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sleeper without reservation

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dvboy

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rang scotrail today to try to book a seat on the sleeper between westerton and crewe this sinday evening to be told there were none left. what are the chances of getting a seat if i just turn up on the evening?
 
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Flying Snail

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rang scotrail today to try to book a seat on the sleeper between westerton and crewe this sinday evening to be told there were none left. what are the chances of getting a seat if i just turn up on the evening?

I would expect there will be seats on the departure from Westerton and as your tickets will only be checked after departure you will by default be carried on this as far as Edinburgh. However passengers from this are transferred at Edinburgh to the Aberdeen-London coach and this may well be full with reserved passengers, if this is the case I would not be surprised if you were refused onward travel and left looking for somewhere to spend the night there.

It would not be advisable to try that without reservations, you would be relying on both luck in reserved passengers not turning up and goodwill from the ScR staff for allowing you travel at all without the proper tickets.

Have you looked to see if there are any reservations available from Falkirk Grahamston on the Inverness portion or Kirkcaldy on the Aberdeen?
 

34D

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I would expect there will be seats on the departure from Westerton and as your tickets will only be checked after departure you will by default be carried on this as far as Edinburgh. However passengers from this are transferred at Edinburgh to the Aberdeen-London coach and this may well be full with reserved passengers, if this is the case I would not be surprised if you were refused onward travel and left looking for somewhere to spend the night there.

It would not be advisable to try that without reservations, you would be relying on both luck in reserved passengers not turning up and goodwill from the ScR staff for allowing you travel at all without the proper tickets.

Have you looked to see if there are any reservations available from Falkirk Grahamston on the Inverness portion or Kirkcaldy on the Aberdeen?


With a (valid) Westerton to Crewe our man is entitled to board any valid trains, standing where there are no available seats. This certainly applies north of Edinburgh (where the fort william sleeper has a day coach, advertised in non-sleeper timetables as FW to Ed (as snail says, this day coach then gets shunted off and works Ed to FW with the down sleeper cars.

Is any seated accom advertised south of Edinburgh though? You could certainly pay the berth supplement, if a bed is available (pay on the train at Edinburgh perhaps).

I'd be interested to read others' thoughts on this.

Also - FGW welcome passengers with travel tickets (but no night Riviera reservation) and they definitely do carry a day coach. One tuesday night I turned up on spec at Plymouth, to find all beds full, and my only choice to be that horrible day coach where the lights don't even get dimmed - does anyone remember the eastern region mark 2 aircon coaches, of which some had lghting modified for a seated night service in early 80s?
 

EltonRoad

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The sleeper is advertised in local WHL timetables as you say but there's a footnote saying reservations compulsory. This has been debated before. In my experience of using this service quite a lot, I'd say the reservations condition is unlikely ever to be enforced for journeys wholely north of Edinburgh, but if travelling south thereof it definitely would be, as the Aberdeen coach could be fully booked. If it were me, I would not do this journey in either type of accommodation without pre-booking, as there's a high chance you'd be left stranded.
 

dvboy

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Thanks I would have thought their system would be intelligent enough to tell me if there was a seat available from Edinburgh so I don't think I'll try. My back up plan was the first train from Glasgow Central in the morning.
 
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