editor
hiraethified
It looks like this wonderful train could be scrapped in 2014
Shortly after nine this evening, Britain's most remarkable train will shudder its way out of Euston station in London. It's a struggle to get moving because the 9.15pm overnight train to Scotland is the UK's longest, stretching almost a quarter of a mile, and comprised of rolling stock four decades old. And the fear is that the day is not far off when it ceases to leave at all.
The train's first three stops – Watford Junction, Crewe and Preston – hardly hint at the wonders to come. At the next stop, Edinburgh, no passengers join or leave. But with much shunting and clunking, the Highland Sleeper divides into three, with portions despatched to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, each with its own buffet car. The passengers are varied: business people working in Aberdeen's oil industry; civil servants shuttling between London and Inverness, the administrative centre of northern Scotland; and tourists heading for adventure in the West Highlands and Islands.
The payload is the most fortunate in Britain, aesthetically and financially. When dawn breaks, some will awake to find themselves on the line that clings to Scotland's East Coast, other will be high in the Grampians, with great swoops to come on the run down to the Moray Firth. The luckiest will awake to find themselves amid the beautiful desolation of Rannoch Moor, where the West Highland Line is the only form of transport through the wilderness.
Every passenger benefits from massive subsidies. For a bed, breakfast and 500 miles of Britain's most civilised travel, some will have paid as little as £19 – a fraction of the real cost. Each departure of the Highland Sleeper and its Lowland counterpart, serving Edinburgh and Glasgow, earns a subsidy of £17,000, dwarfing the amount raised in fares.
At the time of rail privatisation, intense political pressure ensured the continuation of Caledonian Sleeper services. Overnight links from London to Scotland formed part of the franchise specification. But as spending cuts take effect, the last departure of the 21.15 from Euston could arrive on April Fool's Day, 2014.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/goodnight-to-the-sleeper-train-6265394.html