Caledonian Sleeper discussion

[Scotrail84]

I'm on the southbound highlands as well. We're supposed to be in coach E but that was out of use at Fort William so we were moved to coach G

I believe the coach suffered a power failure at Ft William.

 

[BRX]

You got lucky then, did you know in advance that you'd be in a berth from Edinburgh?

Nope, was psychologically prepared for another 6 hours in a seat but even got a cabin to myself.

The duff mk2 seats was the CS liveried one. (Noticed it was the 'wrong' way round, with the guards compartment at the end connected to the lounge car, but maybe that's not unusual)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Nope, was psychologically prepared for another 6 hours in a seat but even got a cabin to myself.

The duff mk2 seats was the CS liveried one. (Noticed it was the 'wrong' way round, with the guards compartment at the end connected to the lounge car, but maybe that's not unusual)

I've not seen that but I have seen the lounge the wrong way round meaning the buffet counter wasn't in use, you just got your stuff from the kitchen door.

 

[47271]

There are 3 different Mk3a sleeper types in use by Caledonian Sleeper, though I had thought all the non-accessible berths were convertable to Either class as per the original design.

That's right, but my point was a bit more of the moment than that.

Tradionally a CS mk3 was either all First Class or all Standard with the obvious exception of the First Class coach with the accessible dual occupancy cabin at one end. Then for a few months we had consistent composites, every coach was around 2/3 First and 1/3 Standard, with the same room numbers corresponding to the same cabin setups.

From how the coach plans have been described to me it seems that things are a lot more mixed up now between single and two bed cabins, and presumably to mirror the configuration of the new trains. So if a coach finds itself out of original formation then it's very likely that a First Class booking could land up in a Standard cabin.

 

[paul1609]

Currently on the southbound highlander. Seats from Fort William, but me and the other two through passengers put into a berth in the aberdeen portion on arrival at edinburgh...not complaining.
92018 on the front.
Royal 67005 arrived with the Inverness portion.

On both my northbound and this journey, half the meal options had run out in the lounge car (or lounge car hatch in my case). That's not so good. No haggis or macaroni for me on either journey.

Something I noticed coming down the West Highland Line this evening...the train wasn't announced on any of the scrolling info displays at the stations. The next scotrail services were there - but it's as if we didn't exist. Odd. If it's part of a Serco effort to pretend that the service is not available for 'day' passengers it's not entirely successful as there were quite a few folk using it to travel down to glasgow - which was good to see.

I think that all the West Highland stations have now been fitted with seperate Caledonian Sleeper information points and displays probably a good idea when service is disrupted.

 

[BRX]

I think that all the West Highland stations have now been fitted with seperate Caledonian Sleeper information points and displays probably a good idea when service is disrupted.

They have (the info points seem overkill to me, mind). There's still no reason why the service should not appear on the regular display though.

 

[hexagon789]

That's right, but my point was a bit more of the moment than that.

Tradionally a CS mk3 was either all First Class or all Standard with the obvious exception of the First Class coach with the accessible dual occupancy cabin at one end. Then for a few months we had consistent composites, every coach was around 2/3 First and 1/3 Standard, with the same room numbers corresponding to the same cabin setups.

From how the coach plans have been described to me it seems that things are a lot more mixed up now between single and two bed cabins, and presumably to mirror the configuration of the new trains. So if a coach finds itself out of original formation then it's very likely that a First Class booking could land up in a Standard cabin.

I hadn't realised CS had set up the berths like that, I assumed they simply made them up as required.

 

[Mike99]

I think you mean 92023.

I did, apologies, bleary fingers

 

[Scotrail84]

Nope, was psychologically prepared for another 6 hours in a seat but even got a cabin to myself.

The duff mk2 seats was the CS liveried one. (Noticed it was the 'wrong' way round, with the guards compartment at the end connected to the lounge car, but maybe that's not unusual)

Wrong turned vehicles are not uncommon, a little inconvenient but not a major issue.

 

[route101]

Nope, was psychologically prepared for another 6 hours in a seat but even got a cabin to myself.

The duff mk2 seats was the CS liveried one. (Noticed it was the 'wrong' way round, with the guards compartment at the end connected to the lounge car, but maybe that's not unusual)

Had the buffet the wrong way round or seated wrong way round SB from Fort William . As i walked through lounge and bought something from he back of kitchen.

 

[theironroad]

For those wondering about how carriages are laid out First versus Standard, I've just been informed that plans and room selection have been reinstated on the CS website. I haven't been in myself, but apparently not all mk3s are laid out to the same composite pattern, so my statement of last night about cabin numbers was wrong, and I suspect that this is why there have been problems with First Class bookings ending up in shared berths. You'd just need on coach shifted around at the last minute and confusion ensues...

Just tried a dummy booking (on cs site) for the northbound lowlander for this Sunday and the berth selector does indeed seem to have returned (finally) and did allow me to change the allocated berth as it used to. Glad they listened to the feedback.

 

[47271]

Just tried a dummy booking (on cs site) for the northbound lowlander for this Sunday and the berth selector does indeed seem to have returned (finally) and did allow me to change the allocated berth as it used to. Glad they listened to the feedback.

To be fair I believe that they always intended to reinstate the plans but it wasn't going to work while the berth configurations kept changing.

If how the mk3s are set up now is as close as possible to how the new stock is laid out then this may be the settled picture. If anyone has the time and energy to compare mk5 plans with what's on the CS website now then they may be able to tell us!

 

[staticsteve]

Just tried a dummy booking (on cs site) for the northbound lowlander for this Sunday and the berth selector does indeed seem to have returned (finally) and did allow me to change the allocated berth as it used to. Glad they listened to the feedback.

