Worst Group Rant No.94a

I read in the news the other day that First Group were announced as preferred bidder for the provision of direct coaches, park and ride services and venue shuttle services for spectators to the London 2012 Games.

Those who frequent my rants on a regular basis (Mrs Trellis from North Wales...) may be aware of my feelings about Worst Group. I gave up on their woeful bus services in Edinburgh some time ago. I now use Lothian Buses and can't help smirking on many mornings as I board an on-time warm, modern, Lothian Bus, leaving poor frustrated First Bus passengers at the stop still waiting for their old, noisy and battered old bus which should have arrived five minutes earlier.

Sadly, the majority of train services in Scotland are run by Scotrail - which is operated by Worst Group. This Saturday many Scotrail staff have opted for strike action. However, the company have said they hope to run nine out of ten trains. My plans for Saturday include heading to Larbert to watch the mighty East Stirlingshire so I emailed the Scotrail website last Sunday to ask if the Edinburgh-Dunblane service - which runs through Larbert - would be running. By Wednesday there was no reply from their 'customer services' department so I used an old fashioned method - and phoned instead. A somewhat harassed Scotrail employee told me the service would be running as usual on Saturday.

Yesterday, I finally received an email from Scotrail - three days later. This acknowledged my email and my plan to travel from Edinburgh to, er, Perth. It further advised that there would be few trains going to Perth that day and advised against making the journey. Subsequently, I will turn up at Edinburgh's Waverley Station on Saturday lunch time not knowing if I'll get a train to Larbert or not.

If anyone is looking to use Worst Group's Olympic services in London two years from now, may I suggest you set off quite soon to avoid disappointment. Or, if you really want to avoid disappointment, use Shanks's Pony...