Caledonian Sleeper: Should Fort William portion be prioritised over Aberdeen?

[Bletchleyite]

Although it similarly makes zero sense to transport anything at all if you're having to reduce a seat already subsidised to the tune of ~£100 by £40/50 to sell it.

I highly doubt that the net spend of the people in Seats generates £150 of tax take for the Scottish govt, or even gets particularly close to a net spend of £150 in the scottish economy. It may be more economically effective to subsidise hotel rooms in the Highlands by £50/night.

The seats are marginal. You need a brake vehicle, it's just part of that rather than a full brake.

 

[Wynd]

Sticking with the terms of the debate, if there are empty seats, and berths, they should be sold.

An empty seat is £0. A sold seat is cash in the bank.

If the subsidy is X per annum, then it improves as you sell more seats. It does not deteriorate as the denominator increases. x/100 is better than x/50.

This fallacy, that running trains half full, is anything other than bad business, needs to end.

 

[zwk500]

Sticking with the terms of the debate, if there are empty seats, and berths, they should be sold.

An empty seat is £0. A sold seat is cash in the bank.

If the subsidy is X per annum, then it improves as you sell more seats. It does not deteriorate as the denominator increases. x/100 is better than x/50.

This fallacy, that running trains half full, is anything other than bad business, needs to end.

If you're definitely going to be running that part of the train I agree with you. Doesn't mean you can't question the validity of the seated coaches full stop. The manual brake can go somewhere else if it really needs to.

 

[Peter0124]

Could a Carlisle to Fort William service which doesn't stop anywhere work? I know it's single track for a lot of the route and the WHL is slow but I would estimate about 4 hours for the journey. It would also act as a faster service to Glasgow. Probably only popular in the Summer though if you make some stops for walkers at places like Corrour. Class 755's would probably be the best class with the Electrification of Helensburgh-Carlisle

Carlisle - Motherwell - Glasgow Central Low Level - Crianlarich - Fort William?