Caledonian Sleeper question

[ilovepotatoes]

I want to travel from Edinburgh to Spean Bridge to go hiking. The only direct train - and the route which arrives earliest in the day - is the Caledonian sleeper. It comes up as an option on other ticketing sites, as an anytime single, but on the cale sleeper website you can only book a train to spean bridge from London.

1. I know you can get the sleeper with a normal ticket valid for the route and pay a top up fee for the cabin, this is only a few hours journey and I know the sleeper has a carriage of seats, so can I get it with an anytime single and just get a seat without paying any additional fees?
2. is it possible to take a bike on the sleeper if you didn’t book your ticket through them? If so do they allow walk up bikes if they have space or do I need to make a bike reservation? I’m based in Edinburgh so if they won’t take the bike on the day it’s not an issue to lock it up at Waverley till I get back.
3. The highland sleeper lists a very long list of stops and spean bridge is quite a small station, do they always call at every station listed or are they request stops, and if so will I be able to request a stop even with a ticket not booked through them?

I have looked at previous threads and similar questions have come up, but not to such small stations or without needing a cabin. If I can’t find answers here I will just turn up and try my luck and get one of the later trains changing at Glasgow if they say no. But I can get a ticket for those for half the price of the anytime single so if I definitely can’t take this route it would be useful to know.

Thanks in advance, I’ve found the forum very useful previously but never had call to post myself before

 

[cadder toad]

Use the scotrail site. It suggests bikes are carried. There's a very long thread which somewhere explains how you get into Waverley for an 0450 departure

The thread title is simply Caledonian Sleeper. There's 18000 posts

 

[ilovepotatoes]

Use the scotrail site. It suggests bikes are carried. There's a very long thread which somewhere explains how you get into Waverley for an 0450 departure

The thread title is simply Caledonian Sleeper. There's 18000 posts

Yes, I know that bikes are carried, I am just wondering about their policy on whether they must be booked in advance. This is variable with different operators. I have looked at that thread and searched but I can’t find the discussion you mention, although I do remember reading it a while back. I know waverley is staffed from 4am, and from that thread I remember people have successfully got in for the 0450 so I’ll just give it a go.

if anyone has the answers to my original questions, I would be really grateful xx

 

[cadder toad]

Yes, I know that bikes are carried, I am just wondering about their policy on whether they must be booked in advance. This is variable with different operators. I have looked at that thread and searched but I can’t find the discussion you mention, although I do remember reading it a while back. I know waverley is staffed from 4am, and from that thread I remember people have successfully got in for the 0450 so I’ll just give it a go.

if anyone has the answers to my original questions, I would be really grateful xx

If you look at the scotrail site and select the 0450 train then it allows limited bike reservations

 

[NB5025]

I want to travel from Edinburgh to Spean Bridge to go hiking. The only direct train - and the route which arrives earliest in the day - is the Caledonian sleeper. It comes up as an option on other ticketing sites, as an anytime single, but on the cale sleeper website you can only book a train to spean bridge from London.

1. I know you can get the sleeper with a normal ticket valid for the route and pay a top up fee for the cabin, this is only a few hours journey and I know the sleeper has a carriage of seats, so can I get it with an anytime single and just get a seat without paying any additional fees?
2. is it possible to take a bike on the sleeper if you didn’t book your ticket through them? If so do they allow walk up bikes if they have space or do I need to make a bike reservation? I’m based in Edinburgh so if they won’t take the bike on the day it’s not an issue to lock it up at Waverley till I get back.
3. The highland sleeper lists a very long list of stops and spean bridge is quite a small station, do they always call at every station listed or are they request stops, and if so will I be able to request a stop even with a ticket not booked through them?

I have looked at previous threads and similar questions have come up, but not to such small stations or without needing a cabin. If I can’t find answers here I will just turn up and try my luck and get one of the later trains changing at Glasgow if they say no. But I can get a ticket for those for half the price of the anytime single so if I definitely can’t take this route it would be useful to know.

Thanks in advance, I’ve found the forum very useful previously but never had call to post myself before

Hi,

here is some info that you might find helpful.

1. For a non sleeper journey such as Edinburgh to Spean Bridge, you need to book with a normal ticket booking website, like Trainline. Caledonian sleeper (as you found) don't sell those tickets for local journeys. They also don't sell berths for those journeys, so it would be a normal return ticket.
2. Yes, you can add a seat and bike reservation when you book, e.g. with Trainline.
3. They always stop at Spean Bridge, and will certainly stop if you have booked.

Enjoy the journey!

 

[chriseurope]

I had an interesting (and very pleasant!) experience travelling from Euston last week. Took the 21.15 to Fort William last week, we ground to a halt just outside Fort Williiam, and after 10 minutes I began to worry I might not make my connection to the 10.15 Jacobite WCR service to Mallaig. Luckily that was also affected by the same points failure and hadn't yet made it into the platform. 40 minutes later we pulled into the platform, to be greeted by the crowd waiting for the Jacobite being held at the barriers.
The great news was that Delay Repay had kicked in, so my £190 ticket became £95

I was quite amazed at that, as I'd expected to only get compensated for the "travel" aspect, and not the "hotel/sleeper" aspect. Indeed, if I'd been in a hotel, they might have charged me extra for a "late" checkout. The seat only fare was about £60, so if I'd taken that option, the compensation would only have been £30.