More than half a million customers travelled on ScotRail services across the country during what was the busiest weekend of the year for rail travel.
With the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, the Edinburgh Festivals, and the Scottish rugby team’s match against France all taking place, customers flocked to ScotRail trains to get to and from the events.
On what was the busiest Sunday since 2015, 197,000 journeys were made, with the road race taking place between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
And on Saturday, 327,000 customer journeys were recorded with people travelling to see the events taking place in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the Scotland v France match at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.
Last week, the train operator announced the addition of more trains and increased services to support the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, and the Edinburgh Festivals.
The busy weekend also saw the rugby taking place in Edinburgh, and the Scottish football season getting underway.
ScotRail had hundreds of extra staff on hand to assist customers, and the weekend of travel proved to be a huge success with record numbers of people passing through stations, up 33 per cent on the previous weekends in July.
Phil Campbell, Customer Operations Director, said:
“We are absolutely delighted to see how many people used our services over the weekend, and it is fantastic that we were able to play our part in making the events a success, and welcome visitors to the country.
“We made significant improvements to our services to support the events, running as many trains as possible, with extra seats added to help where they were needed most.
“Although our trains were busy, and stations busier than normal, our staff did a fantastic job to help, and keep people moving.
“With the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships continuing, and the Edinburgh Festivals in full swing, we are looking forward to more people travelling with us for these events in the coming days.”