Scottish dopers - how to get from Fort William to Dundee

Factual Questions
1

I am going to Ben Nevis in August with a bunch of friends and there is someone we’d like to visit who lives in Dundee.

All I’ve worked out from Googling is that Dundee is 81 miles from Fort William, and because the rest of the time we are in London and therefore many many more miles from our friend, we’ll do anything to get through those 81 miles.

Problem number one is that no one is driving - there are six of us going and only three of us know the Dundee person; while we visit her the other three want to do something else and it happens that the other three are taking their cars. I don’t have a car and my two friends who want to come to Dundee with me can’t drive. I don’t think the car-takers would be able to put me on their insurance and borrow a car.

I can’t find a direct train link, but neither can I find a way to connect even through Glasgow. I can’t find any buses either!

Is anyone familiar with the area, and if so could you advise me on the best way to get across those bloody 81 miles?!

2

My guess is that it’s easiest by bus, but you’ll need to change buses. Try using the search function at Scottish Citylink.

3

There is a train from Fort William to Dundee.

Train Time

5 hours is a bit crazy though, so it can’t be direct. I think bus would be better. If you can’t find from Fort William, you could try from Oban, which will definitely have a bus run to it.

4

The train will take you back down to Glasgow (epic scenery on this line). From there, you would need to get another train up the east coast to Dundee - they leave often. Simple enough, but will take hours. How about asking your friend to meet you in Glasgow? It’s a nice spot, plenty to do.

5

There’s trains from Edinburgh to Dundee every hour, I think. Can you get from Fort William to Edinburgh?

6

According to the National Rail website it goes via Glasgow. There are plenty of services from Glasgow to Dundee (takes about an hour & 20 minutes), but the Fort William-Glasgow leg takes just under 4 hours, and there are only 4 trains a day. It’s one of the world’s great railway journeys, so well worth doing if you have the time.

Looking on this website I found a bus route that takes a mere four hours (914 to Tyndrum, then 973 to Dundee).

Note to Americans: 80 miles in Scotland is not a short journey. If you need to get there and back in one day, your best option may be to hire a car in Fort William. Even then, you’re looking at a 3-hour drive each way.

7

You can get a bus http://www.citylinkonlinesales.co.uk/JPlannerServlet?mn=1&op=6

Where are your friends with cars going? Maybe they can drop you somewhere closer to Dundee?

Hmm link doesn’t work. Go to Citylink route planner. The bus takes just under 4 hours

8

Missed the edit window: That 81 miles you got from Google is the straight-line distance, which ignores the mountains in the way. Google Maps gives the shortest distance by road as 126 miles. The bus and train routes are longer.

9

If your fiends can do it try getting a lift to Dalwhinnie - about 45 miles, say 1 hour 15 minutes (these roads aren’t motorways!) - then train to Dundee via Perth - again about an hour an a half - so total journey time of around 3 hours.

I am not sure you could get back the same day though!

10

Hmm. Lots of options. Our friend has a tiny new baby, so we don’t want to ask her to travel.

I’d be more than happy with getting the train no matter how long it takes as the scenery would be fabulous but I suppose we need to be realistic about whether we can do it in one day.

The most sensible thing I can think of is if we ask the driving friend to drop us in Dundee on the way to Fort William, and we’ll see our friend and then get the train on to Fort William, so at least it’s only *one *mammoth train journey. We might even be able to find a B+B in Dundee and stay overnight…I’ll get my thinking hat on.

Thanks for links! :slight_smile:

11

There is a Travelodge in Dundee city centre, if you book in advance you can get rooms at a reasonable price.

12

But there are also direct trains from Glasgow, which, unlike Edinburgh, has a direct connection with Fort Wiliam. Why add an extra connection, and even more extra distance?

13

So there are three of you going to Dundee? Train will be expensive for the three of you. There are various passes and such but not on a walk up basis. It would be either cheaper or the same to hire a car w/driver. The route and time would be direct and short as possible.

14

Train costs a total of about £60. I’m not convinced it would be cheaper to hire a car with or without driver - plus I like trains :slight_smile:

15

Instead of asking him to go via Dundee, which would be a bit of a detour, you could ask to be dropped off in Stirling or Perth. Both of these places have plenty of trains to Dundee. If he chose Perth, I guess he could take the A9 (a fairly fast road) up to the A86 and cut across there to Fort William.

Perth/Dundee by train is quite quick - 25 minutes or so; from Stirling it’s around 50 - 60 minutes, depending on the train.