Caledonian Sleeper

Only done it a couple of times, years ago. The seats recline but I would not expect a great sleep (there's one on each carriage that doesn't, as it faces the rest, I got that one, zero sleep).

I got a bunk the other time, at 6' it was too short for me and I got crap sleep.

Both were cheap advance tickets, but they aren't as cheap these days.

Anyone use it to travel to London and back? Looks like it’s doable for a full day in London.

I have done but not since the latest revamp.  You can get sleeper down and late train back up and get a full day.  Or vice versa and get 1/2 day.  That’s feasible from central belt - not sure about Inverness.

Would be going from Inverness for work mostly, but sometimes for personal trips. Any tips for cheaper tickets?

I’ve never been in a position to book far enough ahead to get a good deal.  It would always be cheaper to fly, andd often to fly the night before and stay overnight!  I’ve only used the sleeper when timings didn’t work for that - like needing to be in Central London at 0800 but having to be in Edinburgh till 2000 the day before.

it *may* be more ecconomical as a couple?

Is it possible to get a decent nights sleep in the seats or do you really need a cabin?

I’ve never used the seats.  My son used the seats and certainly didn’t appear rested when he came back up this summer!   I think the question is will you get a decent sleep in a cabin!   That depends on how much of a princess you are etc…. I have a friend who uses it once a month and says he has no issue.  I found it wasn’t a great sleep - but then I don’t sleep well if I have to get up at 4.30am for a flight either.

@poly I am a bit of a princess when it comes to sleep so didn't think the seats would be for me.<br /><br />TBH paying more to sleep on a train in a bunk bed with a sink than a flight and a night at the Heathrow Sofitel doesn't fill me with joy but I'll have to give it a go at some point this year. It will be an adventure!

Edit: For a full day in London I can fly return for £182 going out and back in one day. On a train that would be two nights sleeping on a train, and £530. Obviously the CO2 saving is pretty huge though 😢

I couldn't get any serious sleep in those chairs, but no doubt some champion kippers / drunkards might manage it. I found the cabins cramped but ok for sleep, but it's been a few years since I was on it. There used to be some very cheap advance tickets available if you were flexible with times, but they seem to have disappeared under the current operation.

It's in principle a great option for me to go riding in the Highlands from Manchester, but costs always end up putting me off and I make other plans. It's still a unique option in the UK to get on in London, say, with your bike and wake up in Fort William.

I used it in the other direction to do the Badger Divide, just after they had refreshed the trains.

The toilets and shower didn't work (no water... they might have fixed this by now), but the bunk / beds were comfortable enough.

It's hella expensive for what you get, even when it's marketed as a "premium" experience

We've only used it once a couple of years ago, on a one way journey from London to Aberdeen.  We got woken up / kicked off at Edinburgh at 5am as they could not continue to Aberdeen due to an unspecified technical issue.  We had to jump on the next scheduled Scotrail service for the leg to Aberdeen which was fun with an exhausted 5 yr old in tow.

The service might run better now Serco aren't running the show, but we prefer to fly or drive now.  Sleep was not great until the point we got kicked off - they did give us a 50% refund however!

I've used it a few times over the years. Its not a good nights sleep in my opinion. People moving around, stopping and starting. Ear plugs help!

stopping and starting

Yeah, this is not what I was prepared for the one time I used it (pre revamp). The amount of slowing down, speeding up, shunting about nonsense didn't make for a particularly relaxing journey.

The cost for a bunk is now prohibitive IMHO.

I used to use it when you could get a carnet of 10 tickets without having to sell a child.

I never slept that well, was worst if you got a bunk over a bogey and the shunting and ****ing around they do at Carstairs to join the trains together is guaranteed to wake you up.

My most recent Edinburgh to Stansted return with easyjet cost me £42

Everyone should probably try and experience it once, but once is enough!

I used it a year ago (in fact, to the day) for a work trip to London from Edinburgh.

