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Caledonian Sleeper

Butts

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I don't think there would be anything wrong with a smoothie, porridge and either a bacon roll or smoked salmon. Likewise smoothie and Highland breakfast doesn't seem particularly gluttonous.

If it's supposed to be a Luxury Service that concept does not normally restrict peoples Breakfast Choices ?

Should you request two bacon rolls that is hardly tantamount to an unrealistic demand in what is supposed to be a Premier Service ?
 
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Butts

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Who says leisure based travel is more flexible? In my experience, business meetings can be, and are, scheduled around flight/train times, and can be re-scheduled if transport conspires against you on the day. (If it's important that you are there, they will rearrange the meeting so that you can be there)
It's rather more difficult to rearrange school holidays or annual leave. And then there are family events such as weddings and funerals, for which the people travelling to them have little say in their timing.

Last time I got the sleeper to Inverness was to catch a flight for a holiday on Orkney. Little flexibility there.

Did you consider Flying up from London to Kirkwall via another Scottish Airport and adding a day onto your holiday either end if you also returned on the Sleeper ?

Was it the Hotel on Rails that attracted you to travel the way you did ?
 

Butts

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The Lowlander must be different, because I was on the Highlander to Fort William last night in a club room and was given a menu card to fill out with five choices (porridge, smoothie, bacon roll, Highland breakfast, smoked salmon) - I went for the smoked salmon and poached eggs which was nicely served in the lounge car along with toast and tea.

I'm curious as to what this consists of ?

Sausage,Bacon,Egg, Black Pudding,Haggis and Mushrooms ?

Is it plated or Airline Style ?
 

43096

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or you drag a 73 on the end and don't bother with the run around..
Which means you need an additional shunt at Edinburgh to put it on the back and an extra loco to be leased as well. So much for saving costs!
 

Blindtraveler

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Nowhere near enough to a Pacer :(
I find that sending a "constructive feedback" type message to to any organisation cocked up can quite often get you a good will gesture like this as they are glad that you've taken the time to highlight your experience but even more glad that you haven't gone in for a public slagging match on somewhere such as Twitter or Facebook basically telling their current and future customers how crap they are
 

SandsofEss

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11 May 2014
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Is there any way to find out which route the northbound Highlander took between Edinburgh and Dalmuir in the early hours of 5th August? I can see on Traksy that it didn't take the originally planned route, but I'm not sure which of the many alternatives it did take.
 

6Z09

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Is there any way to find out which route the northbound Highlander took between Edinburgh and Dalmuir in the early hours of 5th August? I can see on Traksy that it didn't take the originally planned route, but I'm not sure which of the many alternatives it did take.
If it's running late from Edinburgh the preferred option to catch up time is E&G via Falkirk High to Cowlairs east junction then Maryhill line to Dalmuir to resume normal route north.
If that's the case nothing shows on RTT between Newbridge jct and Dalmuir.
 
Last edited:

Deltic1961

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Daily Mail at their best yet again. Don't really see the point here?


For the moderators it is a comparison between a cheap and expesive journey from Aberdeen to London but I've never ever seen a £73 fare ever.
 

_toommm_

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Daily Mail at their best yet again. Don't really see the point here?


For the moderators it is a comparison between a cheap and expesive journey from Aberdeen to London but I've never ever seen a £73 fare ever.

£73.00 exactly Aberdeen to Euston in the seated portion:

 

tspaul26

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9 Jun 2016
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Any idea what this means?


Nothing on Caledonian Sleepers’ feed. Is something cancelled somewhere?
If the Glasgow Lowland service is starting from Edinburgh then this would connect into the Highland service at Stirling for those passengers unable to leave Glasgow earlier to get through to Edinburgh.

1M11 is starting from Edinburgh I believe, presumably the ticket acceptance is to allow Glasgow passengers to change at Stirling for 1M16? Seems like a very long way for a shortcut though.
It allows passengers to depart Glasgow an hour later (closer to the normal Lowland departure time) than if travelling via Edinburgh.
 

gordonjahn

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23 Oct 2010
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I've not followed this thread too closely. Is the 66 + 73/9 combo now fairly common on the sleeper services north of the central belt? Is this due to lack of available 73s, or do they just not have the grunt?
It's explained upthread that when there's limited spare 73/9s capacity - e.g. due to maintenance requirements - a 66 goes on the front as the service can't run without 73s being available (as only the 73/9s and the 92s can couple to the stock).
 

MrEd

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13 Jan 2019
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I'm curious as to what this consists of ?

Sausage,Bacon,Egg, Black Pudding,Haggis and Mushrooms ?

Is it plated or Airline Style ?
It is plated, I believe, and served in the lounge car only. The ingredients are very probably prepacked (as I believe all the hot meals are). From the ones I saw the other day, it looked like sausage, bacon, an omelette, a tattie scone, a tomato and some mushrooms. Probably not as good as the full Scottish breakfast which you would get in a cafe (if you’re doing the Fort William route you’ll probably get a better and bigger one in Morrisons), but decent enough.
 

