Caledonian Sleeper discussion

[TimboM]

I’m aware of the staffing issues but could the Lowland stock that is on the way to Euston be used for the Highland then the defective stock has more time to reach Euston for the Lowland.

If staff are at Wembley - taxi to Euston?

I believe there's lots of other things that don't make it feasible, e.g. the sets are rotated continually for maintenance purposes, so the Lowlander stock (which was the Up Highlander stock on Friday night) is due to be in Polmadie tomorrow for servicing etc - may not be feasible to do the same things at Fort William/Aberdeen/Inverness. There'd be the coach labelling to sort out too and various other things.

On top of that, the Highlander stock will have 92043 (5S95 loco which will then work 1S26) on one end to take it into Euston and 92010 on the back to take the train forward to Edinburgh. The Lowlander stock has 87002 on the front to take the ECS into Euston - you'd somehow have to switch all the locos around too which would take just as long probably - and risk making the Lowlander late too.

 

[ScottDarg]

Southbound Lowlander is being handled entirely by Skodas tonight it seems.

90045 at the head of 1M11 in Glasgow Central.

90049 will have taken the Carstairs ECS to Edinburgh, and so should also do 1C11.

 

[TimboM]

They've just announced that they are in the process of removing the faulty coach. The stock won't be here for at least 45 - 60 minutes, then they have to do fire tests. So by the time it boards it looks like being best part of two hours late.

I'm wondering if getting the 5S96 stock out of the way early was to facilitate the shunting? Probably a limited amount of room/roads at the depot so having an extra one to play with may have been needed to take a coach out of the formation then put it back together again.

 

[Essexman]

Announced coach taken out and stock on the way. Estimated boarding 10.20 - 10.30.

 

[TimboM]

Announced coach taken out and stock on the way. Estimated boarding 10.20 - 10.30.

Yes - just going through Primrose Hill tunnels

 

[Mag_seven]

In order to minimise the delay to the Aberdeen passengers tonight, they appear to have built a brand new railway from Upper Tyndrum to Aberdeen.

 

[Merseysider]

In order to minimise the delay to the Aberdeen passengers tonight, they appear to have built a brand new railway from Upper Tyndrum to Aberdeen.
View attachment 42351

Brilliant

 

[swaldman]

Unfortunately those of us business travellers who cannot claim fares back are now being forced elsewhere. A 50%+ hike in fares for me is intolerable. I would love to see what would happen if a TOC foisted that sort of increase onto a run such as East Grinstead to Victoria then explained it by saying they were paying for shiny new trains. Perhaps CS customers from the last 10 years should now receive refunds for the lack of investment in working stock? Hotels on wheels are a marvelous idea - that's what Belmond Royal Scotsman do very well indeed. The idea of the sleeper was never this! Day time trains for me from now on as Virgin will deliver me home and away on time (mostly) for under 50% of CS fares. It's a pity because I think the CS staff are brilliant and I have previously been a staunch supporter.

Yeah. Prior to Serco I used to favour the Inverness and Aberdeen routes nearly every time I was heading to London. Now the prices have gone up so much that I either have to take daytime trains or, if I don't have a day to spare to travel each way, fly. And flying is the cheapest option. Recently tried to book Aberdeen<>London return, two months ahead, and it was £405..... in the end I booked flights for about £110 return. I'd prefer not to fly, but the option has been taken away

 

[cambsy]

The Highlander North bound on Sun 4th Feb was about 100 mins late from Euston due to coach defect, I was lucky as was on the Lowlander which arrived Glasgow Central bang on time, sat typing this on the 07.37 Glasgow-Euston Pendo in First Class.

 

[TimboM]

Yeah. Prior to Serco I used to favour the Inverness and Aberdeen routes nearly every time I was heading to London. Now the prices have gone up so much that I either have to take daytime trains or, if I don't have a day to spare to travel each way, fly. And flying is the cheapest option. Recently tried to book Aberdeen<>London return, two months ahead, and it was £405..... in the end I booked flights for about £110 return. I'd prefer not to fly, but the option has been taken away

Now they've announced they're delaying the new price structure/increases until late October (in line with the delay to the new stock being introduced) has that price now reduced for a couple of months' time?

 

[Essexman]

Arrived about 50 minutes late in Inverness this morning. Not bad when it was almost two hours late at one point.

 

[swaldman]

Now they've announced they're delaying the new price structure/increases until late October (in line with the delay to the new stock being introduced) has that price now reduced for a couple of months' time?

Just checked the same dates towards the end of March, and the price is the same as it was when I last looked a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Kite159]

In order to minimise the delay to the Aberdeen passengers tonight, they appear to have built a brand new railway from Upper Tyndrum to Aberdeen.
View attachment 42351

At least it doesn't randomly call at some of the Watford DC line stations after Upper Tyndrum

 

[BRX]

Arrived about 50 minutes late in Inverness this morning. Not bad when it was almost two hours late at one point.

Which coach did they have to remove? Was it the lounge car or one of the sleepers?

 

[tsr]

The southbound Highlander, 1M16, was pretty late arriving into Euston this morning. A power problem in the Harrow & Wealdstone area compounded previous delays, and caused disruption to VTWC services behind it.

 

[ScottDarg]

Which coach did they have to remove? Was it the lounge car or one of the sleepers?

I believe it was the lounge, reported elsewhere the Northbound Inverness portion was missing one.

 

[route101]

The Highlander North bound on Sun 4th Feb was about 100 mins late from Euston due to coach defect, I was lucky as was on the Lowlander which arrived Glasgow Central bang on time, sat typing this on the 07.37 Glasgow-Euston Pendo in First Class.