Firstly, its a late night for me from the off. I was leaving the house at the time I'd normally be thinking about bed. The cabin was comfy enough but the beds are very small - I'm not a big person so OK. I made a mistake of having a couple of pints while killing time waiting, which had the opposite effect to helping me sleep - instead I was agitated, hot and sweaty. I was in the front carriage next to the engine, which looked like from a goods train so it was very noisy. I had imagined it would roll peacefully down the line, instead it felt like the driver was giving it full gas at every opportunity - noisy and jerky, far from relaxing. So didn't much at all, got to London early and woken up on arrival absolutely frazzled rendering the day/meeting pointless, apart from being the butt of jokes.

Its such a nice idea, but didn't live up to the marketing / hype. Probably better suited as above to travelling home after a biking trip when maybe passing out with tiredness is more likely.

I'm a regular on the refurbed trains- both for work and pleasure. My tips are-

- Don't book a seat. The carriage with the seats is lit all night, so even if you were able to get comfortable you'd not sleep.

- Book a bunk roughly in the middle of the carriage, not over the bogies, and ideally with a bunk on the side with a wall furthest from the direction of travel so that when the train sets off originally, you're pushed against the wall by the movement. You can select your room during booking. There's no need for the premium room with the bathroom.

- Get a routine - mine is to have a hot chocolate and a dram in the club car then make sure I'm in bed and asleep before the train starts moving (though this may be trickier on the Inverness train as it leaves earlier).

- Turn the heating right down. The rooms are ridiculously hot.

- Get a two together railcard if you're not travelling alone - it will bring it down to the price of a flight and a hotel. This is also cheaper than buying a block of ten tickets (which you can also do - for five round trips - this is the cheapest way of regularly travelling alone). Our next journey on it in February is £325 for two people round trip. It was cheaper than flying and gives us an extra day at our destination at both ends.

- Appreciate that while it's an experience, and enjoyable in its own way (we love it), it's still a bit shit. Having been on sleeper trains elsewhere in the world, the Caledonian Sleeper beds are the least comfortable and the service is generally the worst. The club car staff can seem inordinately stressed when they'll only ever have a maximum of 20 people to serve.  You won't sleep well even in the new beds but taking a Nytol and having a dram really helps. But it's fun, and a nice way to arrive in London.

I've set off from Edinburgh, done a full day's work in an acceptable state then caught it or a late regular train back. The regular train is unlikely to work for you for day trips (the last reasonable one is at 3pm) so the Sleeper is a good way to do it. If you do use the Sleeper two nights in a row you'll feel rough the next day but you will sleep better on the second night, especially since you can board so much earlier at Euston and the train doesn't do any shunting til it's north of the border 6 hours down the line.

We used several times to get from Aberdeen to London to visit family thinking we'd gain a day that would normally be spent driving. My wife and kids loved it and claimed to sleep well, I did not and would rather have spent 8 hours driving and sleeping in a real bed.

The prices have gone through the roof since we last used it and its cheaper to fly now. So unless work is paying I would avoid.

Used it last month to go to London. Turned the cabin temperature right down. The ride was pretty bumpy and quite noisy, but I was using noise-cancelling earphones so the latter wasn’t too much of an issue. I reckon I dozed for the first few hours and dropped off properly from about 2:30am. Overall I quite enjoyed it, and it felt a bit like an adventure. <br />I had to be in London pretty early so the only options would be to go down the day before & stay in a hotel. I would have been tight on time if I’d flown. In any case I would have to get up very early to catch the plane. The bottom line is that I wouldn’t describe it as a great night’s sleep, but I suspect that is always going to be the case in this sort of situation. 

Used it last year to go from London to Glasgow and back to do the Dunoon Dirt Dash with one of my riding buddies. Didn't bother with the seated option  as the reviews are very negative but found the cabin pretty good.

As others have said, book a cabin in the middle of the coach (not above the bogies), This is important as the ride is a bit bumpy on parts of the route (for some reason the approach to Preston seemed a bit choppy) .

The club car can get crowded so get there early/book a table, food is small portions but pretty good, prices are not stupid unless you decide to go for whiskies etc and even then its not too bad. The breakfast in a bag option that is delivered to your cabin is basic but ok

The train is very clean and well presented ( I have Southern Trains/Thameslink and a long ago  trip across Europe on a fresh/iltailian sleeper train to compare to.

