Caledonian Sleeper with All Lines Rover

[Soyyo]

To celebrate my 60th birthday I am planning to treat myself to a 14 day all lines rail rover in First Class. I would like to start my trip as early as possible into the tickets validity, by travelling on the 0052 Caledonian Sleeper from Preston to Fort William.

(1) Assuming I travel Friday night / Saturday morning, am I right in thinking that this will be allowed if the ticket is dated to start on the Saturday?

(2) Will my ticket allow me to reserve a first class berth, and if so what supplement would be payable for this?

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The railway day starts at midnight, so if starting your journey after midnight a ticket dated to start on that day will be valid. You can book a berth, but you will need to pay a solo berth supplement of £43 for first class if memory serves.

 

[John @ home]

To celebrate my 60th birthday I am planning to treat myself to a 14 day all lines rail rover in First Class. I would like to start my trip as early as possible into the tickets validity

Are you intending to start on the birthday itself? It may be a challenge to obtain a Senior Railcard to use on the 0052 from Preston.

 

[Soyyo]

Are you intending to start on the birthday itself? It may be a challenge to obtain a Senior Railcard to use on the 0052 from Preston.

No, I am waiting till June to get the benefit of long daylight hours. So will have the railcard in plenty of time! Thanks.

 

[alchemy]

I'm planning something similar for the same reason toward end of May / beginning of June but starting from Inverkeithing just after midnight on the Aberdeen portion of the southbound Highland sleeper. Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[Soyyo]

I'm planning something similar for the same reason toward end of May / beginning of June but starting from Inverkeithing just after midnight on the Aberdeen portion of the southbound Highland sleeper. Hope you enjoy your trip.

Hope you enjoy yours too! A sleeper seems like a good way to start the trip, I'm looking forward to waking up on the West Highland - but will be heading down to London soon after. Hopefully going to go Mallaig - Kyle - Inverness then pick up the Highland Chieftain.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

The All Line Rovers are great, did a 7 and 14 day trip over summers of 2002 and 2003, including both GW and SR sleepers.

Word of advice - plan your movements carefully if you want to make the most of the tickets, easy, particularly in rural areas, to end up sat around for hours if you don't plan a connection properly.

My trips fortunately co-incided with the first online timetable websites so I could plan the routes carefully and then typed these up to take with me - often with a few alternate routes subject to interesting traction (depends if you are travelling for the sheer pleasure or for any red pen purposes).

Feel free to post your route plans, I'm sure plenty of people on here would be happy to offer some suggestions.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Wise words from Tim R-T-C there, I ended up with a dead couple of hours in Whitland and found out rather quickly that there was nothing there!

Same happened in Slovakia, I had checked the DB International timetable prior to going away and had planned a train from Ciera Nad Tisaou to Chop (Ukraine). I got off my train at Ciera Nad Tisaou and no train to Chop was there. The train I had got off promply left and I asked a Railway Policeman where the Chop train went from. He explained that I had missed it. I went to ticket office and the woman told me that the time I had was Summer only and that there was no train for hours. I asked if there was a bus from anywhere and got barked at "NO BUS", I asked where I could get a Taxi and she barked "NO TAXI" so I asked if she knew anybody who could drive me there and she slammed the shutters down. I had to wait nearly 5 hours there for a train out of the bleeding place. Again, nothing at all there I couldnt even find an open pub!

 

[Soyyo]

The All Line Rovers are great, did a 7 and 14 day trip over summers of 2002 and 2003, including both GW and SR sleepers.

Word of advice - plan your movements carefully if you want to make the most of the tickets, easy, particularly in rural areas, to end up sat around for hours if you don't plan a connection properly.

<SNIP>

Feel free to post your route plans, I'm sure plenty of people on here would be happy to offer some suggestions.

Thanks for the advice, I am poring over timetables already! Where is the right place to post route plans for suggestions?