The Caledonian Sleeper has been hailed as one of Lonely Planet’s ‘Super Sleeper Trains’.
The London Euston-Fort William service made the travel guidebook’s top ten list, alongside the Johannesburg-Cape Town and Chicago-San Francisco routes.
Caledonian is a ‘Super Sleeper’
04/11/2015 in Network
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Simon Horner - 09/11/2015 18:19
From my recent experience, I can think of a number of superlatives to describe the Caledonian Sleeper but none of them are positive! I was due to travel First Class with my teenage children from Euston to Edinburgh on 23/10 and from Edinburgh to Euston on 1/11. Both services were cancelled with bus replacements provided. On the first journey, we eventually got put up for the night with onward train travel the next day but everyone else was bundled on to the buses. The second time, Caledonian Sleepers e-mailed me the day before to say they were having technical problems. I was asked to choose between joining our berths in Glasgow or being bussed from Edinburgh to Carstairs (I chose the former). On the day itself, they sent a message at 12.00 to say the service was running from Edinburgh. Then at 16.24 they informed me the train was cancelled and that there would be a replacement bus. We had no option but to take this bus because we had a Eurostar to catch the following morning. It was a grim experience. There was just one driver, the vehicle was badly heated and the journey took almost ten hours. No refreshments or blankets were provided and we arrived at Euston chilled and exhausted. It appears from the complaints posted on the company's (mobile) Twitter feed that the sleepers have been disrupted regularly over the last three weeks, up to and including last night's cancellation. The company's contingency planning is chaotic and wholly inadequate. I have been a regular sleeper user but have now cancelled my next planned journey in December. I have chosen the safer option of a hotel in London and a day train. Needless to say, I won't be making any new sleeper bookings. I am sad about this, because at its best, I think the sleeper beats any other way of travelling between London and Scotland.