The whole point of us doing this is to try and spend as much time as possible with family in Glasgow before I go back home to the West Midlands! The timings on the Birmingham arrival are less than ideal imo, but at least they give us the option at all.
Passage of the southbound sleeper through the West Midlands continues to be a major challenge for punctuality further south (although those delays aren't always the fault of the sleeper).
I'm not sure why, but until Covid, the Highlander also called at Watford Junction northbound but not southbound. I don't know when that situation started.Does anyone know why the calling pattern for the Inverness service is different southbound to northbound?
Timetable Detail
View all timetables for Caledonian Sleeper services for routes between London and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Fort William.www.sleeper.scot
Northbound it calls at Carrbridge but not southbound.
Southbound it calls at Falkirk Grahamston but not northbound.
Yeah the Watford calling was actually a factor in me turning down a job. Well, it was either that or cost, I can't quite remember as it was a few years ago.
This dates back from ScotRail days, where the sleeper formed part of the commuter operation into Inverness to allow people to travel there from the local area for a pre-9am start. I can't remember the exact year it started, but is the same reason that it has open calls from Kingussie onwards.
That's interesting and makes sense.
The WFJ (Watford Junction) call on the northbound Highlander definitely continued for a short time after the initial Covid timetable reductions in 2020, as I used the service a lot in summer 2022 when it called at WFJ.
I seem to recall the Carrbridge stop northbound was introduced in May 2013, but I could be wrong. Certainly the sleeper was calling there in the last couple of years of being operated by Scotrail. Its scheduled arrival time in Inverness changed from 08:31 to 08:39 at the same time (passing the up Highland Chieftain at Tomatin instead of Moy as previously).
I've got it booked to get me between two work trips between Coventry and Perth in a few weeks. Taking daytime trains back south after though.
If you have booked a room seated coach access is not usually permitted, don't forget people may have reserve empty seats further along the route between Edinburgh and Fort William. However, it may be worth asking if it is really quiet as the worst they can say is no.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
And somewhat bizarrely 1Y11 was planned to be overtaken by 1Y41 between Fort William Junction and Fort William.Realtime Trains | 1Y11 0450 Edinburgh to Fort William | 16/02/2026
Real-time train running information for 1Y11 0450 departure from Edinburgh to Fort William on 16/02/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
I see from the RTT link above that today's Fort William portion has been arbitrarily retimed, presumably to avoid delay repay liabilities. But because of the rubbish way its been done, 1Y11 is timed to take 188.5 minutes to travel the roughly 0.65 miles from Fort William Junction to Fort William, a whopping 0.2mph
Obviously this isn't representative of what happens on the ground, but is it the slowest timed leg of a journey ever?
That's extremely cheeky to avoid paying out the delay repay...Realtime Trains | 1Y11 0450 Edinburgh to Fort William | 16/02/2026
Real-time train running information for 1Y11 0450 departure from Edinburgh to Fort William on 16/02/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
I see from the RTT link above that today's Fort William portion has been arbitrarily retimed, presumably to avoid delay repay liabilities. But because of the rubbish way its been done, 1Y11 is timed to take 188.5 minutes to travel the roughly 0.65 miles from Fort William Junction to Fort William, a whopping 0.2mph
Obviously this isn't representative of what happens on the ground, but is it the slowest timed leg of a journey ever?
Indeed.
I agree with this, but if this were done to keep passengers informed they should retime all the stops not just the final station where they know the majority of passengers are travelling to.
I wonder whether these changes have been driven by the Scottish Government, who subsidise the service to a massive degree and ultimately have to fork out the delay replay money.
This would make sense, although the sleeper is an unusual case where I would rather the delay repay threshold be lowered to say 1 hour instead of these late notice timetable amendments.
Perhaps so - however, I think this sharp practice has been dreamed up to keep the bottom line from looking worse to their paymasters. I travelled once on CS when it was run by Serco and was unimpressed with the value for money, and looking at their 2026 fares, this is still the case. I imagine their summer loadings are 90% tourists who are less influenced by the charge. I do like the look of the new stock, but I’d use other transportation that is better value per mile.
I've used it for work with clients in London. When considering the alternatives, they are basically:
I think that's a fair assessment.
That varies - I know a few colleagues who think nothing of 8:00 meetings.
on paper, yes - but if you live in any of the areas of Edinburgh which are affordable for almost anyone with a family then you'll have a 20-30 min taxi journey (or, if you're very lucky, a Night Bus) - so the 0540 train means getting up at 0430 by the time you get ready / leave the house etc. Now, everybody is different, but I absolutely don't function for the day if I get up that early so from Edinburgh, for a morning meeting in London, I would always go down the previous night or on the Sleeper.
my response would be to book 6pm-7pm meetings with them and see if they liked that
