Crewe has nowhere near that many people boarding the Highlander each night.
It's largely the same as all rooms can be occupied by two people now; so 1st Class (Club and Double) capacity has effectively increased. I did post a comparison ages back, but can't find it.
Can be occupied by two people, but how many actually are?
Loads
Genuine question FWIW. I'd imagine plenty are occupied by two, but a not insignificant number only in solo use.
Each portion (EDB, INV) is:
Most are occupied by two people.
That suggests very few business travellers. Which you would think is a core market.
Was. There is much more leisure travel now, and much less business travel (since Covid). Business travel was always mostly on the Lowlander though (and a bit on the Aberdeen).
No, it does not set down at Glasgow Queen Street
If it's running late it may not even pass through there, being diverted via falkirk and Maryhill (joining passengers from Glasgow being advised to take a local train and connect at Dalmuir)
Dalmuir is the first place you can disembark, and is closer to Glasgow than Dumbarton.
I use the sleeper maybe four times a year when I've a days work to do in London. Sleeper down, days work, sleeper back. I have done all options and the Sleeper is easily the most convenient, comfortable and gives me most time in London.
Why iuse the Highlander? - According to SPT's website you can't use a Roundabout ticket before 9am anyway, except at weekends (when you wouldn't be able to use the sleepers in both directions for one day's bashing)
It’s being promoted by my employer as an option over flights
This way I can get two full Sleeper rakes in for haulage, plus the additional two carriages on the Fort Bill portion and a 73 + 66.
I think it all revolves around how well someone can sleep on the train. I seem to be able to sleep very well - even in a seat on a 12 hour flight I can totally miss eight or nine hours. So for me the sleeper would be absolutely ideal if someone else was paying.
Biggest challenge for me for using the Sleeper is there being any berths available.
One perk of being disabled I suppose
cheaper cabin, the seating coaches are a steal compared to Day and road transit.At the moment theres 7 coaches out of traffic so the Highlander only has 15 vehicles on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday but has 16 on Friday/Sunday and Monday, this is both North and Southbound.
There are still a few regular passengers who travel for business purposes but this has certainly declined in recent years, mainly since the introduction of the new coaches added in with unreliability of arriving on time as well as the increase in prices.
Was it not something to do with H+S laws that prevented these being an option? They wanted pods but this was rejected.
Why would that boost revenue, though?
Given that they're priced in a way that makes sole occupancy very expensive, it's hardly a surprise that there isn't much sole occupancy.
My maths gets 32 couchette passengers, basically reinventing the compartment coach. You might squeeze a fourth compartment into a 23m vehicle for 36 passengers, but I'm not convinced.
Those were airline style lie-flat beds that Serco were calling (and still do call) pods, rather than the pod hotel style ones in the new Nightjet stock.
They're more dense - the standing space in a compartment is wasted space, you get one standing space per four berths rather than one standing space per two berths in a conventional sleeper. Roughly a 50% uplift.