So we had a day trip today from near Carlisle to Edinburgh - car to Tweedbank.
1050 from Tweedbank and 1511 return from Waverley. 3hours from door to Waverley.
Got a space in the car park which looked to be 90% full - we drove through to double row 5 where about 6 spaces appeared. I see the car park entrance has moved from immediately after the platforms to about 50m further along no doubt due to the new office type building that has appeared.
Found the tickets machines, one big and one narrow in the first bus shelter. 2 other peeple buying, one at each so the narrow one became free first. Terrible machine - on screen buttons a bit fuzzy/soft/out of focus, not easily clear from the button colours/shading which on screen buttons were active and further not helped by the viewing angle - if you touched the screen where you thought you were looking down then you missed and hit 1cm higher or the button above. Slow response did not help as it appeared you had missed so when you had a second try the machine did something else as due to the slow response it was now actioning the first response. Ended up buying 2 tickets each as a single transaction for speed as train waiting. I do not recommend this type of machine - in fact if I was the TOC Purchaser this machine wopuld have been a fail and a no buy. The new Northern big mirrors (sorry 2001 Space Odessy monolith type ticket machines) are easier and quicker to use - much bigger on screen buttons so no finger aiming issues. Note - I think the bigger machine was malfunctioning in some way as we later saw the user buying a ticket from the train conductor.
Each train was a class 170 2+2 so nice seats etc - this unit is ok except it is 100mph and thus low geared. It would be much better with a 75mph geared set up to give quicker acceleration and better hill climbing. On this route there did not seem to be a need for 100mph due to multiple stops (particularly nearer Edinburgh), track curvature necessitating slower line speed. In terms of 75mph, I was thinking Chiltern class 165 type performance but a 170 body.
It was very slow joing the ECML - 15mph - why? a track geometry/cant issue?
Trains were reasonably well used - about 50% full from Tweedbank and Gala, the balance from Edinburgh local stations.
Would we use it again - unlikely:
* either train Carlisle (drive to in car) to Edinburgh, about 45 minutes quicker
* or car via A74(M) to Abington then A702 and park at Ingliston Tram stop - quicker by at least 30 minutes and easier drive than the A7.
It did make a nice, if longish day out.