Caledonian Sleeper suffers multiple major train delays

● Eight out of ten services hit by locomotive and power problems

Multiple problems delayed nearly all ten Caledonian Sleeper trains between Scotland and London yesterday by up to three hours.

The service to Aberdeen broke down near Arbroath, while locomotive problems held up trains to Fort William and Inverness.

The Aberdeen train was more than three hours late while passengers arrived in Fort William nearly 1 hour 30 minutes late, and Inverness nearly 1 hour 40 minutes behind schedule.

The Edinburgh and Glasgow-bound “Lowlander” train was delayed by a suspected loss of power from overhead lines at Preston.

Passengers were forced to switch to other trains.

The problem also hit the combined London-bound “Highlander” train from Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness, which arrived more than two and a half hours late.

Glasgow-bound passenger Jane Graham tweeted: “Woken to be told we were still in Preston. Front engine had failed, back engine had been primed to replace it, but failed on its way to the front. Anyone got a crazy tale about getting to their destination on time on the Cal Sleeper? This train is absolutely cursed.”

Fellow passenger Bob Cockshott tweeted: “Heading to Edinburgh on Caledonian Sleeper – comfortable and civilised but so unreliable.”

The problems are the latest of a catalogue of faults since a new £150 million fleet were introduced in April.

But yesterday’s problems appear to relate to the locomotives and power problems.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Mike Rumbles said: “The new luxury sleeper service has been nothing but a nightmare for passengers.”

Magnus Conn, operations director for Caledonian Sleeper, which is run by Serco, said: “We would like to apologise to guests who were travelling on the services who were involved in the delays that took place across our Highlander and Lowlander routes.

“The Preston delays are suspected to have been caused by issues with overhead line power which we’re working with Network Rail to investigate.

“The delay near Montrose was caused by an engine failure and the delay on the Inverness and Fort William-bound service was caused by a locomotive issue.”