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

Did Moscow to St Petersburg 20 years ago on a sleeper, the heating system being only slightly cooler than a brick kiln, though the bed may well have been formed from bricks on the off chance.
 
Giles said:
£19 is stupidly cheap, really. You can spend that on a seat on the Stansted Express.

Giles..
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Oh, way more than that - and there are other good deals as well.

We've booked the Edinburgh train the week before Xmas and got a good deal by ringing up - the website doesn't always seem to offer the best fairs - something stupid like £45 for 2 adults and 2 kids one way on the sleeper and back on the day train. Family railcard helps as well - gets you a discount which I wasn't expecting at all.
 
oh i really really hope this stays... we've done it several times.. always enjoyed it. You used to be able to get bargain tickets at £9, £19 and upwards... We once managed to go up for £9 and back for £19... complete result!
 
I used to use the sleeper every so often to Glasgow but now the glasgow euston train is 4 1/2 hours the overnight clanking about half asleep isn't so attractive.
 
Ive been Cologne-Prague
But the best was Budapest - Venice, its a slow train complete with Croatian and Slovakian border guards, a dining car and a cast of great characters. I had a gun pointed at me....fucking nuts!!!

I thought the highland sleeper was subsidised by the scottish assembly?
 
I'd recommend anyone who'd not been on the highland sleeper to give it a go. Its just one of those journeys everyone should take in in their lifetime.

The £19 fares - I've managed one out of about 20 trips. If you're just wanting a ride out and don't mind where you end up for the day it should be achievable. Much harder if you want to be at a given destination on a given date.

I think there may be operational issues thats making the sleeper less viable - the coaching stock is old, the locos are hired in from other rail companies, plus the UK railway system and rail techology is no longer geared towards loco-hauled trains regardless of how 'proper' these trains are. Shame, really

Abroad, may I mention the Paris - Zurich sleeper where I've bedded down on and woken up halfway up an Alp. Don't know if that still runs, but there were cheap fares ('prems' fares) avavilble on that
 
TopCat said:
The £19 quid bit seems bollocks. I challenge anyone to find me a fare for that.
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You used to get an "upgrade" dead cheap if you took the seated car, which was pretty cheap itself. and they had free berths after Edinburgh /first stop out of London, just asked the guard - I used to do it quite often. Think the least I ever paid was a fiver. That was before they merged the three sleepers into one at Edinburgh tho.

I often pass the Aberdeen section of the train in the morning, sitting in the lanes waiting to be trundled into the station. :)
 
They should send the Big Man (tm) to act as revenue protection officer, then the sleeper might run at a profit
 
I used to travel down from Inverness to King's Cross back in the days of steam. It was magic to just drift up from sleep and pull the curtain back to see some unknown platform with people wandering about; who were these people? what were they doing on a railway platform in the wee small hours of the morning? And to hear the wheel tapper working his way down the train with his hammer, tap, tap, tap, tap, and off to sleep again. Magic.
 
Went skiing with the army via sleeper train once figured out it would have been cheaper to go to France as army paid full price
 
I used this to get back with my bike from John o Groats. Think I paid £29. A real shame to see the service get pulled altogether. Suspect the winner from this will be the Inverness -> Luton Easyjet flight.
 
TopCat said:
So only Scotland to London for £19 and they have one seat in February at this price.
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That's because I bagged them :D

absolutely gutted if this happens - it's a lifesaver if you have to come down to London just a for a night or two as I do next month.

AND I have met more excellent nutters in the bar on that train than anywhere else on earth :D
 
teuchter said:
I can't see any quote marks around "Highland sleeper faces the axe".
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Deeply dull, boring and pointless nit-picking pedant's thread is over there, somewhere --->

:facepalm:

FYI:
Petition: Save our Trains
The National Transport Agency, Transport Scotland, have published a consultation threatening to axe the Highland Chieftain and the Highland Sleeper, the only direct links between London and Inverness.
http://www.transformscotland.org.uk/petition-save-our-trains.aspx
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Further to previous posts re sensationalist thread title, and apologies for late delivery of news but as predicted the future of the sleeper is not really in doubt at present - just before christmas funding was agreed to secure its continued operation -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-16284553

I'm actually more concerned about the longevity of the Highland Chieftan - the daytime service from Inverness to London. Hopefully local pressure will ensure it continues though.

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/...eper-saved-now-for-the-Chieftain-23122011.htm
 
I have just had the nightmare journey from Euston - Scotrail decided to cancel Friday's sleeper quite early in the day - using a derailment at Bletchley as their excuse.

By 18.30 most trains from Euston were running - only Scotrail had given up the ghost - they didn't even have any staff available until 20.00 :(
I'm now certain that they want to lose the sleeper service and are using every opportunity to make it unattractive.
Daugher and I had a VILE journey north on a shitty coach shuttle replacement when the train could easily have run.

We couldn't wait because she has an important exam on Monday and I was worried about the snow.

Such a shame because we had a blast on the way down :(
 
The previous night's southbound service was stuck north of Bletchley when the incident happened at 4 in the morning or whenever it was. I think it ended up being terminated at Preston. So, the stock from that (needed to make up your train) probably didn't get to London in time to be serviced and turned around for your train.
 
Interesting piece in the Guardian:
An elegy for the sleeper train – a waning symbol that Serco has made into a brand
Few of those sleeper trains survive. The story is the same across Europe. Expressways, cheap flights and high-speed lines that halve daylight journey times: the combination has spoiled the market for overnight trains, so that even the most famous of them, Le Train Bleu, has been replaced by a sadly reduced service. Britain should be grateful, then, for the six services it has managed to retain – from London to Penzance, Aberdeen, Inverness, Fort William, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The franchise for the Scottish five, known collectively as the Caledonian sleeper, is in the gift of the Scottish government andwas acquired last year by the outsourcing giant Serco, whose 100,000 employees also operate the Trident nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, the Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire and Walsall’s local education authority.
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http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...aning-symbol-that-serco-has-made-into-a-brand
 
I was on it the other week. There was engineering work all weekend so I jumped on the last train south on the friday night, the sleeper. Had a berth to myself. Not changed so much but bit more service had returned. Ordered a bacon butty with my tea in the morning. Nice you can easily order berths on line now. Could be a real arse to actually get someone in a station to do the booking right. I caused a few large queues of angry commuters at charing cross when I did it on my way to work.
 
ABello do the Paris-Venice sleeper now & it's godawful. €2 for a 40p vending machine coffee, crap food, really officious staff. Did Venice to Munich & that was pretty awful too.
 
Returned to london on the fort William sleeper last night. Not much changed under the new ownership. Makes a stop at glasgow queen st now for the "day" passengers in the seated coach, a welcome and sensible move.

Still without doubt the best rail journey in the uk. Will be sad when the slightly creaky BR stock gets replaced in a couple of years. But in the meantime I'll take all the opportunities to travel on what's pretty much the last proper train in the country.
 
teuchter said:
Returned to london on the fort William sleeper last night. Not much changed under the new ownership. Makes a stop at glasgow queen st now for the "day" passengers in the seated coach, a welcome and sensible move.

Still without doubt the best rail journey in the uk. Will be sad when the slightly creaky BR stock gets replaced in a couple of years. But in the meantime I'll take all the opportunities to travel on what's pretty much the last proper train in the country.
Click to expand...
"Proper"? :confused:
 
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