FED-UP golf fans have blasted ScotRail for ‘shambolic’ services on the first day of The Open.
Passengers accused ScotRail of not being up to par when it came to providing enough transport between Glasgow and Ayrshire after reports of three-hour queues for trains.
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The 152nd Open teed off at Royal Troon today with the R&A predicting more than 250,000 people would visit the tiny seaside town over the three day event.
However golf enthusiasts, some who have travelled from across the globet to see stars such as Tiger Woods, Bob MacIntyre and Rory McIlroy, were left frustrated at the lack of trains to take them to their destination.
Josh Jeffery said passengers trying to get from the city centre to Troon, were turned away.
He tweeted on X “Good old Scotrail. Declining people boarding the Glasgow train to Troon. If only there was some way of knowing that a major sporting event was happening this week.”
He later shared a picture of massive queues at Troon train station, adding: “These were scenes at Troon station at 7pm last night. An Absolute shambles @scotrail.”
Another angry rail user, David McCorquodale echoed his thoughts on X, tweeting: “Congratulations @scotrail….totally misjudged the numbers attending @TheOpen with trains to Glasgow every half hour, soon to be hourly.
“Shambolic queues of golf fans who simply want a transport system that works but having to wait 2-3 hours to get home.
“Wouldn’t recommend that Scotland holds another Open Golf tournament until the public transport system can cope.
“Please Note @R&A golf fans deserve better and @scotrail appears to (be) unable to serve you. Not a good advert for the country.
Richard Longmui was heading to work and taking his usual commute but wasn’t able to board the train.
He posted: “Absolute joke @scotrail. 3 carriages on from Glasgow to Ayr at peak time when @TheOpen is on?! I need to get to work and couldn’t get on it. Absolute disgrace. What were you thinking?”
However ScotRail insists it put on extra services to help with the high demand, saying more than 14,000 passengers travelled aboard its trains on the first day and claim six trains per hour were running between Glasgow and Ayrshire during its busiest times.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail Customer Operations Director, said: “With The Open Championship once again at Royal Troon, ScotRail is doing everything it can to support the event.
“Customer demand for our services during Practice Day yesterday was almost 50 per cent higher than for any other Open we’ve supported, and additional services were added in the morning and evening to help reduce waiting times.
“With The Open now in full swing, ScotRail is adding additional services at busy times both before and after each Championship day.
“We’re advising customers to allow extra time for travel as services will be busy, and queuing systems are in operation.”