Genuinely fascinating. I wasn't expecting such a difference in subsidy per journey between the West Highland Line and the Far North Line.
It might be that the far north line is a lot more remote from centres of population and also, end-to-end journeys are wildly uncompetitive in terms of time.
Long distance journeys are likely to need an overnight break Connections to Orkney aren't really set up to be useable as there's a void between Thurso station and the ferry terminal at Scrabster. The morning ferry arrival hits Scrabster at a time when a lot of the town's transport is tied up in the start of the school day. For people who've not made advance preparations, the ferry company has a list of various Thurso taxi phone numbers which looks encouraging - but the first one you ring, after confirming they've nothing available, is likely to warn you against ringing the other numbers as the calls all come in to the same office.
Anyone heading to Inverness will step on to the X99 coach that meets the boat at the ferry terminal and takes people both to Inverness city centre and the city's hospital.
Then, there's the rail fares - if you're heading to/from Scotland, without knowing split ticketing, long distance travel now often involves anytime fares. The southern end of the far north line has a train that connects into
LNERs» Highland Chieftan with advance fares often available from stations south of a place called Ardgay that's at the outer edge of the Inverness rail commuting distance, anything else long distance off the far north line, to the uninitiated or those buying tickets from machines, involves anytime fares only.
In contrast, the West Highland line's daytime long distance fares are off-peak for some reason possibly to do with ferries to the islands.
Dragging this towards the west country for a moment, Crosscountry's 08:20 departure from Aberdeen to Bristol is timetabled to key in to the overnight ferry from Orkney/Shetland. Advance fares are subject to availability otherwise it's an anytime £260 per person for a day in a 4 car Voyager.
In that Scotrail document, the notes are illuminating.
To boost tourist use of the system, perhaps there's mileage in promoting tie-ins between accommodation and rover tickets. All starting to sound a bit 'Railway hotel' though, but over to you, Premier Inn Thurso. :-)
Off topic: the distance from Glasgow Queen Street to Glasgow Central Station is much the same as the distance between Glasgow Central's platform ends and the front of the station.
