ScotRail unveils biggest Edinburgh Festival timetable
- Published
ScotRail will provide new services and extra carriages for the Edinburgh Festival
Visitors from out of town planning to visit the Edinburgh Festival will benefit from a major expansion to rail timetables in August.
ScotRail has unveiled its biggest-ever service provision for the event.
More trains and hundreds of extra carriages will be laid on next month.
There will be new services for Fife, Stirling and the west of Scotland.
The timetable features brand new services, including:
15 extra trains linking the capital with Stirling on Sundays
a new late night train to Glenrothes-with-Thornton, departing Edinburgh at 23.59 on Fridays
six more Sunday trains on the Edinburgh-Helensburgh route.
The timetable will also include late-night trains to Glasgow - leaving Edinburgh at 00.01 and 00.30 seven days a week.
There will be an extra service to Dundee.
And there will be additional night-time trains to North Berwick and Garscadden on Fridays and Saturdays.
Customers travelling to and from the festivals will also benefit from extra carriages on many existing services.
However, the train operator is stressing that late-night services will still be busy as thousands of festival-goers travel to and from the capital.
Reduce congestion
Steve Montgomery, ScotRail's managing director, said: "We have continued to expand the Festivals timetable - new services for Fife, Stirling and the west of Scotland - so that even more customers can enjoy the exciting events in the capital.
"We will use all carriages available to us, but we know that some services - particularly last trains home - will still be busy.
"I would encourage festival-goers to help their journeys run smoothly by buying tickets in advance."
Fringe festival tickets will be sold at a box office at Glasgow Queen Street station, following its successful introduction last year.
Transport Minister Keith Brown said: "The extra services will make it easier for festival goers to enjoy the very best the city has to offer during August with more opportunities to spend time and money here in Scotland's capital while helping reduce congestion around the city - all good news for organisers, good news for businesses and good news for Scotland's economy."
Kath M Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: "The largest arts festival in the world will now be even more accessible to audiences across Scotland thanks to ScotRail's biggest-ever Festivals timetable."