Reservations on the Caledonian Sleeper

[mrcheek]

Well, no reply to my email from ScotRail, so I guess its probably better to ask you guys!

In a few weeks (or maybe months, depending upon financial circumstances and when anybody else in the office has their holidays booked), I shall be embarking on an All LIne Rover, including some trips on the ScotRail sleepers.
It says on the National Rail website that these are included on an ALR, but that reservations are needed, even if you are only going in the seated car (which is what I intend to do).

So, how do you make a reservation? I assume most people just book and pay for a ticket online, but I cant do that as I will already have my ticket, and just need a reservation. Do you have to book at a Scottish station, or can you boomk from anywhere in the UK? and how soon do you have to make the reservation? Is it possible to simply get the reservation at the station right before boarding? or is the sleeper likely to be already full if I try to do that?

advice please!!!

 

[clagmonster]

Any BR station should be able to make the reservation for you. As for how long before travel, the guidline is up to 2 hours before departure, or by 16:00 the previous night for early morning services. I would say aim for 2 hours before berths are available for boarding, but the earlier you do it the better.

 

[glynn80]

Well, no reply to my email from ScotRail, so I guess its probably better to ask you guys!

In a few weeks (or maybe months, depending upon financial circumstances and when anybody else in the office has their holidays booked), I shall be embarking on an All LIne Rover, including some trips on the ScotRail sleepers.
It says on the National Rail website that these are included on an ALR, but that reservations are needed, even if you are only going in the seated car (which is what I intend to do).

So, how do you make a reservation? I assume most people just book and pay for a ticket online, but I cant do that as I will already have my ticket, and just need a reservation. Do you have to book at a Scottish station, or can you boomk from anywhere in the UK? and how soon do you have to make the reservation? Is it possible to simply get the reservation at the station right before boarding? or is the sleeper likely to be already full if I try to do that?

advice please!!!

I would strongly suggest getting your reservation for the sleeper from the station as First Scotrail telesales now charge a £5.00 booking fee on all sleeper reservations not obtained at the same time as purchasing a ticket from themselves. You can obtain the reservation at any booking office in the UK, you have to reserve the seat before 18.00 the same day otherwise there is not enough time to process the reservation. If this is not possible you can always arrive without and reservation and take a seat if it is free, if the service is fully booked (very likely on Fridays and Sundays) then you will not be admitted (even onto the platform) and I certainly wouldn't like to be left in Euston/Glasgow/Edinburgh at midnight!

 

[TEW]

The Caledonian Sleeper requires a reservation even if there are free seats you shouldn't be able to travel.

 

[glynn80]

The Caledonian Sleeper requires a reservation even if there are free seats you shouldn't be able to travel.

This is an unenforced rule, in my extensive experience of using the Sleeper I have never been refused travel if there are still available seats, no guard is going to be able to defend their position if there are empty seats and you have a valid ticket to travel. Usually if the train is busy you have to wait until the train is just about to leave before they can confirm if you have a seat or not, but they certainly have never turned me away.

 

[paul1609]

To be honest if you're getting a berth mid week in winter the train is very unlikely to be full in my experience, loadings have been as low as 3 people on the West Highland Sleeper on my trips. The sleeper attendents are more than happy to sell you a berth as well as a ticket at Euston

 

[mrcheek]

Still no reply from ScotRail, so thanks for the help guys!

Ill probably book when I begin the rover. Im likely to be travelling on friday nights, which I assume are quite busy. Plus, it looks like I wont be going until June now.

 

[Frontera2]

You can book at any station that has a ticket office, it's as simple as that!

 

[A60K]

Still no reply from ScotRail, so thanks for the help guys!

Ill probably book when I begin the rover. Im likely to be travelling on friday nights, which I assume are quite busy. Plus, it looks like I wont be going until June now.

Likely to be very busy, and I would advise reserving at least a week in advance, especially northbound. I once couldn't get a reservation on the Inverness sleeper 17 days before I intended to travel on a Friday in July.

 

[mrcheek]

Likely to be very busy, and I would advise reserving at least a week in advance, especially northbound. I once couldn't get a reservation on the Inverness sleeper 17 days before I intended to travel on a Friday in July.

Im planning on doing Inverness to London one friday, and Aberdeen to LOndon the next friday. will these be busy on a friday do you think, or is it just LOndon to Scotland thats busy on those days?

 

[Frontera2]

From my own experience, the Caledonian Sleepers get busy on Friday nights in both directions..

 

[A60K]

Agreed, Friday and Sunday nights are the busiest in both directions. I've had experience of using the Caledonian Sleepers on every night at some point over the past ten years, either seated or (more often) in a berth, and travelled on all routes in at least one direction. I normally book in advance, but sometimes have little prior notice.

My summary of the routes - although YMMV and each route has particular quirks - would be:

London - Inverness/Aberdeen: very busy in both berths and seats most days year-round,
London - Glasgow/Edinburgh: busy in both berths and seats weekends, quieter midweek, and I guess there may also be more chance of availability on the Glasgow route with the Virgin VHF timetable having much earlier/later day trains and quicker journeys
London - Fort William: limited capacity of seats and berth, usually in high demand but can be peaky - winter midweek availability normally good, weekends and summer usually sell out very quickly, but I've found availability on this once in winter even when Glasgow was fully booked!

