An item in the 17 November issue of the Ross-shire Journal, about the difficulties which can occur when a large number of cruise passengers from Invergordon decide to travel to Inverness by train, produced quite a response from its readers. This is of course hardly surprising, and the report in the newspaper covered it well, having taken the trouble to contact ScotRail for an explanation, and then FoFNL for a reaction, which chimed exactly with ScotRail's comments.

In the next edition the paper introduced public responses to the article:

ScotRail's challenge with cruise line passengers arriving at Invergordon, forcing "regular commuters to wait or endure cramped conditions on trips to Inverness", sparked debate. Adding carriages isn't possible.

The comments made by the letter writers should give ScotRail, Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government pause for thought.

To be fair, people who use the trains may or may not be aware of how railways work. It's not obvious to a casual observer that there is no such thing these days as adding an extra carriage. It's also not obvious, when you are in a train, that the line is single track with very few passing places.

Perhaps the time has come to explain to passengers how things work and what the extreme limitations are. Perhaps if the general public (and unfortunately I include many politicians and journalists in this) actually understood how deficient the Highland railway system is when compared with what's available in the rest of Scotland, there might be more effective calls for investment.