparts at their upcoming meeting and how they were going\nto spin the anticipated negative press attention. It was extremely interesting\nto hear who they thought were onside and just how they were going to sort out\nthose who weren\u2019t! \n\nAnother interesting conversation was with an\nelderly gentleman sitting opposite. We compared photos of Culzean Castle that\nwe both had and he began to tell stories of how he had been evacuated there\nduring the war and the adventures that he and his brother had there. The\narrival of two well spoken English boys did not initially go down well with\ntheir new classmates but after things had been sorted out in the way that boys\ndid, an uneasy truce developed. The conversation moved onto the current state\nof politics both past and present. Very dismissive of \u201cMaggie\u201d, he followed\nthat particular insight with the line \u201cOf course, that was when I crossed the\nfloor\u201d; my travelling companion turned out to be an ex Tory MP who famously\ndefected to the SDP in the early 80s. By the time we parted, I was once again\nleft with the feeling that for many whose parties are of the No side, there is\nactually a lot of quiet sympathy and understanding for those on the Yes from\nindividual members.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The train journey between Wick and Inverness is approximately 4 1\/2 hours long. Taking the same length of time to travel between Edinburgh and London, the journey between the towns in the Far North and their nearest city is double what it would take you by road. Rather than following the A9 road down the coast, the train makes several detours inland and acts as a lifeline travel service for residents in the communities that were left isolated with the building of the Dornoch Bridge at the start of the 1990s, at that time the longest bridge in Europe, and for those in north westRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2463,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions\/2463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}