I made a booking two days ago, but found a nondescript error message every time I'd allocated myself a different berth in a different coach and tried to proceed. The only way to proceed was to stick with the original allocation.

 

[theironroad]

I made a booking two days ago, but found a nondescript error message every time I'd allocated myself a different berth in a different coach and tried to proceed. The only way to proceed was to stick with the original allocation.

That's odd. I've tried the dummy again for tonight's lowlander and it keeps the new berth I select through to the payment screen, though I've not gone past that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I made a booking two days ago, but found a nondescript error message every time I'd allocated myself a different berth in a different coach and tried to proceed. The only way to proceed was to stick with the original allocation.

Is it the same quota issue that causes VTWC seat selection to fail if the Advance ticket you are buying is the last one in the relevant quota? The reason why it doesn't work in that case is that the system takes a new ticket from the quota to book the new seat before it releases the old one (as if it did otherwise it might get stuck without a relevant quota entry and therefore seat) - and without separating the reservations from the quotas (which I wish they'd done when they switched to NRS) it can't easily be fixed.

DB have a much better system whereby quotas are totally separate from reservations (which are optional and chargeable in all cases). The specified train information is in the route field instead.

 

[paul1609]

I'm on the northbound fort William tonight no choice of berth when I booked last Wednesday.

 

[alistairlees]

I made a booking two days ago, but found a nondescript error message every time I'd allocated myself a different berth in a different coach and tried to proceed. The only way to proceed was to stick with the original allocation.

Can you tell me a bit more please (service / date / anything else) and I'll look into it? You can PM me if you want. This should be working for current trains now.

 

[alistairlees]

Is it the same quota issue that causes VTWC seat selection to fail if the Advance ticket you are buying is the last one in the relevant quota? The reason why it doesn't work in that case is that the system takes a new ticket from the quota to book the new seat before it releases the old one (as if it did otherwise it might get stuck without a relevant quota entry and therefore seat) - and without separating the reservations from the quotas (which I wish they'd done when they switched to NRS) it can't easily be fixed.

Correct. Stuff like this won't change until NRS gets replaced.

 

[Essexman]

I made a booking two days ago, but found a nondescript error message every time I'd allocated myself a different berth in a different coach and tried to proceed. The only way to proceed was to stick with the original allocation.

I've been trying to make a Flexipass booking for August and found the same. I'd prefer to book in a less busy coach and not next door to a standard class berth as one of the advantages of first class is not having noise from adjacent travellers talking to each other.

 

[theironroad]

I'm on the northbound fort William tonight no choice of berth when I booked last Wednesday.

Maybe the problem was sorted between Wednesday and Friday. I've just tried a dummy for tomorrow north highlander to ftw and it allows me to change berth ok.

 

[theironroad]

I've been trying to make a Flexipass booking for August and found the same. I'd prefer to book in a less busy coach and not next door to a standard class berth as one of the advantages of first class is not having noise from adjacent travellers talking to each other.

All the dummy bookings I've tried have been new sales through the the Cal sleeper website. I think flexipass has to be booked through a dedicated channel, but seems odd that you can't get the same info as it's the same train at the end of the day.

 

[47271]

No, a £1450 Flexipass purchase loads ten tokens into the customer's online account. Thereafter the booking process is identical to that for a one off buyer but the payment method is a Flexipass token.

So Essexman should be seeing exactly the same as everyone else in terms of berth selection.

 

[TimboM]

Maybe all you folk trying these dummy bookings isn't helping the system...

 

[theironroad]

No, a £1450 Flexipass purchase loads ten tokens into the customer's online account. Thereafter the booking process is identical to that for a one off buyer but the payment method is a Flexipass token.

So Essexman should be seeing exactly the same as everyone else in terms of berth selection.

Ok, I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying.

Maybe all you folk trying these dummy bookings isn't helping the system...

Haha, funnily when someone mentioned a bit earlier about quotas etc, it did cross my mind, but realised it probably wasn't and I was only doing a couple of days ahead.

 

[dvalts]

Was in the seated sleeper coach from Fort William southbound on Sunday - I noticed it was in the InterCity 'swallow' livery (or very similar to it?). All the rest of the coaches were the standard green/teal colour. Is it normally this or was it a spare filling in that night?

 

[BRX]

The intercity livery coach has been knocking about for a couple of years at least I think. What would be more unusual is for the entirety of the rest of the train to be in teal livery instead of mostly the ex-First livery.

 

[TimboM]

The intercity livery coach has been knocking about for a couple of years at least I think. What would be more unusual is for the entirety of the rest of the train to be in teal livery instead of mostly the ex-First livery.

That photo has 4 liveries on 4 vehicles... Royal Scotsman 66, Caledonian Sleeper 73, InterCity Mk2 brake coach, ex-First Scotrail Mk2 lounge car (just in shot).

That particular coach has been on-hire for a couple of months or so I think - was collected from Bishop Auckland by a 66. But there have been various hired-in Virgin/Blue-Grey/InterCity Mk2s for a long while as you say.

 

[InOban]

I believe they have hired in a different seated coach because the previous one was in such poor condition.

 

[Kite159]

Is that the coach with the fixed armrest 2+2 table seating or am I thinking of another coach which has popped up on the Fort William portion

 

[hexagon789]

Is that the coach with the fixed armrest 2+2 table seating or am I thinking of another coach which has popped up on the Fort William portion

If it's the Mk2f BSO I would think that would still have traditional 2+2 at tables seating.