That was a short turnaround in Glasgow

 

[cambsy]

It was a short turnaround, straight from Sleeper to Pendo, came in Platform 1 and left platform 2, just how I like it

 

[tigerroar]

Is it often late into Inverness? I quite fancy taking a trip and then flying back from Inverness airport but the timings seem quite tight with the Easyjet flight.

 

[Mag_seven]

At least it doesn't randomly call at some of the Watford DC line stations after Upper Tyndrum

Actually given the noise the 73's make even on diesel you could well be mistaken for thinking you were actually on the Euston-Watford DC line in DC mode!

 

[theironroad]

It was a short turnaround, straight from Sleeper to Pendo, came in Platform 1 and left platform 2, just how I like it

Ok, I'll ask.

Why?

 

[TimboM]

Is it often late into Inverness? I quite fancy taking a trip and then flying back from Inverness airport but the timings seem quite tight with the Easyjet flight.

Depends what you mean by "often" - it's usually on time or a bit early. There's a fair bit of padding in the timings at various places between Euston and Inverness.
If something goes awry like it did last night it tends to end up (very) late, but the majority of the time it's OK.

It's 570 miles, though, and plenty of obstacles en route - so you take your chances as with all train journeys.

 

[cf111]

Is it often late into Inverness? I quite fancy taking a trip and then flying back from Inverness airport but the timings seem quite tight with the Easyjet flight.

It's difficult to be certain because it's a long journey and while there's plenty of time to catch up if things go wrong they often go catastrophically wrong. Recent Train Times for the last 12 weeks shows the Monday-Friday service to Inverness coming in "on time" 79% of the time and the Sunday train at 86%.

If you're going to come up using the sleeper try to spend some time in Inverness to give you a buffer if nothing else. It's quite a nice city when it's all said and done. There are a few flights a day now to Gatwick and one each to Luton and Heathrow.

 

[Far north 37]

It's difficult to be certain because it's a long journey and while there's plenty of time to catch up if things go wrong they often go catastrophically wrong. Recent Train Times for the last 12 weeks shows the Monday-Friday service to Inverness coming in "on time" 79% of the time and the Sunday train at 86%.

If you're going to come up using the sleeper try to spend some time in Inverness to give you a buffer if nothing else. It's quite a nice city when it's all said and done. There are a few flights a day now to Gatwick and one each to Luton and Heathrow.

But at 79% how many late minutes are they allowing all the way from london and over the highland mainline to inverness in winter time is a very challenging train to run.
Big delays are rare at the least one thing you can say about caledonian sleeper is they pull out all the stops to keep the trains running and try there hardest under some very challenging circumstances at times.

 

[cf111]

But at 79% how many late minutes are they allowing all the way from london and over the highland mainline to inverness in winter time is a very challenging train to run.
Big delays are rare at the least one thing you can say about caledonian sleeper is they pull out all the stops to keep the trains running and try there hardest under some very challenging circumstances at times.

I'm not entirely sure but isnt anything more than 3 minutes classed as "late"? On average the weekdays service arrived 23 minutes late according to the link in my post. I believe that site uses and translates Network Rail's data.

Having lived here most of my life, I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to operate transport in the Highlands in winter. I was only trying to give the poster an idea of how punctual the train haw been of late. Most of the time the Sleeper is fine but in my experience when it goes wrong it goes really wrong, but that's because I'm a sample size of one and it's a complex operation.

 

[Far north 37]

I'm not entirely sure but isnt anything more than 3 minutes classed as "late"? On average the weekdays service arrived 23 minutes late according to the link in my post. I believe that site uses and translates Network Rail's data.

Having lived here most of my life, I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to operate transport in the Highlands in winter. I was only trying to give the poster an idea of how punctual the train haw been of late. Most of the time the Sleeper is fine but in my experience when it goes wrong it goes really wrong, but that's because I'm a sample size of one and it's a complex operation.

Fair enough but even 23 minutes late on overnight sleeper in the winter to the highlands of scotland i wouldnt complain about it.
The thing about it is though gbrf still havent got there full fleet through there upgrades yet they have had to outsource locos from freightliner colas dbs to keep the service going.
Once they have there fleet at full strength i believe reliability will only get better.

 

[TimboM]

Fair enough but even 23 minutes late on overnight sleeper in the winter to the highlands of scotland i wouldnt complain about it.
The thing about it is though gbrf still havent got there full fleet through there upgrades yet they have had to outsource locos from freightliner colas dbs to keep the service going.
Once they have there fleet at full strength i believe reliability will only get better.

The majority of the (big) delays aren't traction related, though - it's usually infrastructure (wires down, signalling issues, flooding etc.) and also stock issues (like last night on 1S25). That said, aside from a couple of spectacular blips, the DBC Class 67s have also been very reliable on the Inverness portion.
As mentioned above, the (Inverness) Sleeper tends to be on time/bit early the majority of the time, or if not very late due to some issue or other; the 23 minutes average is exactly that and a bit misleading.

 

[BRX]

Seems a shame to come straight back on a plane...get a bus down the great glen and take the fort william sleeper back that evening...

 

[Lrd]

Anything wrong with the southbound Highlander this morning? 92033 just passed me at Harrow with what looked like 8 carriages and not the full amount.

Or were my eyes deceiving me?

 

[TimboM]

Anything wrong with the southbound Highlander this morning? 92033 just passed me at Harrow with what looked like 8 carriages and not the full amount.

Or were my eyes deceiving me?

It’s Load 15, so yes your eyes were deceiving you. Just the speed 033 was going at probably