Reevesey's recommended reading

Saturday 22 August 2009

The Caledonian Sleeper

Well, despite having put my Mum on to the Caledonian sleeper at Euston a few times to go back home via Inverness I've never actually been a passenger myself.

Until last night that is, the cost versus a normal train ticket and hotel room in London was significantly cheaper and that included the fact I went first class (my snoring prevents me from sharing anyway).

However, if you book enough in advance and look at single tickets opposed to returns you can often go first class cheaper than standard! Illogical I know but who's ever claimed to have understood the phenomenon that is the British railway system.

The cabin http://mypict.me/oOM3 is compact but adequate. However, Scotrail do need to learn to clean. My 15 years in the hotel and catering industry taught me a lot but not just about hygiene.

Its all in the detail and that's where Scotrail failed big time. Nothing major but lots of little things that all add up of course;

One light bulb not working, the edges of the carpet not hoovered, the sink was dirty and the bin was filthy.

I loved the complimentary toiletry bag, nice touch and it had everything you needed, I'd have had the Scotrail logo on things though!

If you are on Twitter you may have read that I commented on the fact that we arrived in Euston at 6.30am, 45 minutes early and the attendant was nowhere to be seen so I never got the breakfast, so another little fail.

We stopped during the night to couple up with another sleeper train, it took 9 or 10 attempts to couple the two trains which completely woke me up but overall not the worst journey I've had.

Overall score 7 out of 10.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi. I enjoyed your comment on the sleeper train. I use it quite a lot for various journeys. I have to say though that I have never missed out on the breakfast - seems very strange. In 1st class you have the option of having your breakfast in the lounge car so maybe they were expecting you there?

Personally, despite some of its foibles (eg it's not really a hotel and can't be compared to one), I think the sleeper is the best train journey you can do in Britain, especially Euston to Fort William (great scenery and a long lie in ...)

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