Any advice?

[CallySleeperKid]

I am supposed to be on the Chirftain from Inverness to Kings Cross tomorrow, East Coast are only running this as far as Perth on it was up to Inverness tonight, so it will start at Perth in the morning, meaning I will have to get the 06.47 ScotRail service from Inverness to Perth, almost an hour and 10 minutes before I was due to board the Chieftain. The Perth to Inverness line is still open and trains are running on time as we speak, Needless to say I am a little miffed as to why East Coast are not running up here when other services are.

We also have the prospect of being packed like sardines onto a 158 in the morning for 2 hours.

At the minute I am seriously considering getting the Caledonian Sleeper tonight, which will cost me, but if I stay overnight here and the connecting service to Perth is cancelled tomorrow I will be looking at paying for another nights hotel and then tickets from Inverness home again, more than likely on ScotRail and then Cross Country on Sunday or even Monday!

My partner is pregnant so I really dont want to have to put her through changing trains and cramped DMUs when we had reserved first class tickets for a direct train.

The snow has settled down in Inverness, but it is between Aviemore and Kingussie that has forecasts for overnight snow showers.

Needless to say I have no idea which way to turn, I am thinking it is better to just try and get the sleeper tonight and get out of here, What would you do? Any suggestions? Personally I would stick it out if I was on my own but my partner really does not need that stress.

They are currently not taking any booking for the sleeper in case it does not run, so I have got to get a walk up booking should any be available!

:-x

 

[scotsman]

Hey! I'm off on the Chieftain tomorrow as well! (Albeit going the other way!)

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Hey! I'm off on the Chieftain tomorrow as well! (Albeit going the other way!)

I think you will only get as far as Perth!

 

[scotsman]

I think you will only get as far as Perth!

Ironic given that I'm joining there! Methinks I'm getting the 1741?

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Ironic given that I'm joining there! Methinks I'm getting the 1741?

From what I can gather it only ran to Perth yesterday to, and with snow overnight tonight I can't see them sending it. I assume they don't want to risk having a HST set stuck up here.

On another topic, we have first advanced tickets from St Pancras to Langley Mill on the 19.30 tomorrow, we are going to be in London and around 7.30am, do you think if I have a word at St Pancras and try and get us on a quiet dinner time train to Nottingham we would get much luck given the circumstances?

 

[yorkie]

I am supposed to be on the Chirftain from Inverness to Kings Cross tomorrow, East Coast are only running this as far as Perth on it was up to Inverness tonight, so it will start at Perth in the morning, meaning I will have to get the 06.47 ScotRail service from Inverness to Perth, almost an hour and 10 minutes before I was due to board the Chieftain.

You have that choice, but you don't have to. You could get a lie-in and get the 0918 instead. Or EC may run a replacement bus service (though that road is pretty dangerous in bad conditions, so not sure I'd do that!)

I doubt many people bother with FC on FSR (I could be wrong!) so if you arrive early, given you are boarding at the first stop, you have a decent chance of a seat I'd have thought.

The Perth to Inverness line is still open and trains are running on time as we speak, Needless to say I am a little miffed as to why East Coast are not running up here when other services are.

If a HST goes there and can't get back, that's a waste of a HST.

At the minute I am seriously considering getting the Caledonian Sleeper tonight, which will cost me,

True but you can offset the refund from your EC tickets partially against this cost.

but if I stay overnight here and the connecting service to Perth is cancelled tomorrow I will be looking at paying for another nights hotel and then tickets from Inverness home again, more than likely on ScotRail and then Cross Country on Sunday or even Monday!

If the line is closed to Perth, and the road is also blocked, then they will surely send you via Aberdeen! If there really is no railway line or road route open then there is a good chance they will pay for the hotel. But it would have to be really bad to get to that stage.

My partner is pregnant so I really dont want to have to put her through changing trains and cramped DMUs when we had reserved first class tickets for a direct train.

Then I hope you got the sleeper tonight as that's the only way to avoid it.

The snow has settled down in Inverness, but it is between Aviemore and Kingussie that has forecasts for overnight snow showers.

Needless to say I have no idea which way to turn, I am thinking it is better to just try and get the sleeper tonight and get out of here, What would you do? Any suggestions? Personally I would stick it out if I was on my own but my partner really does not need that stress.

They are currently not taking any booking for the sleeper in case it does not run, so I have got to get a walk up booking should any be available!

:-x

I'd get the sleeper, I see it departed about 35 mins ago. Did you get it?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

On another topic, we have first advanced tickets from St Pancras to Langley Mill on the 19.30 tomorrow, we are going to be in London and around 7.30am, do you think if I have a word at St Pancras and try and get us on a quiet dinner time train to Nottingham we would get much luck given the circumstances?

If you speak to the right person, probably. But they'd be under no obligation to. If you don't succeed at first, try someone else. If you have Travelcards and the ticket office staff are not co-operative I'd go through the barrier using the Travelcard and ask a Train Manager personally. It's at their discretion, and more TMs are compassionate than ticket office staff in my experience (of course there are exceptions!)

 

[CallySleeperKid]

We got the sleeper and left Perth about 5 minutes ago, I have no idea how late we are, and more importantly for later on, how late the Aberdeen portion is, it's pretty bad over there by all accounts. The 8 who travelled via road to join us at Kingussie were nowhere to be seen so no idea what happened to them.

Will we be able to get a refund from East Coast? I was under the impression not as it's weather effected, but on the other hand the line to Inverness was open and normal services did run.

A refund would be a nice little bonus but getting my other half back home is the most important thing, oh and my 7 bottles of single malt!

 

[yorkie]

We got the sleeper and left Perth about 5 minutes ago, I have no idea how late we are,

22 mins

and more importantly for later on, how late the Aberdeen portion is, it's pretty bad over there by all accounts.

8 mins

The 8 who travelled via road to join us at Kingussie were nowhere to be seen so no idea what happened to them.

It's a nasty road, so possibly stuck somewhere!

Will we be able to get a refund from East Coast? I was under the impression not as it's weather effected, but on the other hand the line to Inverness was open and normal services did run.

A refund would be a nice little bonus but getting my other half back home is the most important thing, oh and my 7 bottles of single malt!

If it is indeed cancelled yes your EC tickets will be refunded for sure.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Looking at things this side of Perth i would think it will run in the morning but the 06:47 connection from Inverness is very doubtful. Will just see in the morning where we stand I guess.

Thanks for the info.