Mike Macleod, The Scottish Labour & Scottish Co-operative Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Orkney, has called for a change to the timetable for the X1 Bus Service.

The issue is the 19:50 X1 service from St Margaret’s Hope, which leaves too late for ferry passengers.

An examination of timetables shows that for Monday to Saturday the 09:30 Pentland Ferries sailing from Gills Bay to St Margaret’s Hope should usually arrive at 10:40, on the basis of a normal 1 hour 10 minute sailing time.  Foot passengers can disembark and get the 10:50 X1 bus service for onward travel.  Likewise the 13:30 sailing should arrive at 14:40 again in good time for foot passengers to catch the 14:50 X1 bus.

However when the 18:45 MV Pentalina sailing arrives at 19:55, the 19:50 X1 service will usually have departed by then.  Foot passengers will then have to wait for the 22:10 X1 bus service which terminates at Kirkwall instead of going on further. 

Mr Macleod said –

“I first became aware of this in December when by chance I had to take the 18:45 sailing.  Myself and some of the other foot passengers were distinctly worried, and considered booking a taxi.  However I happened to mention our concerns to the Pentalina Purser, and by a remarkable coincidence the tides and wind circumstances turned out to be in the right direction.  The Pentalina arrived early and we were just able to catch the 19:50 X1 bus before it departed.”

“Since then some additional information has come to my attention, that this timetable mismatch has been a bone of contention for local people for some time.  It seems very strange when so much else in Orkney is so very well-organised.  It also unfairly disadvantages the locally-owned business Pentland Ferries, in that this timetable mismatch would tend to discourage foot passengers from using their evening service.”

“I respectfully urge a rethink of the X1 Bus Service timetable, since this will be to the benefit of Orcadians and visitors alike, as well as helping an important Orkney business.  To this end I have written formally to Stagecoach as well as copying them in on this Press Release.”