Highlandspring
Established Member
- Joined
- 14 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 2,777
67015.
Kind of a surprise them doing that. I thought First policy where there had been a total shambles overnight & you hadn’t got south of Glasgow or Edinburgh by the morning was to offer a bus to Glasgow/Edinburgh airport and a complimentary ticket to Heathrow, at least you might then be in London by around 10, assuming flight ok & HEx to PaddingtonWow, there's the not-at-all-joined-up railway in full customer-unfriendly mode. I can't believe anyone seriously suggested the XC route, which wouldn't get you to Paddington until 13:52 (13:37 if you made a 3 minute connection at Reading). What use is that to someone who needed to be in London at 8 a.m.? Plus by that time there will have been several earlier arrivals via the ECML.
Even a full refund wouldn't really compensate anyone whose planned day has been ruined.
Do you think this wasn't done?Regarding the coupling issues, they've spent months testing the new stock, could they have tried coupling/uncoupling then, to iron out any problems, same with the rest of the new stock.
The down Edinburgh portion arrived on time this morning.Talking of aircon, I had the opposite problem on the inaugural southbound run. My room was too warm until well into the night. I see others have commented on this too. Does anyone know if that’s been fixed yet?
And more importantly, are the services arriving on time now? Looks like there are still decoupling issues northbound - what about services going south?
I’m back on it next Tuesday night so I’m hoping some of the initial niggles have been worked out. Realistically, it’s still early days and I know it’ll take a while longer to get it all working smoothly.
This has been discussed previously. It is apparently not possible to reserve a seat so just do as they say and turn up. It won't be an issue. Not all seats can be reserved as the people from this seated car have to move to the Aberdeen section and they all share one carriageEvening all - has anyone had any experience travelling on the Fort William sleeper during the 'day'?
I would like to do the 1B01 19:50 Fort William as far as Crianlarich (22:06) which according to the website would mean making a reservation in the seated coach ("We also accept National Rail tickets, valid on all operators...With these tickets or passes you can travel in Caledonian Sleeper seated accommodation if you make a reservation through our Guest Service Centre." at the bottom of the tickets page). However, I have just called them and the person I spoke to said she was unable to make a reservation at all and that I should instead just turn up on the day having bought a ticket and hope there are unreserved seats to sit in. She did say 15 of the seats were taken, which was apparently half of the coach, so I'm tentatively thinking it won't be a problem. She suggested going to a station and trying to reserve a seat at a counter there, which I'm guessing won't work (but I'm happy to try).
However, in any case this doesn't line up with what's on the website so I'd like to know whether anyone has done this type of short 'day' journey successfully or if anyone has run into any problems.
Not all seats can be reserved as the people from this seated car have to move to the Aberdeen section and they all share one carriage
73968 took a rake of mark 5s through Hamilton at 16.48 today. Was this just to turn stock? It ran as 5Z74
Don't think so
Still hasn't left Euston though!Cheers BRX
Still hasn't left Euston though!
Inverness lounge car out of action tonight's highlander.
Yup, doesn't affect me though as I'm not in the Inverness portion on this occasion. Not sure if they're letting folk use the Aberdeen one.Are you on it? Inverness staff are usually a decent lot.
FTW is the last portion to leave in a significant multi-part shunt manoeuvre (BRX can link to his informative video if necessary) - it’s not exactly a 55 min wait with lots of opportunity to make up lost time.Should pick up time, plus the Highland Fort William portion has at least 55 minutes wait in Edinburgh anyway, normal arrival time in Edinburgh is 03.54, the Fort William section leaves 04.50.
Yup, doesn't affect me though as I'm not in the Inverness portion on this occasion. Not sure if they're letting folk use the Aberdeen one.