As Scotland began a staged transition into Lockdown Easing (Phase 3) from the middle of July, my first travel priority was to venture outside my own local area of Edinburgh city centre. In particular, I wanted to make a long-overdue family visit to Glasgow’s south side. While this was now fine according to Scottish Government regulations, ScotRail was still a bit behind the times: a Covid-19 emergency timetable was still in operation, and unless you were an ‘essential worker’, the company’s website made you jump through hoops just to reach the point where you could begin to book a ticket.
On the other hand, I knew from simple observation that trains were running nearly empty and my plan was to travel well outside peak periods – inasmuch as these still existed. It felt quite strange making my first train trip in four months, to the extent that I decided to document the two outbound legs photographically.
