Caledonian Sleeper

Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom, the other being the Night Riviera.

Two services depart London Euston each night from Sunday to Friday and travel via the West Coast Main Line to Scotland. The earlier departure divides at Edinburgh into portions for Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness. The later departure serves Edinburgh and Glasgow splitting at Carstairs. Five London-bound portions depart from these destinations each night, combining into two trains at Edinburgh and Carstairs.

Since April 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper has been a standalone franchise operated by Serco. Prior to this it was part of the ScotRail franchise. In 2019 a new fleet of Mark 5 carriages replaced the existing carriages.

Anglo-Scottish sleepers up to 1996
In February 1873 the North British Railway revealed the first sleeping car in Britain. It had been built by the Ashbury Carriage Company and was displayed at Glasgow, Edinburgh and London King's Cross. It became the first sleeping carriage used on British railways when it made a revenue earning trip on 24 February 1873 attached to a train at Glasgow for King's Cross via the East Coast Main Line.

On 1 October 1873 the rival Caledonian Railway introduced a London and North Western Railway sleeping car on mail trains three days per week between Glasgow Buchanan Street and London Euston via the West Coast Main Line. The service ran from Glasgow on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and from London on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. An extra charge of ten shillings was made for a sleeping berth.

Sleeping car services operated on both the West and East coast routes to multiple destinations until the East coast were withdrawn in May 1988. For example, in 1976, services from King's Cross ran to Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and from Euston to Glasgow Central, Perth, Inverness, Stranraer Harbour, and Fort William. There was also a service from Bristol Temple Meads to Glasgow and Edinburgh via the West Coast route.

InterCity planned to remove all seating accommodation on the remaining services from May 1992, however it instead concluded a deal with Stagecoach to retain the Mark 2 seating carriages however the Stagecoach carriages were withdrawn after 12 months.

Responsibility for operation of the Anglo-Scottish services passed within British Rail from InterCity West Coast to ScotRail on 5 March 1995. British Rail had proposed to cease operating the Fort William portion, however the Highland Regional Council successfully sought a stay pending a formal consultation, after the Scottish Court of Session ruled that the correct service closure process had not been followed. Eventually British Rail agreed to retain the Fort William portion, but it was reduced from four sleeping carriages to one. The associated motorail service was withdrawn in 1995.

ScotRail
The overnight service was relaunched as the Caledonian Sleeper from 4 June 1996. Each portion had its own identity, with the Night Caledonian to Glasgow, Night Scotsman to Edinburgh, Night Aberdonian to Aberdeen, Royal Highlander to Inverness and West Highlander to Fort William. On 31 March 1997 it became part of the ScotRail franchise which was initially operated by National Express. They continued to use the Mark 3 sleeping cars that had been operated by British Rail but did not have suitable locomotives. These were hired from Virgin Trains until March 1998 when English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) took on the contract.

Seated carriages were added to the sleeping cars from January 2000 using 11 former Virgin Trains Mark 2 carriages that were refurbished at Wolverton Works and fitted with first class-style reclining seats. At the same time the sleeping cars were refurbished and given ScotRail's purple and blue livery.

The ScotRail franchise (including the Caledonian Sleeper service) was transferred to FirstGroup on 17 October 2004. The rolling stock and locomotive contracts remained unchanged however the carriages and three EWS Class 90 locomotives were painted in FirstGroup's corporate blue, pink and white livery.

Serco
In 2012 the Scottish Government announced that as part of the reletting of the ScotRail franchise from April 2015, the Caledonian Sleeper would be operated by a separate franchise. In June 2013, Transport Scotland announced Arriva, FirstGroup and Serco had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. The franchise was awarded to Serco in May 2014. They were to invest £100 million in new trains including 'en suite' rooms and a new style of club car. Existing Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock was to be replaced by 2018. Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited took over the operation of the train on 31 March 2015.

In December 2015 staff called a two-day strike because of health and safety concerns with the trains then in use.

Current operations
Two trains are operated on six days each week (not Saturday night/Sunday morning). The Highland Sleeper has three portions that serve routes to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The Lowland Sleeper has two portions serving routes to Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central. The trains normally operate at a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour (130 km/h), but are authorised to travel at 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) where line speeds permit if the train has been delayed by more than 20 minutes.[citation needed]

Trains use the West Coast Main Line between Scotland and London, using London Euston as their terminus. Sunday services are sometimes diverted via the East Coast Main Line when the West Coast route is closed for engineering work. In these cases they still use London Euston except when the station itself is closed, or there is no possible routing into the station during engineering works, in which case they use nearby London King's Cross instead.[citation needed]

Lounges for Caledonian Sleeper customers are available at Dundee, Fort William, Inverness, Leuchars, Perth and Stirling stations, and passengers may also use lounges shared with other operators at Aberdeen, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and London Euston.

