Heyo!, i'm wondering. if any of the MK2 MK3 sleeper stock that is being sold could maybe be used as a once on occasion sleeper service?, just thinking of maybe an inverness to london christmas eve sleeper maybe using 37's and 47's, Might even be handy for people wanting to travel at night to visit family south or north for christmas, or maybe for other times of year.
Would be nice to see the 89 Joining in too. Say, Double headed 37's or a 37 - 47 Multiple takes some MK2 and MK3's down from inverness to edinburgh, then they all get hooked upto a 89 at Edinburgh for the travel down to london
Would be really cute maybe as a charity service? like all profits/funds goes to say a homeless charity or that for christmas c:
also decorate it with some lights like the canadian christmas train so it gets people out to see it.
Charity service ? Is that the same as a basket case.
The enthusiasm is admirable, but reality here is going to land you with a multi million pound bill before your sleeper service has turned a wheel in revenue service. The Mark 3 stock is life expired, rotten and will need significant corrosion repairs (as is normal for any Mark 3 vehicle now), the bogies and wheelsets will be coming up for refurbishment/replacement, the electrics on a Mark 3 loco hauled vehicle are well known weak points, particularly the motor-alternator sets which turn 1000V ETS into 415V three-phase and were already pretty getting difficult to maintain in service, there are disability access requirements which will make regular passenger service with slam-door stock problematic and there are safety, training and minimum staffing requirements for sleeper vehicles which will need to be undertaken before any passenger use is permitted by ORR.
Class 37/4s, even in double-headed formation, aren't fitted with suitable ETS equipment (wiring, mainly) to power a lengthy rake of vehicles. Class 47s and Class 89s are problematic from a safety case perspective, who still has traction and route knowledge on them. It suddenly needs additional staff to combine traction and route knowledge.
It's OK for the likes of LSL who if they refurbish the vehicles to a high standard, and using existing assets, facilities and staff, can make a business case for a higher end luxury touring experience, but to make the sums work on these sorts of trains, we're looking at £2,500 tickets, not £25 tickets.
And as I've pointed out elsewhere, sleepers lose money. Serco Caledonian Sleeper is only covering around half of their total costs through ticket and catering sales, the rest comes from the Scottish Government.