The beds are narrow but surprisingly comfortable, room temperature is fine. I did sleep ok, woke up a few times though but I reckon that is got about 6ish hrs during an 8 hr journey. TBH the only real  issues were not having a long enough USB cable to charge my phone with ( because I was travelling light) and the Shower on the return journey where we got a club cabin was only warm, not hot (but frankly as I had been out gravel riding for a long weekend it still felt like a luxury to be able to get clean)

Overall, I liked it. I'm going to use the sleeper to go to Edinburgh in the spring

Oh, and taking your bike on the sleeper is brill. Bikes go in a nice big secure rack  (room for 6-8 bikes in there) that is locked for the duration of the journey.

Overall its not the Orient Express but getting on a train last thing at night in Euston, sleeping in a proper bed and then getting up first thing in the morning , having breakfast then getting off the train in Glasgow and going cycling is a proper luxury 🙂

Seats are awful, you'd be cheaper and just as quick on a coach.

I got on fine with the beds but I'm used to sleeping on moving noisy things. Had similarly good experiences with the much missed Megabus Gold.

Far too expensive though last I looked, hoping prices get more sensible with it being a public franchise now.

I like it but I hate getting on in Edinburgh as Waverley station is all but closed by the time you get on and it is a miserable place to wait.  If I could get on somewhere earlier it would be much nicer and I have zero problem sleeping.  If I had to get on at Edinburgh again I would rather take an earlier train down and get a cheap hotel in London if that's possible

Are the cabins similarly sized to PandO ferry basic cabins?

Has anybody taken kids on the sleeper train? I'm considering it for a family holiday. Scotland or Berlin/Prague/Vienna.

When it runs, this train goes past my back garden. It's the only way to travel, dahling!

https://www.luxury-trains.co.uk/belmond-royal-scotsman/western-scenic-wonders.htm

I travelled with muddy@rseguy and also did a return trip last year.  Agree with most of the comments, the first time I booked over the bogies and they creaked all night, middle of the carriage is much better.

I've never been one for ear plugs but they definitely helped dull the noise and senses, I'm a light sleeper but I think I was only vaguely waking up when the train stopped.  Also a niggle for me was the annoying backlit light switch behind your head, with some fiddling you can fold a bit of card/paper and wedge it over the button!

It is pricey but if you are just travelling as one or two and value your days off work, it does save two whole days trudging up and down the motorways, filling your tank with fuel and belly with rubbish fast food.  A bigger group gets harder to justify if you would travel together and share fuel costs etc.  I'm planning a weekend trip to Edinburgh and might do the sleeper up, and the day train back (the day train being cheaper, a bit quicker and after four trips, I've still not seen anything out of the window!)

@muddy@rseguy  I provided some constructive feedback regarding our Club not-an-upgrade return trip (station lounge closed, no early boarding, cold shower, missing toiletries, limited brekkie options) and after completely forgetting to chase them up for 3 months, gave them a nudge and got a partial refund 🙂  I will instruct my acountant to make good 😉

@hansrey

the bunk cabins have a folding wall between them so they can be paired up into a 4 berth

pandhandjFree Member
When it runs, this train goes past my back garden. It’s the only way to travel, dahling!
> https://www.luxury-trains.co.uk/belmond-royal-scotsman/western-scenic-wonders.htm

HOW MUCH???

I get too see it whizz past every now

and again. Only costs £50 to watch it go past. 🤣🤣🤣

Regarding the Caledonian prices, a quick look suggests the 14 carriage train has 242 seats and beds.  A non-sleeper train of the same length would have about 1200 seats (perhaps 1500 including standing).

The sleeper (with a berth) is just over double the price of a normal day ticket if travelling with another person so you could argue its a bit of a bargain.

And...it can only sell tickets once per 24 hours whereas the regular train looks like it can run from London to Edinburgh 3 times a day so thats 3600 seats a day vs 242 seats/beds a night.

When you look at it that way you wonder how its financially viable to run a sleeper (or how profitable a train service 'should' be)