Mums in Scotland, please can you offer us some help??

[kleggie]

Hello All,

My DH and I have always wanted to live in Scotland (currently in Norfolk) and have been working towards that end since we got married. DH has just been offered a job interview on the Isle of Rum (population 30!). The job is a dream come true, exactly what he is looking for.

The interview is at 11.45am on Friday 28th April and with the help of planes, buses, trains and a ferry, I think we can get him there with 5 minutes to spare. The problem is the return journey. For a flight that doesn't cost £200+ we need him to fly back at 10.50am on the Saturday (29th). I can get him as far as Fort William on the Friday night at 19.37 using ferries and trains and then we are totally stuck. He needs to fly back from Glasgow but there are no overnight trains or buses to get him into Glasgow for the Saturday morning flight. I have been on the 'net for three hours trying to juggle it. So far we have:

OUTBOUND
Thursday 27th April:
Flight 12.35-13.55 Norwich to Glasgow
Citylink bus 15.00-18.05 Glasgow to Fort William
Train 22.10-22.30 Fort William to Mallaig
SLEEP IN HOSTEL!
Friday 28th April:
Ferry 10.15-11.35 Mallaig to Rum
11.45: Interview

RETURN
Friday 28th April:
Ferry 15.20-17.50 Rum to Mallaig
Train 18.15-19.37 Mallaig to Fort William
HEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM
Saturday 29th April:
Flight 10.50 Glasgow to Norwich

He hasn't taken his driving test yet, which is the main problem. If we could hire a car, that would solve all of these transportation issues. Can any of you help? Do you know of any overnight coaches? A magic train diverting from Hogwarts (HP filmed partly at Glenfinnan is it not)?

We really want this opportunity to start our new life in Scotland. We are gutted that we might not be able to get there. We just don't have the money for a more expensive flight.

Any ideas gratefully received.

much as I'd like to take the credit, it was seb who linked to the scotrail website . I was looking at the Trainline!

Try this guy

\link{http://www.alstours.com/\here}

He does taxi pick ups from the airport to FW

Or you could fly to Inverness and get buses/trains to and from FW

Rapsons Coaches also operate in the area

I wouldn't worry about cutting it fine on the way up there. People who live in the Isles tend to have an understanding attitude towards the vagrities of public transport (after all, the ferries regularly don't run because the weather's too rough).

Coming back there is a bus service called the Mallaig and Oban West Highland Flyer. It's designed to meet the small isles ferry that your husband will be on, and then carry passangers down to Fort William and on to Oban so that they can get the ferry to Mull. Your husband can get this bus at 18:00 and be in FW at 19:15. Contact telephone number: 07780 724248. Tickets are available on the bus or from tourist offices in Mallaig.

If he's in FW at 19:15 he will then be able to get the 19:55 Scotrail train to Westerton (getting in at 23:49) and change there to the Glasgow train (leaves 23:58), arriving into Queens Street at 00:09. This is actually the FW to London sleeper so he could just stay on, otherwise he'll have to find somewhere cheap to stay in Glasgow and get himself out to the airport in the morning.

I'd recommend that you phone scotrail to check that this works out and that the sleeper will actually run that day.

Hope this helps.