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'Goodnight to the sleeper train' - Highland sleeper faces the axe

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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
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Sleepers are ace :) Went Paris->Venice a couple of years ago and it was great fun. Waking up and stepping out the station for a full day in your destination can't be beat. Compared to the European ones, the Caledonian is rather quaint, though.
 
DrRingDing said:
I saw it in Inverness and I desired that journey.

How do you get the mentioned £19 fare?
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Get on the website 3 months before you travel:)

I've been tootling up and down the London Edinburgh sleeper. Its ace adds a day and a piss up at each end:D

I did it for the festival and while there were a few people on it it wasn't packed. I got a nod on in the "refreshment area" with a bottle of red and full glass in my lap, lovely train lady woke me up and sent me to bed

Highly recommended
 
You can still defo get a return (i.e. the return leg) on one of the bargain births for £19.00.

Leaving Euston at 9.30 at night and waking up on Rannoch Moor for a long weekend's fishing is still one of my all time holiday bests.
 
They have sofas in the bar car :cool:

Such a shame, why does every sodding thing in this country need to turn a profit? :mad:
 
Fly fishing for trout five minute walk from the station, though I usually get down to the place I'm going to camp first which is a 20 minute walk. If you're arriving on the sleeper, you can get the Broons bus to Kinnloch Rannoch so long as you don't fuck about and ask him to let you off by the bridge over the Allt Eigheach (good wild camping spot) - Loch Laidon I think is (was) £40 a day if you fish from the boat, so £20 each if there's two of you, but only £5 from the bank. But that's by far the most expensive option in the area - there's lots of cheap/free fishing in the area.....Loch Eigheach and Garbh Ghaoir (the river linking Laidon and Eigheach) are available for something daft like £3.00 a week, Allt Eigheach (the burn running into the loch) holds some surprisingly good fish and is a good spot to camp - there's also Lochan a Chlaidheimh which can be accessed by walking up the railway track which is free fishing and is hooching with fish, though most of them bandies. Basically, there's loads of lochans in the area that all hold fish and there's only the ones I've mentioned you need to worry about paying.....

Further up the line you have the guest house at Corrour which is in the old station and is a really nice place to stay if you don't want to camp - the lochans in the vicinity of the station hold some trout but nothing great and Loch Ossian is now better known for its pike fishing (heard that a disgruntled keeper let a load of pike go in there after getting fucked off with the laird! :D).

Can give you some more pointers etc if you wish - done this trip a few times now.
 
Once the oil price goes up to $300 and no one can afford to fly, it'll be back. Powered by a nuclear steam train maybe :D
 
I love the sleeper to the Highlands or for long days in Glasgow. When heading north you wave goodbye to the concrete at Euston and Watford and pop the blinds to find you're crossing Rannoch Moor or passing through the Cairngorms.

Find a resident of Scotland and have them write to their MP. One thing that's kept the sleepers is that Cornish and Scottish MPs use them to squeeze more time in Westminster and their far flung constituencies.
 
past caring said:
Loch Ossian is now better known for its pike fishing (heard that a disgruntled keeper let a load of pike go in there after getting fucked off with the laird! :D).

Can give you some more pointers etc if you wish - done this trip a few times now.
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The thought of that trip and live bait fishing for a trout fed pike..
 
I know some people who fly fish for pike who have fished it from a float tube - not something you'd catch me doing with some of the 30lb + monsters that have been had out of there. :eek:
 
Calm down -- it is only a consultation document so far. After the grief in 1996 over the
fate of the "Deerstalker Express" , I would be surprised if it gets the chop.

Having said that , it is an expensive operation per passenger / revenue per trip. I gather the loadings are pretty decent all round.

Sleepers are great - did Poznan to Cologne this year , with coaches attached from Moscow to Amsterdam - still a touch of glamour there. Got a good nights sleep too.
 
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