I've lost count of how many tiems I've used the Caledonian sleeper - at least 25 - and have never been delayed by as much as half an hour. All routes except Aberdeen.
Why is this? Are you expecting significant disruption? The CS website currently says that the London to Edinburgh portion is cancelled but that "all other services this evening are running as scheduled".
Is it not also the case that the Cally is pathed slower, so as not to shake the passengers to bits overnight?
I was. So glad that it has turned out otherwise.
1S26 running as an 8 tonight so presumably only going to Glasgow
That would have been just the day coaches, I believe from the last couple of weeks. Normal (ex-Euston) service terminated at Edinburgh (coaching or brake issues as I recall), but the day coaches sent onwards as normal to Fort Bill.
Thursday 8 August. As @Twingo37175 suggests above, the Highlander (all portions) terminated/started in Edinburgh that morning/evening. The 2 day coaches (seated plus lounge) ran between Edinburgh and Fort William.
Regarding general passenger loadings generally, on the Fort William route in the summer they easily sell all 4 carriages worth of rooms (14 classic rooms, 18 club rooms, 2 double rooms, 2 accessible rooms).
I concur that it is often a sell-out - multiple times in the Summer when I try to book at reasonably short notice, there is no availability especially on the main commuting days (Southbound Sunday, Monday and northbound on Thursday). Annoyingly in some periods in Winter the service to FW does not run everyday (see January 2027 for example).
That’s a little concerning, I can’t remember how it goes but isn’t that the loco which in turn runs the southbound highland back?
Do you mean the loco's driver?
No, it’s somewhat late so I’ve forgotten how the switch around takes place. Whether the northbound highlander returns south with the highlander or goes to the Klondike Road, or if it takes the ECS of the Edinburgh lowlander portion back to Polmadie etc.
And sadly 1M11 the southbound Lowlander has been terminated at Carstairs presumed to be for set balancing purposes. Not one of CS's better nights.
An AWS fault on 92038 according to an inside source on another channel.
It would appear that the southbound Lowlander was sent to Edinburgh, offloaded and then the stock used to form the northbound Highlander portions, presumably to ensure stock is available tonight.
Indeed.
Presumably related to this, the Aberdeen portion has arrived as just two carriages (seated + buffet car?). Unless some sleeper carriages appear later, I assume tonight that'll mean everyone's going seated until they get down to Edinburgh?
There would be no driver for 1M11 from Preston, as they were probably tied up with returning the failed train from Milton Keynes to Euston.
Em no you'll find the cabin passengers will be transported to Edinburgh
Timed for 80mph, but able to run at 87mph (140kph) maximum on the WCML to make up time I guess.
Surely as the Caledonian Sleeper is a Brand operated by Scottish Rail Holdings a company wholly owned by the Scottish Government they should already be aware?
It seems a lack of alternative options when something goes wrong, and a question about who would pay for those alternative options.
The government can't be oblivious to this already, surely.
Not many Labour MPs to influence Healey; SNP MPs don't tend to have the same status within the SNP as MSPs, so be interesting to know how much influence they have when complaining to Holyrood