My summary of availability by day (departure evening, arrive following morning), but bear in mind the route advice above:

Monday: availability northbound generally good, southbound OK
Tuesday: availability in both directions generally good or excellent
Wednesday: availability in both directions generally excellent
Thursday: availability northbound generally OK, southbound generally good
Friday: availability northbound minimal especially on Highland services, southbound poor
Saturday: no sleepers since 1990s
Sunday: availability northbound poor to OK, southbound minimal especially on Highland services

Very roughly, these availabilities equate to the average chance of getting a berth on the day of travel:
minimal - 0-10% chance
poor - 10-20% chance
OK - 20-40% chance
good - 40-70% chance
excellent - 70-90% chance

Summer is always a much busier time on all routes and most days and given my past experiences I would prefer not to leave booking any later than two weeks prior in seats or berths on any route or any day apart from possibly Wednesday, and I would say four weeks or longer for berths if a particular journey is critical to your schedule.

Public holidays will also affect availability - remember that Scotland observes a different schedule of holidays to England and Wales, and within Scotland each town can have different holidays. Other special and sporting events will also make a difference, Rugby Six Nations, international football, Edinburgh Festival and so on.

Good luck and enjoy anyway!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just to add: if you don't have a reservation and there are no unreserved places the conductor will normally not let you board. Southbound, even if someone hasn't shown up at their designated boarding station they may well board a stop or two down the line - several times I've seen people denied boarding, and I think ScotRail have a notice to this effect at Euston. The 'Reservations Essential' symbol really means it on sleepers, much more so than on day trains.

 

[mrcheek]

thanks for all the help guys. one other thing: what sort of seats do they have in the first class seated coach? are they in pairs only, or singles and pairs? and how much legroom is there?

 

[djw1981]

IIRC 2+1 seating - FC reclining (slightly). But at standard prices...

 

[A60K]

Most of the seats are in airline style rows with decent legroom - although there are two rows (one at each end of the coach) with facing pairs of seats, I would do my best to avoid them because of the clash of legs.

It's the standard FC layout of 2+1 across the aisle, the seats themselves are similar to TGV/Eurostar seats - reclinable, large table, movable armrests, footrests in the airline seats.

The best seats to go for are the single airline seats, but if you're travelling at a quiet time you might get the chance to move to a pair of airline seats, giving you a lot more space. Check the reservation labels and be ready to claim unused seats around departure time as other experienced travellers will have the same idea!

Unfortunately I can't remember the seating plan and the seating numbers of the single airline seats. I think it's either 7/10/13/16 or 9/12/15/18, hopefully a clued-up clerk will be able to confirm when you book.

One other thing: don't try booking at London Victoria, because when I did it was like pulling teeth. 40 minutes to get two reservations, although to be fair they were correct in the end!

 

[paul1609]

I managed to book a £19 bargain berth to Glasgow for tonight on monday afternoon so I dont think demand is too high atm!

 

[Sleepy]

Likely to be very busy, and I would advise reserving at least a week in advance, especially northbound. I once couldn't get a reservation on the Inverness sleeper 17 days before I intended to travel on a Friday in July.

Hi folks

A few years ago I travelled to Edinburgh on Sleeper and we were moved to different berths to the reserved ones, is this common practice if for example a twin berth cabin needed for last minute booking you (as a single traveller) could be asked to move to 1 berth cabin ?

 

[yorkie]

All cabins are the same size but the ones set up for single occupancy are first class.

Free first class upgrades when standard is full is not common that I am aware of but I'm not a regular.

Upgrades from seats to berths can happen if the aircon fails though, that happened twice to us.

 

[jamesontheroad]

While we're on the subject, ScotRail have redesigned the Bargain Berths booking engine. The destination pull down is now automatically filtered according to your origin pull down choice, and the next page is a month view showing the cheapest available fares on any given day.

I guess that making them easier for more people to find will make it harder for us to nab them

http://www.travelpass.buytickets.scotrail.co.uk/BargainBerths/Default.aspx

 

[spoony]

Ive managed to book two beths travelling from Carlisle -Euston for £29 each. Cant wait. What are peoples experiences of this train?

 

[John @ home]

Ive managed to book two beths travelling from Carlisle -Euston for £29 each. Cant wait. What are peoples experiences of this train?

In my opinion one of the best experiences on British railways is supper and a leisurely drink in the Lounge Car of a Caledonian Sleeper. Despite the very late departure time from Carlisle, I think it's worth sampling.

John

 

[glynn80]

In my opinion one of the best experiences on British railways is supper and a leisurely drink in the Lounge Car of a Caledonian Sleeper. Despite the very late departure time from Carlisle, I think it's worth sampling.

John

It's likely they would have sold out of most items by the time the Sleeper arrives in Carlisle. When I travelled on the service last week they had sold out of many items before we'd even left Glasgow!

 

[paul1609]

I'm a great fan of the sleeper and I usually travel on the West Highland Line a couple of times a year which I still find to be great. On the other hand my experiences on the lowland sleeper which I only use northbound are that the service can vary from dire to very dire. On my last journey the lounge car was deemed to be too busy for 2nd class passengers even though only 1/3 of the seats were in use, on the previous journey some of the bed linen was obviously soiled. Coffee in the morning consists of a cup of luke warm water that you can pour your own sachet of instant in to. Ive vowed to fly next time.