Caledonian Sleeper discussion

[Hadders]

What have they actually done?

Appalling reliability
Refusal to accept local Scottish Routeing Guide Easements
Refusal to accept ALRs on their last day of validity
Removal of Advance fares on the 'day'service between Fort William and Edinburgh
Removal of berth supplements for solo use of a twin berth
Massive increase in berth fees

 

[najaB]

No, I said SOME of the issues. You selected the one of which the passengers would not have known.

Oh, I know about the problems with heating/cooling having experienced both personally. And also had my berth moved to a different coach due to a failed battery on at least two occasions.

 

[47271]

Rumour is that the RMT action on the Serco sleeper is part of a bigger campaign to try and put Serco out of the picture for the Scottish ferry contract, and that there's not much difference between Serco and FirstGroup for the RMT to be balloting for strike action over.

I think you're right, on the face of it it's a bit odd going on about plans for ferry tendering in a statement that's supposed to be focusing on the immediate interests of members suffering maintenance issues in the rail industry.

Recent history suggests that the politics here won't make much difference to what the Scottish Government decides on the Macbraynes routes. The RMT have been loudly upset about Serco's management of Northlink since they took over in 2012. The union may well be right going by what little I know about the Orkney and Shetland ferries, but it didn't stop the award of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise to Serco in 2014.

 

[Chrism20]

Also reported on BBC Scottish news at 7am this morning that crew had been balloted for industrial action.

 

[jopsuk]

The union may well be right going by what little I know about the Orkney and Shetland ferries, but it didn't stop the award of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise to Serco in 2014.

The tendering rules may not allow performance- especially perceived industrial relations failings- on another operation, one that isn't railway even, to be taken into account when assessing bids.

 

[TonyTaysider]

I've checked that on Recent Time Trains, and it would seem there have been no cancellations since the last one mentioned on this thread.

It's interesting that some of the problems to which RMT are justifying the industrial action have not been mentioned by the regular passengers who have posted on this thread.

Recent Time Trains might fail to pick up on sleeper cancellations replaced by buses. On 23 November, there was a tweet on Caledonian Sleeper's mobile twitter site from a passenger complaining about being on a bus who "wanted to be in my bed on the sleeper". The CS person (who responded at 2.50 in the morning of the 24th!) apologised saying that there had been a signal failure between Carstairs and Edinburgh. Assuming that this was a real-time discussion, and not relating to a previous evening, the failure must have happened in the half hour between the departure of the last Edinburgh train to Carstairs at 23.10 - which is recorded as having arrived two minutes late - and the 23.40 sleeper service.

 

[geoffk]

I used the Caledonian Sleeper from Preston three times under the previous franchise - once each to all three destinations. Two of my six journeys were heavily delayed by locomotive failures (a 67 and a 90) but otherwise I found the service acceptable. The stock is quite old but the food was good in spite of the limited cooking facilities. Being unable to lock the cabin door when visiting the toilet in the night was a disadvantage. A plastic key or swipecard, as used in hotels, would have solved it but no doubt this will be a feature of the new stock.

 

[reb0118]

............the failure must have happened in the half hour between the departure of the last Edinburgh [EDB] train to Carstairs [CRS] at 23.10 - which is recorded as having arrived two minutes late - and the 23.40 sleeper service.

I was informed via my mobile's "Tyrell" system that the 23:10 EDB to Motherwell [MTH] via CRS actually ran via the EGS line aka the Benhar route due to a points failure at CRS. This however is not confirmed by realtimetrains viz. - 1D63.

Maybe the earlier points failure caused the cancellation of the ECS to form the EDB portion in the first place? But, again, RTT does not back this up.

Just to confirm it is the 24th that you mean?.....

 

[TonyTaysider]

I was informed via my mobile's "Tyrell" system that the 23:10 EDB to Motherwell [MTH] via CRS actually ran via the EGS line aka the Benhar route due to a points failure at CRS. This however is not confirmed by realtimetrains viz. - 1D63.

Maybe the earlier points failure caused the cancellation of the ECS to form the EDB portion in the first place? But, again, RTT does not back this up.

Just to confirm it is the 24th that you mean?.....

I meant the 23rd of November. The tweet from the passenger was sent on the 23rd and the CS reply was early on the morning of the 24th.

 

[PHILIPE]

Unless the schedule for the train had been altered it wouldn't show on RTT because there were no points to match it up with. Would have been arranged at short notice. There gave been reportings on it's normal route.

 

[SPADTrap]

Hired from Rivera trains to cover the lack of stock tonight!

 

[reb0118]

I meant the 23rd of November.

Ok. 1D63 was diverted via Shotts and the ECS didn't make it through to Edinburgh to form 1C11.

 

[CosherB]

Hired from Rivera trains to cover the lack of stock tonight!

A kaleidoscope of colour with a maroon and gold or green and yellow 90 as well!

