Trains to Inverurie are being sacrificed for the sake of boosting journeys between Aberdeen and Glasgow.
And services from Stonehaven, Laurencekirk and Portlethen to the Granite City are also being reduced as rail bosses focus on intercity links with the central belt.
The drastic changes are part of Scotrail’s new timetable, which will come into force on Sunday December 10.
A “significant decline” in customers buying season tickets – and people travelling less frequently in the north-east as a whole – have been blamed.
It comes as council chiefs try to encourage more residents to get out of their cars and commute by public transport.
Campaigners are also pushing for Cove and Newtonhill railway stations to reopen, while the fight to bring back train links in north Aberdeenshire is ongoing.
But Scotrail officials say that although the number of local trains might be slashed, the new timetable will offer “more reliable” services and improve long-distance journeys.
So what are the ScotRail changes?
The majority of changes will impact services between Aberdeen and Glasgow, with dozens of local trains running north of Montrose being scrapped.
Under Scotrail’s plans, 10 of the additional trains that run from Montrose to Aberdeen during peak times will be axed.
Instead, the intercity train from Glasgow will make a few more stops on its way to Aberdeen to fill in some of the gaps.
This means that passengers in Laurencekirk and Portlethen will still get a “roughly” hourly service – but not every 60 minutes.
Or in other words, one train could be at 5.10pm and the next at 6.45pm.
Journeys between Aberdeen and Stonehaven will also be slashed by six, going down to 60 per day.
Meanwhile, changes to local services between Dundee and Arbroath will add about five extra minutes to trips between Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Inverurie trains suffer worst hit – but those travelling south will benefit
The new timetable will come as a harsh blow for residents travelling to Inverurie.
Scotrail currently runs three or four trains per hour in peak times, and two or three during off-peak.
Bosses have now decided to remove a “handful” of the services provided when people travel most, as well as those third extra ones during the day.
All in all, trains from Aberdeen to Inverurie will be cut down from 74 to 63.
And services from Montrose, Stonehaven, Laurencekirk and Portlethen to the Donside town will be sliced nearly by half.
However, for people having to go down to Dundee or Glasgow – things are looking brighter.
The number of trains running to the City of Discovery will be bumped up by about a dozen – with more direct journeys for communities in south Aberdeenshire.
When is the new timetable coming in place – and for how long?
All of the changes will come into effect on December 10.
They will remain in place until the Aberdeen to Central Belt Enhancement Project provides more capacity on the Aberdeen to Glasgow line.
But when exactly this might be is unclear.
The £200 million scheme was launched in 2016 in a drive to speed up rail journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt by 24 minutes.
In its latest update, Transport Scotland vowed the project will be completed by December 2026.
Why is ScotRail carrying out the train changes?
The lack of customer demand following the pandemic has been pointed out as one of the main reasons to cut down on trains across the north-east.
Scotrail’s business development executive, Ewan Tait, said there has been “significant overprovision of capacity”, given how busy Aberdeen services have been in the last year.
“Poor reliability” – with trains between Aberdeen and Montrose often being cancelled in the last minute – has also played a part in their decision-making.
Presenting their plans to Nestrans board members, Mr Tait explained: “When an intercity train is not available, we have to take one of our diesel trains – usually from a local service.
“It means customers commuting on the intercity train get only two carriages, while those from Laurencekirk or Portlethen coming into Aberdeen find their train cancelled.
“All in all, it’s not a great place for us to be in.”
And boosting their intercity service between Aberdeen and Glasgow is hoped to fix that, as well as improve long-distance journeys for passengers.
What do you think of the new timetable? Let us know in our comments section below
Is this ‘the right approach’ to encourage train travel?
However, the new timetable didn’t sit quite right with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire council chiefs, who questioned Scotrail’s decisions.
City finance convener Alex McLellan, who represents Tillydrone, Seaton and Old Aberdeen, found the whole situation “concerning”.
He said: “We want to be making trains as appealing as possible, and I don’t think these changes – reducing the capacity and increasing journey times – will necessarily achieve that.”
Meanwhile, Stonehaven councillor Alan Turner feared elderly residents might be stuck “out in the cold”, potentially waiting for hours to get home from Montrose.
But Mr Tait insisted all of this will only benefit customers – and attract new ones.
He told Nestrans members that cancelling local services last minute, so trains can be used elsewhere, would have a “detrimental impact” on efforts to have more people travelling by rail.
Adding more local stops to the intercity lines was his preferred alternative if it reduced the last of those unexpected letdowns.
He added: “We are really keen to provide a service people can rely on, first and foremost.
“It’s really disappointing that we haven’t been able to improve the reliability of our intercity trains, but we are doing a lot of work to fix that.
“This is not just a case of us choosing this [new timetable] as the easy answer.”
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