Travel Experiences

Doors Open Days is coordinated nationally by the Scottish Civic Trust and is part of European Heritage Days. Hundreds of fascinating buildings across Scotland are available to visit for free on different weekends during September. Two of these open days with public transport themes are featured here: Wemyss Bay station became the first combined rail

Figure 1; The car ferry MF Dragsvik at Hella on the Dragsvik to Hella and Vangsnes route on the Sognefjord. (Photograph: David Murray-Smith) Norway now operates more than 100 battery-electric and hybrid ferries for passengers and vehicles and many of these ferry routes are in the west of the country. I spent a week in

The Falkirk Wheel in operation. McGill’s Midland Bluebird operates the X36 and the X37 Swift branded bus services from Glasgow, Buchanan Bus Station to Stirling and Falkirk respectively. Monday to Saturday, and on Sundays too, there is an hourly service to both locations. I decided to make a trip to see the Falkirk Wheel.  As

The River Esk at Langholm, looking towards the Langholm Bridge – a road bridge originally built in 1778. A plaque tells me that Thomas Telford worked on this bridge as a journeyman (skilled worker). Dumfries is the administrative centre of Dumfries and Galloway, the council which encompasses the historic counties of Wigtownshire, the Stewartry of

Figure 1: The destination – the view eastwards on the coast in the vicinity of Robertsfors, north of Umeå, where the Rickleån River empties into the Bothnian Bay on the Baltic Sea. This is typical of the very attractive coastal scenery in this part of northern Sweden. (Photograph; David Murray-Smith). I spent most of June

First bus Glasgow Wright StreetDeck Electroliner with Glasgow Airport Express branding departing Buchanan Bus Station for the airport. Glasgow airport is Scotland’s second largest airport with just over eight million customers travelling through it in 2025, ranking it ninth by passenger usage in the United Kingdom. Glasgow airport is slightly unusual amongst British airports in

The London Cable Car is now known as the “IFS Cloud”. Previously it operated as the “Emirates Air Line”.  An email from a fellow member of the Scottish Association for Public Transport reminded me that it is very easy to think that day to day urban and sub-urban public transport is confined to bus, train,

Platform 1 at Neilston Railway Station, with shelter and ticket office (to the right, behind the shelter). Trains to Glasgow depart from this platform.  I thought that I’d visit the village of Neilston (East Renfrewshire), outbound by rail; and return by bus.  I found Neilston on the Scotrail system map of central routes [LINK] https://www.scotrail.co.uk/plan-your-journey/our-routes

Commemorative plaque at Kilmarnock station, celebrating the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway The starting point for my trip today (a Saturday) was Kilmarnock station, where I had just arrived. It is, of course, possible to travel to Troon by train (on the line round to Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer) but on this occasion, my journey was

A Volvo B8RLE MCV eVoRa in JMB Travel’s colourful green and grey livery, with a dash of purple. This bus is at the temporary Lanark terminus on route 41. JMB Travel are a firm that operate local and inter-urban bus services across Lanarkshire. The company is based at Newmains, to the East of Wishaw.  Having