Expecting better service on the East Kilbride line
Welcome to Kicked off at Busby
Dec 9th
We have launched this site to capture the experiences of passengers using the Glasgow-East Kilbride rail line, particularly from those regular commuters who experience delays and, occasionally, being kicked off the train at Busby and being forced to wait for the next one.
You can participate by telling us your stories using the form on the right side of the screen, or by tweeting about your experience using the #ekline hash tag.
We hope that this will get the attention of Scotrail, Network Rail and others who run and control the railway.
Ticket barriers coming to Glasgow Central
Sep 20th
Just a heads up for those of you who travel on the EK line from Glasgow Central. You may have noticed the new ticket barriers that have been installed around platforms 7 and 8, which will be activated in the next week or two. These are being rolled out across the whole of the main station, and have been in use in the low-level station for a month or so.
Hopefully they will speed up the flow of passengers to and from the platforms, and cut down on the delays caused by people queueing to get on!
You can find more info on the Scotrail website.
Glasgow – EK in three minutes?
Jan 16th
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11625540
If only it were true… I bet these trains don’t kick you off at Hangzhou.
I hate this train!
Jan 16th
I have to get this train to uni simply cos when I start at 9, I don’t want to have to get up hours earlier than needed to get a bus. However every week the train is delayed! Or cancelled! Got on a train going from central back to ek, the stopped at clarkston as usual, then said the train will be terminating at busby! I had to wait in the pouring rain whilst they assured a massive group of us that the next train will stop for us in 20 mins! The next train was the express train and never stopped! Waited almost an hour!
National Rail Strike 8-9 April
Mar 25th
So, the RMT and TSSA have announced a National Rail Strike from 0600 Tuesday 6 April until 23:59 Friday 9 April. This will likely mean that there will be no rail service at all throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
I’d be really interested to find out how you will get to work that week, or whether you will have the option to work from home. What impact will the strike have on you?
A hero for a day
Jan 28th
Stumbled on this webiste – what hoot, I can’t believe there are enough sad people who can spare time to create and tweet on this subject – not sure what that says about me as I’m commenting. However – David kind of sums it up -he had a pleasant and somewhat predictable journey driving instead of relying on unreliable public transport which has suffered from years of underinvestment from subsequent governments – kill the planet and take the car….the whole Green thing whilst outwardly noble is a complete and utter falsehood and if you look at the science, and scientists – none of it really adds up, but it is a new great way of making money and generating income from taxes. One reasonable volcanic eruption outputs more CO2 than mankind produces in a year – there are numerous eruptions globally per year so anything we do is literally futile…climate changes it is the nature of the planet……..
So weigh up the options – drive to work and enjoy it before the petrol gets too expensive, maybe get caught in the odd traffic jam but safe in the knowledge that you can listen to your fave radio station while you wait….or pay over the odds for a service that is unreliable at best – but don’t complain about it, I’m sure Scotrail do not really want to kick people off at Busby…it’s just not the Green thing to do to run the train on towards EK with only 3 passengers on board…..don’t expect that this will either make it on, or if it does last too long…thx Mr/Ms Editor. Kind regards to all of you.
0817 Glasgow to EK
Jan 14th
After a few weeks of being consistently late on this train, I’ve tried to be more alert in the mornings and find out why.
The train arrives into Central usually at 0812 – 0814. So it’s a tight turnaround. I appreciate that. But the problem is the poor management of passenger movement to and from the platform.
It takes between 3 and 5 minutes to move all of the passengers from the arriving train off the platform through the ‘barriers’. Only once the platform is clear do they announce the departure of our train from platform 3.
I totally understand why the platform needs to be clear before letting us on. There are a lot of people coming off the train, and the train has to be split in two – health and safety comes into play.
My suggestion is that instead of having two people checking tickets, with the sides of the platform entrance taped off, Scotrail put a tiny bit of tape in the middle and create two channels for people to leave by, and draft in one extra ticket inspector each from platform 5/6 and 7/8, which are both considerably quieter at this time.
Hopefully that would reduce the amount of time it takes to get people moving, and ultimately save us being five minutes late every single day of the week!
Trains to EK are hopeless
Jan 8th
7th Jan – morning – trains from Glasgow Central to East Kilbride severely delayed; eventually get on one at about 8.50am and it terminates at Busby where me and some colleagues are forced to get off the train and fork out for a taxi to complete the journey to work. Journey time from Edinburgh – total 2 hrs 50 mins.
7th Jan – evening – the information boards at Hairmyres are telling their usual fairy stories about trains to Glasgow Central that are due to arrive soon. After a 15 minute wait at about 5.15pm in the freezing cold I do the right thing and get a taxi to Glasgow instead so I can get my Edinburgh train at a reasonable time. I later learn there was no train till about 7pm, by which time my nose and ears might have turned black with frostbite. Total journey time to Edinburgh: 2 hrs 10 mins.
8th Jan – I drive in to work in about 1hr 20 mins in warmth, comfort,w ith the radion on and without having to endure the local neds cursing and swearing on the trains. Which is what I should have done on the 7th Jan too.
The big freeze
Jan 7th
Well…..Stuck the other way today. No trains into Glasgow – result of the big freeze or just plain old signal problems?
Back to Work
Jan 5th
Many people are returning to work after the Christmas break. If you had a break I hope it was a good one.
Scotrail are continuing to run trains through the snow to EK, despite fresh falls overnight and the resulting signal problems.
Please do continue to report problems (and also exples of good service).
Happy New Year!
Snow on the line
Dec 17th
Will the trains run now that there’s a centimetre of snow in East Kilbride?