Cllr Peter Bellarby presses for train service improvements at Stonehaven and Portlethen

12.00.00pm GMT Wed 16th Dec 2009

A new railway timetable came into force on Sunday last. The timetable remains much as it was. However, there are some important improvements affecting Stonehaven and Portlethen. The 18:35 (Mondays to Saturdays) Aberdeen to Glasgow service now starts at 18:30 and calls additionally at Portlethen and Stonehaven. There is a good connection from Inverurie (dep 17:52) and Dyce (dep 18:06). The 17:52 from Inverurie now runs Monday to Saturday rather than just Monday to Friday as it used to do. Another improvement is that the 17:00 service from Dyce to Stonehaven now runs Monday to Saturday rather than Monday to Friday. This plugs a significant gap in the service on Saturdays.

Commenting local councillor Peter Bellarby said "I am pleased at these changes as I had made representation to ScotRail management about the situation of commuters returning to Stonehaven from Dyce in the evening rush hour. There are quite a lot of these and the previous timetable was not at all good, there being a woeful lack of suitable trains after 17:00. I pressed this as something that should not be too difficult to achieve. Now passengers can leave Dyce at 18:06 and get to Stonehaven and Portlethen."

"However, the situation is still not as good as it should be. You can leave Inveruriue at 17:16 and Dyce at 17:30 to arrive at Aberdeen at 17:41. The "connection" south to Stonehaven and other stations further south leaves at 18:16 which is a connection time of 35 minutes. This is unsatisfactory and needs to be remedied. I will continue to fight for further improvements to the train service at Stonehaven."

The service to Dyce in the reverse direction in the morning peak is much better, being approximately half-hourly from Stonehaven with three of the trains stopping at Portlethen too.