Cancellations continue on Caledonian Sleeper

Passengers on £150m overnight train linking Scotland with London facing repeated disruption

Cancelled trains, bus replacements and almost no availability: passengers on the Caledonian Sleeper link between Scotland and London have expressed fury about the performance of the overnight train since its £150m makeover.

Passengers due to arrive in London from Glasgow on Tuesday morning were told on Monday that their train had been cancelled because of a technical problem.

They were offered an overnight trip by bus or the chance to use their ticket on Virgin Trains on Tuesday morning – but crucially not on the early train that arrives in London at the start of the working day, at 9.06am.

The latest problem involved a door interlock. Friday’s southbound service from Glasgow and Edinburgh ended its journey at Acton Bridge in Cheshire in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The same issue led to further disruption on Sunday and Monday night.

In addition, travellers on Sunday complained that they had been “turfed out” of the lounge area on another train because of a power failure.

As a result of the sporadic cancellations, fares for late-evening and early-morning flights between Scotland and London soared as business travellers shift to airlines.

On Monday evening, after the train was cancelled, British Airways departures from Glasgow to Heathrow and London City airports were priced at £389 one-way, a fare of over £1 per mile. On easyJet, seats to Gatwick were selling at £235 one-way.

Earlier this month “wheel flats” on the new £150m rolling stock were responsible for a series of train cancellations. The damage was caused when the emergency brakes were inadvertently deployed.

One contributor to Twitter suggested: “Surely a empty train should follow the sleeper train for the transfer of passengers. It’s better than waiting for a bus.”

The Spanish-built trains that were bought to replace sleeper carriages from the 1980s have encountered a series of problems since they were announced by the franchise holder, Serco.

The new rolling stock was due to enter service in spring 2018, but was a year late.

In late April 2019, the inaugural overnight trips from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London Euston arrived over three hours late because of Network Rail problems.

The introduction of new rolling stock on the “Highlander” service from London to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William was due on 2 June, but has been further delayed by five weeks because of problems with the rolling stock.

Violet Bessy tweeted: “New premium stock, new premium prices, but no premium service or communication. Old customers being lost, new ones have no trust and won’t return.”

Yet prospective customers are finding it very difficult to book berths at reasonably short notice. Between Glasgow and London up to the end of this week, the only availability is for a £335 cabin on Friday evening travelling south. All other berths are sold out.

Ryan Flaherty, Serco’s managing director for the rail operation, said: “We apologise to guests for the disruption to Caledonian Sleeper services.

"Repairs have successfully been carried out on carriages which sustained wheel flats during a recent service. However, a door interlock fault on Friday’s southbound Lowlander service led to further disruption on Sunday and Monday night. We can confirm services will return to normal from tonight.

"We’re doing everything we can to reduce the likelihood of further disruption and hope to shortly take ownership of an additional unit which will allow us to take carriages in and out of service as required.

"In terms of availability, the summer period is the busiest time of year for Caledonian Sleeper with our services routinely sold out. We’d encourage anyone looking to travel with us to book as early as possible to avoid disappointment.”