A few problems on the Caledonian Sleeper

Kathryn Darbandi, the Managing Director Designate of Caledonian Sleeper (CS), says she is delighted to be taking up the new role, because “the Caledonian Sleeper is a world-class service”.

But its new rolling stock continues to have problems and many users say it is rough riding compared with the Mk 3s. The lounge cars are also said to be less comfortable and offer food of a lower quality than was previously offered. To imply it’s “world-class” is nonsense.

With COVID, Caledonian Sleeper has also ceased to offer seated accommodation, rather than merely restricting its use to allow social distancing.

Then, more recently, it ceased offering seats on the Edinburgh-Fort William leg, despite the Sleeper always being the first daytime train to Fort William (arriving 0957).

Recently, when it was still running, a reader booked an Advance Single from Edinburgh for £9.90 through RailEurope. He didn’t check the CS website until a few days before travel and, finding it withdrawn, had to buy a new ScotRail single (about four times the cost) and couldn’t arrive until 1208.

When he approached RailEurope for a refund, it initially refused. A protracted exchange of emails ensued which really shouldn’t be necessary for such a legitimate claim.

RailEurope wanted copies of original and replacement tickets and for our reader to obtain confirmation from Caledonian Sleeper that the seated portion doesn’t run. That’s the retailer’s job, not the customer’s!

At the time of writing it was still refusing a refund. As our reader pointed out, this would never have happened with the original ‘ Loco2’ that had an excellent reputation, but sadly sold out to RailEurope.

Of course, had our reader booked with Caledonian Sleeper direct he would have been contacted when the seated coach was withdrawn and given an automatic refund. As I have said many times: for internal travel, don’t use third party sites. Go to the operator’s website.