Highland Sleeper
The northbound Highland Sleeper leaves London Euston at 21:15 (20:59 on Sundays), calling at Watford Junction, Crewe and Preston to pick up passengers, and arrives at Edinburgh Waverley approximately six-and-a-half hours after leaving London. This leg of the journey is formed of 16 carriages and is hauled by an electric Class 92 locomotive.

At Edinburgh Waverley, the train is divided into three portions; these continue north of Edinburgh to Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness as separate services. The electric locomotive is uncoupled and replaced by a Class 73/9 diesel locomotive for each of the three northbound sets. The front portion of the train continues to Fort William, the middle portion is for Aberdeen, and the rear portion runs to Inverness. These services arrive at their respective destinations in the morning of the next day.

Similarly, going southbound, three separate services depart each of Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William in the evening, hauled by a Class 73/9 locomotive up to Edinburgh. These services are then combined to form one train at Edinburgh Waverley; the diesel locomotives are detached from each portion and a Class 92 is attached to then take the full-length, 16-car train to London. The train continues to London Euston with intermediate stops at Preston and Crewe for alighting passengers only (southbound trains do not call at Watford Junction), arriving in London the following morning.

The Inverness portion of the train consists of six sleeper coaches, one seated carriage and one "club car" (lounge car), all running through to/from London. The Aberdeen set consists of between two and four sleeper coaches (depending on demand) plus one seated carriage and one lounge car, all running throughout. The Fort William set consists only of two to four sleeper coaches between London and Edinburgh; the seated and lounge carriages are attached/detached at Edinburgh Waverley for the Edinburgh–Fort William leg of the journey. This means that any seated passengers travelling between England and stations on the Fort William route are required to use the seated carriages intended for Inverness or Aberdeen, and change carriages at Edinburgh Waverley.

Lowland Sleeper[edit]
Going northbound, the Lowland Sleeper departs London Euston at 23:50 (23:30 on Sundays), calling at Watford Junction to pick up passengers. The train then continues with no intermediate calls until Carlisle before reaching Carstairs. Here the train divides into two portions: the front 8 carriages continue to Glasgow Central with one intermediate stop at Motherwell, while the rear 8 carriages reverse at Carstairs and continue non-stop to Edinburgh Waverley, both portions arriving at their respective destinations the following morning. Carlisle, Carstairs and Motherwell are all served for alighting passengers only.

Similarly, in the southbound direction, two separate services depart both Glasgow Central (calling at Motherwell) and Edinburgh Waverley, and combine into one at Carstairs. The train then calls at Carlisle, before running non-stop through to Watford Junction (served for alighting passengers only) and terminating at London Euston the next morning. Motherwell, Carstairs and Carlisle are all served to pick up passengers only.

Rolling stock
The ScotRail franchise inherited the coaches used by British rail, Mark 3 sleeping coaches and Mark 2 seated carriages, some of which were fitted out as lounge cars where refreshments could be obtained. In 2019 these were replaced by Mark 5 carriages. These operated on the Lowland services from April and the Highland services from October. Heavy maintenance on the carriage stock was performed at Inverness until April 2015, when the work was contracted out to Alstom and transferred to Polmadie.

Two types of motive power are used for the Caledonian Sleeper. On the electrified routes between Glasgow/Edinburgh and London electric locomotives haul the trains. There were none of these included in the ScotRail franchises, instead they contracted Virgin Trains to provide Class 87s. These were replaced by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) Class 90s in March 1998. Serco now have a contract with DB Cargo UK who use Class 92s, however mechanical problems saw locomotives hired in from a number of sources including DB Cargo UK (the successor to EWS), Freightliner and Harry Needle Railroad Company. From 2015 until 2019 AC Locomotive Group heritage Class 86s and 87s were used to move empty carriages in London and Glasgow and occasionally operated the overnight passenger services.

On the unelectrified routes in Scotland, the trains were hauled by EWS Class 37s to Fort William and 47s to Aberdeen and Inverness until June 2001 when Class 67s began to replace the 47s. The 67s were also used on the Fort William route from June 2006. Four locomotives (67004/007/009/011) were fitted with cast iron brakes and restricted to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) for this additional service. When GB Railfreight started to provide the trains and crews for the Serco franchise in 2015, it was planned to use rebuilt Class 73/9s. The first of these came into service in February 2016 but the Class 67s continued to be used on some services for another couple of years. Additionally, GB Railfreight Class 66s are often used on the Highland sleeper portions in tandem with the Class 73/9 fleet due to the unreliability of the Class 73/9s, requiring a Class 66 to lead instead of a Class 73.

Incidents
New Mark 5 carriages were introduced in April 2019 but the inaugural journey was more than three hours late arriving at London Euston. Other services in 2019 were reported as delayed due to "technical faults"

Services run joined together between London and Scotland where they are split into shorter trains to serve multiple destinations. After being split at Carstairs on 1 August 2019, the Edinburgh portion ran through Edinburgh Waverley as the brakes failed to engage. The incident is being investigated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.