Butts

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It is plated, I believe, and served in the lounge car only. The ingredients are very probably prepacked (as I believe all the hot meals are). From the ones I saw the other day, it looked like sausage, bacon, an omelette, a tattie scone, a tomato and some mushrooms. Probably not as good as the full Scottish breakfast which you would get in a cafe (if you’re doing the Fort William route you’ll probably get a better and bigger one in Morrisons), but decent enough.

Does not fit into "Luxury Category" the service aspires to, but better than nothing I suppose. Sounds more like one you get on BA.

No haggis or black pudding - sacrilege

I think CS have to get away from this Hotel on Rails Nonsense or people will be expecting a "Jacobean" type experience and be sadly disappointed.
 

fgwrich

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It's explained upthread that when there's limited spare 73/9s capacity - e.g. due to maintenance requirements - a 66 goes on the front as the service can't run without 73s being available (as only the 73/9s and the 92s can couple to the stock).

I'm surprised GB Haven't sent at least 1 or two more of their "spare" 73s for conversion yet (eg 73110, 139) - both to give them at least a little more flexibility and to help Loughborough out. Failing that, modifying their other Non Scottish 73s shouldn't be too difficult either.

A Single 73 is capable of working most of the Caley Sleeper services on it's own, though the use of 66s is more to provide insurance I gather.
 

norbitonflyer

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Did you consider Flying up from London to Kirkwall via another Scottish Airport and adding a day onto your holiday either end if you also returned on the Sleeper ?

Was it the Hotel on Rails that attracted you to travel the way you did ?
This was in Mark 3 sleeper days. We wanted to be as green as possible, without taking two extra days for the round trip. Train/ship all the way would take too long. Flight all the way wouldn't have saved any days - just meant leaving after work instead of at crack of dawn next morning. (And straight back to work off the train - at the time my office was three stops from Euston)
 

HamworthyGoods

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I'm surprised GB Haven't sent at least 1 or two more of their "spare" 73s for conversion yet (eg 73110, 139) - both to give them at least a little more flexibility and to help Loughborough out. Failing that, modifying their other Non Scottish 73s shouldn't be too difficult either.

A Single 73 is capable of working most of the Caley Sleeper services on it's own, though the use of 66s is more to provide insurance I gather.

Why do they need to convert more 73s when 66s can be used paired up with a 73?
 

Bill57p9

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I can understand needing more than 1x73/9 on the Inverness load 8 portion, however it strikes me as slightly odd to feel the need to add a 66 to load 6 outside poor adhesion season and especially 4 which sometimes happens. As @6Z09 states above, it adds complication to the shunt, plus obviously will use more fuel and tie up more resources. All in all, surely it drives cost into the operation though I do appreciate that traction is GBRf's problem rather than CS. Are the 73s failing to meet expectations (availability, reliability or adhesion?)

Equally (at risk of starting a tirade of people telling me that I am a fool), I would suggest that CS missed a trick when ordering the Mk5s that would have greatly simplified the operation and therefore reduced the operating cost in that the seated coaches could have contained driving cabs to allow push-pull operation. Yes, I know that the gangways are extra wide on a Mk5, but given CS/CAF started with a blank sheet of paper did they really need to be. Coupling could have been banished to Edinburgh and Carstairs only and the number of locos + drivers needed reduced.
Still, a bit too late to change it now.
 

fgwrich

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Why do they need to convert more 73s when 66s can be used paired up with a 73?
As well as the reasons outlined in the two posts above, they'll want a common fleet and pool of refurbished 73s for the Caledonian Sleeper. With HS2 work ramping up shortly, GBRf will also want to keep every 66 possible on it's core freight work.
 

alangla

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11 Apr 2018
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Given the mess ScotRail are in financially, I wouldn’t be surprised if the plug is pulled on the sleeper in the next few years by Transport Scotland. There’s no point in GBRf spending money on more 73s until things settle down.
 

pitdiver

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This was in Mark 3 sleeper days. We wanted to be as green as possible, without taking two extra days for the round trip. Train/ship all the way would take too long. Flight all the way wouldn't have saved any days - just meant leaving after work instead of at crack of dawn next morning. (And straight back to work off the train - at the time my office was three stops from Euston)
Earlier this year (June) my wife and I flew from Edinburgh to Kirkwall
Edinburgh was the nearest airport we could get a direct flight from. We have previously flown Luton-Aberdeen-kirkwall.
When we go up to Kirkwall again in November we are driving all the way (from the East Midlands). Staying overnight in Pitlochry. We are coming back by train from Inverness. Car is staying in Kirkwall

Then retur
 

Steddenm

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Given the mess ScotRail are in financially, I wouldn’t be surprised if the plug is pulled on the sleeper in the next few years by Transport Scotland. There’s no point in GBRf spending money on more 73s until things settle down.
The sleeper isn't operated by ScotRail, its Serco Caledonian Sleeper Ltd - a separate company not connected to ScotRail at all.
 

alangla

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The sleeper isn't operated by ScotRail, its Serco Caledonian Sleeper Ltd - a separate company not connected to ScotRail at all.
I know, hence “pulled by Transport Scotland” they’re both funded out of the same limited pot of government cash.
 

Deafdoggie

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29 Sep 2016
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But why would a service that is running to capacity most nights be cancelled?
Because there's a finite amount of money. Governments have to spend it to benefit the most, not a few on a luxury experience. Hard choices have to be made when money is tight.
 

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