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Caledonian Sleeper
- Thread starter Essexman
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D1537
Established Member
The northbound Highlander is at Stafford now, so I am assuming that the major OHLE issue at Leyland has been sorted out. Northbound electrically-hauled services have certainly passed the area in the last hour after a long period of disruption, I haven't seen a southbound one do so yet unless 4M86 is electrically-hauled (which I think it is).
Class15
Established Member
4M86 is mostly 66-hauled these days I believe.
hexagon789
Veteran Member
I think the slows are open, but the fasts are still closed.
The issue was/is on the Down Fast.
gabrielhj07
Established Member
I see that 1M11 is still at Carstairs and will return to EDB in due course. I'm assuming that it will run in the path of cancelled 1S26?
D1537
Established Member
Meanwhile, 1M16 has been at Lancaster for three hours and counting...
gabrielhj07
Established Member
Funnily enough I had a choice of Highlander from INV, or HST to EDB then Lowlander last night.
Going for the Lowlander seems to have been the better choice, despite it turning back at Carstairs this morning.
Currently sat on 1E01 EDB-KGX which should see me into London 2 hours before the Highlander…
Going for the Lowlander seems to have been the better choice, despite it turning back at Carstairs this morning.
Currently sat on 1E01 EDB-KGX which should see me into London 2 hours before the Highlander…
Ironically, the sleeper from Edinburgh only got as far as Carstairs last night before turning back, so it's probably a good job you didn't manage to convince your colleague to stick with it!
Sorry, just realised your post was Monday, not yesterday.
I'm trying to book the sleeper from Fort William - Preston night of Sunday 7th June, but it doesn't come up as an option when trying to book. There are seats as available as I can book through to London. Does this mean it is diverted? I can't find any info about planned engineering works.
D1537
Established Member
Passed me at Crewe at 09:26, around 4 hrs 20 late
Arrival at Euston was 12:34, 287 mins late
kingqueen
Member
I'm on the Northbound Sleeper to Fort William, currently sitting at Birmingham International.
We were not supposed to be in Birmingham International this evening because a tree fell on the line near Penkridge, causing significant damage to the overhead electric wires. As a result, the railway is closed between Stafford and Wolverhampton whilst repairs are made. Hence rail replacement transport was arranged to take passengers to Crewe to join the train there.
However there has been a signalling error. The signaller at Rugby routed the train towards Birmingham rather than via the Trent Valley. The train had to proceed to Birmingham International and is currently awaiting a route conductor as the route it will take out of Birmingham is not the usual route, and the driver doesn't have the route knowledge for a small section of that route.
Currently +99.
(Source: Caledonian Sleeper webchat + coach host)
We were not supposed to be in Birmingham International this evening because a tree fell on the line near Penkridge, causing significant damage to the overhead electric wires. As a result, the railway is closed between Stafford and Wolverhampton whilst repairs are made. Hence rail replacement transport was arranged to take passengers to Crewe to join the train there.
However there has been a signalling error. The signaller at Rugby routed the train towards Birmingham rather than via the Trent Valley. The train had to proceed to Birmingham International and is currently awaiting a route conductor as the route it will take out of Birmingham is not the usual route, and the driver doesn't have the route knowledge for a small section of that route.
Currently +99.
(Source: Caledonian Sleeper webchat + coach host)
Statto
Established Member
I see the Northbound Highlander has been rerouted via Walsall & Rugeley Trent Valley.
I don't suppose they managed to cancel that given that it wasn't in fact needed.
DelW
Established Member
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If the bus to Crewe had already left before the train was wrongly routed, the unfortunate passengers from International probably ended up sitting waiting in Crewe station in the small hours, while their train was still stationary - at International.
Looks like it went through Walsall and Rugeley, rare for a 92 that bit
Tetragon213
Member
Can confirm. I also got a text message from them when we were late into Birmingham.
However...
This has been somewhat of a concern for me and my family who were considering a trip on the Jacobite; iirc there's only about 15 minutes for the connection, so a delay would be, shall we say, rather unideal.
It was always recommended to book the afternoon Jacobite if arriving on the sleeper for that very reason (and Delay Repay not applying to The Jacobite).
Obviously that depends on there actually being an afternoon service.
Following this thread does not exactly inspire confidence that there will be a morning Jacobite either.
Tetragon213
Member
The problem there being that we'd be then committing to a night in Fort William, as there aren't any more services from Fort William unless we want to go all the way to Preston since Cally doesn't sell seats from Fort Bill to Dalmuir/Helensburgh.
VT 390
Established Member
- Joined
- 7 Dec 2018
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- 1,730
You can book seats on the Caledonian Sleeper to every station between Spean Bridge and Edinburgh from Fort William, although it does not stop at Glasgow Queen Street most nights southbound anymore with a change required at Dalmuir.
Tetragon213
Member
Is that still the case in 2026? Cally's own website will not allow for it.
The only destinations it recognises are Preston, Crewe, Birmingham, and London if you depart Fort Bill.
VT 390
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The Caledonian Sleeper website always appears to be very restrictive with what destinations it offers for seated options as it also does not offer Kingussie, Aviemore and Carrbridge to Inverness (northbound only) tickets.
Example link below for how you can book the ticket with seat reservation, although I am not sure if there is still a restriction on how far in advance you can book seats for this part of the journey but there will almost always be some seats between Fort William and Edinburgh available for booking due to the sharing with the Aberdeen seated coach from Edinburgh onwards:
Fort William > Dalmuir - Search Results
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BRX
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- 20 Oct 2008
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You can buy them from any TOC's website except for the CS one. Crazy but true!
kingqueen
Member
They perhaps really, really don't want people to book short distances in case they have long distance customers wanting the seat?
Weird and frustrating, though
Weird and frustrating, though
VT 390
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This makes sense however when an Aberdeen seat has been reserved they could make that seat available for Edinburgh to Fort William as it would otherwise go unused.
BRX
Established Member
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I expect the answer is that they are focused on running a sleeper service and regard the provision of these daytime seats as an operational annoyance that makes them no money. They were obliged to provide them as part of the original franchise deal.
As far as the CS website is concerned, the rules that apply to all other TOCs seem not to apply. They simply don't sell any tickets for anything that isn't one of their own services. So you also can't purchase a CS ticket with onward connections (for example to destinations like Mallaig or Kyle or Oban).
As far as the CS website is concerned, the rules that apply to all other TOCs seem not to apply. They simply don't sell any tickets for anything that isn't one of their own services. So you also can't purchase a CS ticket with onward connections (for example to destinations like Mallaig or Kyle or Oban).
VT 390
Established Member
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By selling any seat already booked to Aberdeen they would be making extra on a seat that would otherwise be unoccupied as it can not be double sold south of Edinburgh.
So while I do get this position I genuinely can not see a reason for not selling a seat that has already been sold for the Aberdeen portion as however small the revenue would be it is still extra money they would not otherwise have had.
Tetragon213
Member
SuspectUsual
Established Member
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- 11 Jul 2018
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Perhaps they perceive this additional revenue as not being worth the IT cost of upgrading their system to release seats on the Fort William portion for intra-Scotland journeys as bookings are made for Aberdeen to England journeys? I assume this functionality doesn't exist already?
(Although of course there's a manual workaround where they could only allow local bookings from/to Fort William with a much shorter lead time, say a week before travel, and then someone manually updates which seats are available once per service, ie six times a week. A bit of a faff but it avoids IT outlay)