Your article of 5th July tells only a small part of the story. Largs has just about the worst timetable in the Central Belt and our trains take longer, by design. From the current timetable and looking at trains running non-stop from Gilmour Street to Central, 95% of Gourock trains and 78% of Ayr trains take 10 or 11 minutes while only 63% of Largs trains do so, often after the torture of stopping at all stations. In addition, some Ayr trains now run non-stop from Kilwinning to Glasgow. There is a ‘rule-of-thumb’ for such timetables that every extra minute in journey time costs 1% of passenger numbers.

This however is the least of the problem. We don’t even have a full hourly service with gaps of 79, 80 and a whopping 93 minutes, all at peak times. The lack of a fast train to Glasgow around 1800 is particularly vexing for anyone seeking a night out in the city. Our earliest and latest ‘services’ contrast starkly with others, particularly the new Borders Railway, which boast a mostly half-hourly service from 0520 to 2355. Indeed someone taking their first train can be in Glasgow 15 minutes before the first Largs train arrives. Despite the populations being very similar for Largs, Fairlie and West Kilbride vs Tweedbank, Galashiels and Stow - more if you include Melrose, the Largs service actually carries more passengers despite our appalling timetable.

So, you railway folks, planners and politicians, how about it?

Mike Johnston

25 Windsor Gardens,

Largs