Illa d'Skye, Escòcia
Per Setmana Santa vaig anar a fer un tour per Escòcia. Skye Island, concretament. Totalment impresionant, i per aquells que feu cicloturisme, més interessant encara... (eh, Albert?). Bé al grà... que tinc molta feina i poc temps per fer-la... A més de tenir uns contrastos de paisatge que flipes, a Skye Island s'hi poden veure foques. A la costa hi ha diverses colònies de foques i veure-les en estat natural (vull dir fora del zoològic) és realment interessant. El guia ens va explicar que a finals d'agost-primers de setembre la cosa és més interessant, perquè els mascles es barallen per aconseguir una "donzella-foca" i es veu que les lluites (amb sang i ferides incloses) són espectaculars...
I ara ve el "però". L'únic que no em va agradar va ser el tren (i perquè jo digui això... és que Déu n'hi dó...). Els dos recorreguts que vaig fer (Fort William-Kyle of Lochalsh i Mallaig-Glasgow) són altament recomanables. Jo diria que es troben entre els 3 més bonics d'Europa, i dels més bonics que jo he fet (que no són pocs). Ambdós estan recomanats en dues guies de viatges amb tren que tinc. Ara bé, què passa quan el recorregut dura 5 hores, i el tren és pitjor que una cafetera de la Renfe? Doncs que el viatge es converteix en gairebé una tortura, i per comptes de gaudir de l'impressionant paisatge, acabes desitjant arribar aviat a destinació... Doncs bé, per fer palès el meu malestar, avui mateix envio una carta a ScotRail, l'operadora ferroviaria d'Escòcia, amb la intenció de fer-los arribar el meu descontentament. Si tinc resposta, la publicaré!
Realment és una pena que un dels recorreguts més bonics d'Europa es serveixi amb uns trens antics, incòmodes i amb un servei més pròpi dels anys 80 que del 2011. Aquí teniu la carta.
Dear Sir/Madam
My name is Jaume and I am from Catalonia. On Sunday 24th April I went by train from Mallaig to Glasgow and despite the beautiful landscapes, my trip was disgusting and horrible because of the dreadful service offered by ScotRail-First. I hve several complaints that I detail in this e-mail.
Firstly, I arrived at Mallaig station at 9.10pm (just one hour before the train's leaving) and it was closed. The weather was very bad, it was cold and it was pouring down, so all the passengers stayed in a small and crowded shelter next to the track.
Secondly, I want to say that the trains schedule is inadequate and insufficient because two trains per day are not enough. The train was unbearably crowded and some people were standing up for the entire journey. That train was too short; it needed at least four carriages.
Thirdly, the train was old, disgusting and extremely unconfortable as the seats were very old and completely worn out. I could feel the seat's metal skeleton in my back. As well as this, I did not have enough space for my feet because if there are four people in four seats around a table, the space for the feet is not snough. You can't move your feet!
Fourtly, I had a problem with the reservation, because if you book a journey from Mallaig to Glasgow -as I did-, you receive two different reservations. The fort one is from Mallaig to Crianlarich; and the second one from Crianlarich to Glasgow. According to the reservation ticket, in Crianlarich you should change your seat and your train, but in fact, the train is the same. As a result of this, the passenger gets confused.
Fiftly, there was no first class available and you had to queue up to use the toilet, because just there was one toilet for all the people that were in the train.
In conclusion, you should know that this model os train is not suitable for all this reasons that I have explained and because the train journey is about five and a half hours long.
I have travelled by train around Europe and I have never had a trip as bad as this before. Despite the amazing landscape in the Highlands, the trip was very unpleasant and this was a pity. Please, try to solve this things for the future tourists, otherwise people won't go to this place and won't use your trains and don't hesitage to contact me if you want further information or more details. I have some ideas to improve the service in this train line.
Yours faithfully
0 comentaris:
Publica un comentari