When I first joined our Orkney walking group over a year ago, one local told me about the National Entitlement Card (NEC), a travel card for Scottish residents of *ahem* a certain age. It granted me free bus rides in Orkney, as well as four free ferry rides per year. Nice.
It later turned out I could also use that card on buses inside the city of Edinburgh, although not, according to these same friends, for inter-city travel. Still pretty nice.
I’ve been taking Scotrail trains from Carluke into the centre of Glasgow or Edinburgh over the last month – great for shopping or sightseeing. I buy the tickets via their app. As my niece and I were heading into Glasgow last Wednesday, there was a man across the aisle from us. Not the same reasonably nicely dressed man who joined our shelter bench while waiting for the train; who came in, sat down, started muttering to himself, removed and replaced each of his shoes one at a time, and popped a couple of beers in the eight minutes before the train arrived.
No, the man we observed on the train was different. When the ticket attendant came by, instead of giving her a ticket or a QR code on his phone, he showed his NEC card. Hang on, hang on, could I be travelling for free on Scotrail with my NEC card? It seems that yes, I can. So not only is my travel within the cities free, but I can tour around Scotland for free too!
God, I love Scotland. (BTW, it is my understanding English residents do not have the same benefits down south – ha! That’s what they get for stealing our Stone of Destiny.)