 

[cf111]

Hired from Rivera trains to cover the lack of stock tonight!

Here it is at Fort William this afternoon.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Good stuff. Hiring in a Mk2 BSO and running it on the Fort Bill seats (where occupancy is low enough that everyone will get two seats to themselves, so the First Class thing is a bit less important) is an excellent idea.

 

[marks87]

Good stuff. Hiring in a Mk2 BSO and running it on the Fort Bill seats (where occupancy is low enough that everyone will get two seats to themselves, so the First Class thing is a bit less important) is an excellent idea.

It's also unlikely anyone will even be attempting to sleep on the Fort William seats with the Edinburgh shuffle, so no worries about a lack of reclining either.

 

[najaB]

It's also unlikely anyone will even be attempting to sleep on the Fort William seats with the Edinburgh shuffle, so no worries about a lack of reclining either.

Don't know if I agree with that - 2115 departure from Euston and 0350 (ish) arrival at Edinburgh gives you six hours to get a snooze.
Edit: Ah, actually just got what you were saying. Still 4am is early enough that you might want to snooze between Edinburgh and Fort William.

 

[alex17595]

It's also unlikely anyone will even be attempting to sleep on the Fort William seats with the Edinburgh shuffle, so no worries about a lack of reclining either.

I fell in and out of consciousness on my way to Corrour, didn't want to fall asleep and up on the other side of Scotland though! Everyone else was pretty much asleep though.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's also unlikely anyone will even be attempting to sleep on the Fort William seats with the Edinburgh shuffle, so no worries about a lack of reclining either.

Funnily enough, I got the best kip after the Edinburgh shuffle rather than before it, because it was very quiet so I could sort-of lie down on the 2+table pair of seats (shoes off of course) rather than only one seat, while others lay down sideways on the groups of 2. Probably about 3 hours, certainly enough to set me up for the day. I don't sleep well vertically.

Unless there are local passengers the FW coach will never be full because the passengers have to have got as far as Edinburgh in the Aberdeen coach.

 

[Blindtraveler]

When I bashed the West Highland earlier this year I got quite a good kip in a less than quarter full coach. What sort of state are the Riviera ones like internally? If better than CS's own than it might be a tad embarrasing lol.

 

[Bletchleyite]

When I bashed the West Highland earlier this year I got quite a good kip in a less than quarter full coach. What sort of state are the Riviera ones like internally? If better than CS's own than it might be a tad embarrasing lol.

Because they're 2+2 with tables they are so different it is probably hard to compare.

 

[Bodie]

More problems today. My folks are travelling home and were on the sleeper to Inverness last night. Arrival this morning into Inverness was 171 minutes down.
They heard it was due to engine failure at Rugby.
All I know thus far, can anyone confirm this?

I do know they have been given a taxi for their onward journey home. That's a 165 mile round trip bonus for an Inverness taxi firm. Least someone will be happy about the continuing problems.
Of course not sure yet if this was something out of Caledonian's hands.
Looking on this forum there has been some major disruption to the WCML over the last few days.

 

[sprinterguy]

Hired from Rivera trains to cover the lack of stock tonight!

Well I never: Intercity (liveried) stock back on the sleeper - Never thought I'd see that occurring. Glad to see that an additional vehicle is now available.

 

[87015]

More problems today. My folks are travelling home and were on the sleeper to Inverness last night. Arrival this morning into Inverness was 171 minutes down.
They heard it was due to engine failure at Rugby.
All I know thus far, can anyone confirm this?

I do know they have been given a taxi for their onward journey home. That's a 165 mile round trip bonus for an Inverness taxi firm. Least someone will be happy about the continuing problems.
Of course not sure yet if this was something out of Caledonian's hands.
Looking on this forum there has been some major disruption to the WCML over the last few days.

90042 fell down in a heap near Nuneaton. 667xx cleared the line then awaited 87002 to work forward after being tagged onto the back of the Glasgow. Carstairs portion caped for good measure as well.

 

[najaB]

90042 fell down in a heap near Nuneaton.

That's not one of the fleet that used to haul the sleeper, or is it?

 

[sprinterguy]

That's not one of the fleet that used to haul the sleeper, or is it?

It's a Freightliner loco, so, no, not one that was used under the previous DB Schenker/EWS contract with First Group and National Express before them.

 

[najaB]

It's a Freightliner loco, so, no, not one that was used under the previous DB Schenker/EWS contract with First Group and National Express before them.

I wonder if being asked to provide ETH made it give up the ghost - was it a particularly cold night?

 

[captainbigun]

Not an ETS related failure, just one of those things.

 

[Mag_seven]

1S25 was heavily delayed last night, though not due to the TOC.

 

[robbeech]

It left pretty much on time as i was stood a few feet from it. It left a Class 90 there on its own. Thinking about it i'm sure it was 90042, can we assume that would have been pushed into the station with something else if that had failed as it was station end.