Hello Alastair

Welcome to the latest selection of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday's leading transport coverage.

I made my first foray into the Festival city this week, joining a packed mid-morning train from Glasgow to work in our Edinburgh office for the day.

It was equally busy in Princes Street Gardens as I admired the view of the National Gallery of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle behind - but thankfully the New Town was not yet as manic as I imagine the High Street and much of the surrounding Old Town already is.

Negotiating the crowds, a busker raised a smile by joking about the unusually large flat box I was carrying (containing The Scotsman banners from our Glasgow office for today's Fringe First awards presentation): "Nice bit of shoplifting."       

But as things get busier during the annual arts extravaganza, I can recommend a perfect oasis of calm just metres away from the madding crowd - and in a building I'd never stepped into despite more than 40 years of living in and visiting the city.

National Records Scotland is hosting a fascinating exhibition charting the rapid expansion of the country's railways at the turn of the last century in a beautifully tranquil space under the Adam Dome of General Register House, at the east end of Princes Street opposite North Bridge.

It even has its amusing aspects, such as the Glasgow and South Western Railway's 1907 steamers programme, which featured vessels including a Glen Sannox and a Glen Rosa. Let me know if they had as difficult a birth as their present day namesakes.

Back on the opposite side of the country, I reported for Scotland on Sunday on an innovation about to take shape on the Glasgow Subway that will enable it to become the first railway in the UK to operate trains with no drivers or other staff routinely on board.

The feature which you may have seen elsewhere, such as on some London Underground lines, will appear first at Govan station within weeks before being added to the other 14 stops on the historic circular line - the third oldest in the world.

The start of the week was dominated by the unusually fierce summer storm Floris, which caused widespread disruption to roads, railways and ferries, and forced the cancellation of Edinburgh Festival shows including the International Military Tattoo.

The Scotsman published what I reckon was the most comprehensive preview anywhere of what people should expect, while my colleagues Ena Saracevic and Martin McLaughlin provided a full round-up on the day.

Elsewhere, following last week's call to dual the A75 Gretna-Stranraer route, my political correspondent colleague Rachel Amery reported on the Scottish Conservatives also campaigning for similar treatment for the A1 as "a matter of life and death" because of the number of injuries on the road.

News from Elsewhere... I'm working my way through Radio 4's fascinating ten-part series Derailed: The Story of HS2 on BBC Sounds, and surprised at the scale of early mistakes and mis-steps the project appeared to have made. It is alas an all-too familiar story of a new "big idea" being initially embraced widely before things start falling apart when it comes to the execution and the detail.

A final thought: The Scotsman is the publication that most fully covers the Edinburgh Festival, whether you're looking for tips on what to see or just enjoy reading about it from afar. 

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Please email adalton@scotsman.com - or message me on X at @AlastairDalton or on Bluesky at @alastairdalton.bsky.social

Thanks

Alastair