''Caledonian Sleeper'' is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom – the other being the '' Night Riviera'', which runs between London and

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

. A sleeper service has been run along the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

since 24 February 1873. Sleepers were historically run on the rival

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

as well; however, all remaining sleeper services that ran on the east coast routes were withdrawn in May 1988. While

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

continued to operate what would later become known as the ''Caledonian Sleeper'', it decided to remove all seating accommodation on its remaining sleeper services during the mid-1990s. The Anglo-Scottish sleeper services were transferred to

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail (), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise as an operator of las ...

on 5 March 1995; as a consequence of the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

, on 31 March 1997, the service was privatised as a part of the wider ScotRail franchise, initially being operated by

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

. Seated Mark 2 carriages were re-added to the service alongside the Mark 3 sleeping cars, the latter were also refurbished, from January 2000. On 17 October 2004, the ScotRail franchise and thus the Caledonian Sleeper, was transferred to

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Serco under the supervision of the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

. As a part of its successful bid, Serco had pledged to invest £100million into the service, which was to be spent on, amongst other things, procuring new rolling stock. During 2019, a new fleet of Mark 5 carriages were introduced, replacing the British Rail-era carriages. These are hauled by a combination of

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s (on electrified sections only) and rebuilt electro-diesel locomotives; prior traction withdrawn in 2019 included , and locomotives. Two services depart London Euston each night from Sunday to Friday and travel via the

to Scotland. The earlier departure divides at

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

into portions for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Fort William and

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

. The later departure serves Edinburgh and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, splitting at

Carstairs Carstairs (, Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Tarrais'') is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Carstairs is located east of the county town of Lanark and the West Coast Main Line runs through the village. The village is served by Carstairs r ...

. Five London-bound portions depart from these destinations each night, combining into two trains at Edinburgh and Carstairs. Serco's contract concluded early in June 2023, and the service was taken into public ownership by

Transport Scotland Transport Scotland () is the national transport agency of Scotland. It was established by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, and began operating on 1 January 2006 as an executive agency of the Scottish Government. Transport Scotland, an execut ...

. It is operated on its behalf by Scottish Rail Holdings.

Anglo-Scottish sleepers up to 1996

In February 1873, the

North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...

revealed the first

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the main American innovator and owner of sl ...

in Britain. It had been built by the Ashbury Carriage Company and was displayed at Glasgow, Edinburgh and . 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

. On 1 October 1873, the rival Caledonian Railway introduced a

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

sleeping car on mail trains three days per week between Glasgow Buchanan Street and London Euston via the

. 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 were operated on both the west and east coast routes to multiple destinations for over a century, even under the

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

railway operator

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

. During 1976, services from King's Cross ran to Edinburgh and , and from Euston to , , , , and . There was also a service from to Glasgow and Edinburgh via the West Coast route. However, sleeper services declined in number during the latter half of the 20th century. During November 1987, it was announced that the last of the sleeper services running on the East Coast routes was to be withdrawn in May 1988. At one point,

was planning to remove all seating accommodation on its remaining sleeper services from May 1992. However, it instead concluded a deal with the British transport conglomerate

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

that saw the Mark 2 seating carriages retailed beyond this point. This was only a temporary reprieve however, as the Stagecoach carriages were withdrawn after 12 months. On 5 March 1995, responsibility for operation of the Anglo-Scottish services was transferred within British Rail from

InterCity West Coast InterCity West Coast (ICWC) was a 1997–2019 railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands, North Wales, Liverpool, Manchester, Car ...

. During the mid-1990s, British Rail had proposed to cease operating the portion of the service, 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, albeit with a reduction four sleeping carriages to only one. During 1995, the associated motorail service was withdrawn without reprieve.

The ''Caledonian Sleeper''

ScotRail

On 4 June 1996, the overnight service was relaunched under the ''Caledonian Sleeper'' brand. Each portion of the service was assigned 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

. The service continued to be operated using the same Mark 3 sleeping cars that had been operated by British Rail, but there were no suitable locomotives immediately available. Accordingly, the short-term hiring of locomotives from the West Coast operator Virgin Trains was implemented. The arrangement continued until March 1998, at which point the freight operator English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) took on the contract. Starting in January 2000, seated carriages were added to the sleeping cars; these were 11 former Virgin Trains Mark 2 carriages that had been refurbished at Wolverton Works, which included the installation of first class-style reclining seats throughout. In parallel with this work, the sleeping cars were also refurbished, during which time they were repainted with ScotRail's purple and blue livery. On 17 October 2004, the ScotRail franchise, including the ''Caledonian Sleeper'' service, was transferred to

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

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,

announced

Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Serco had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. During May 2014, the franchise was awarded to Serco; at the time, the company pledged to invest £100million in new trains that would include 'en suite' rooms and a new style of club car. Accordingly, the existing Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock was to be replaced, originally set to occur by 2018. On 31 March 2015, Serco Caledonian Sleepers took over the operation of the service. In late December 2015, staff called for a two-day strike because of health and safety concerns with the trains then in use and Serco's alleged failure to address them appropriately. In September 2019, another three-day strike was held after negotiations between the RMT and Serco broke down over claims of poor staffing levels and insufficient training. By mid-2020, the Caledonian Sleeper had considerably curtailed its services in response to the significant decline of passenger travel amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In late 2021, the Caledonian Sleeper was subject to further strikes over allegations of bullying and harassment of staff. It was also one of many train operators impacted by the 2022–2024 United Kingdom railway strikes, which were the first national rail strikes in the UK for three decades. Its workers were among those participating in

industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increas ...

due to a dispute over pay and working conditions. Caledonian Sleeper trains were cancelled on the days of the strikes. In October 2022, the Scottish Government announced the franchise run by Serco would be terminated. The service was taken over by Scottish Rail Holdings on 25 June 2023.

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 , and . The ''Lowland Sleeper'' has two portions serving routes to and . The trains normally operate at a maximum speed of , but are authorised to travel at where line speeds permit if the train has been delayed by more than 20 minutes. Trains use the

between Scotland and London, using as their terminus. Sunday services are sometimes diverted via the

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 instead. Lounges for ''Caledonian Sleeper'' customers are available at , , , , and stations, and passengers may also use lounges shared with other operators at , , and .

''Highland Sleeper''

The northbound ''Highland Sleeper'' leaves at 21:15 (20:59 on Sundays), calling at , and to pick up passengers, and arrives at 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 locomotive. At Edinburgh Waverley, the train is divided into three portions; these continue north of Edinburgh to , and as separate services. The is uncoupled and replaced by a 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 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 the 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 EdinburghFort 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''

Going northbound, the ''Lowland Sleeper'' departs London Euston at 23:50 (23:30 on Sundays), calling at to pick up passengers. The train then continues with no intermediate calls until before reaching . Here the train

divides In mathematics, a divisor of an integer n, also called a factor of n, is an integer m that may be multiplied by some integer to produce n. In this case, one also says that n is a '' multiple'' of m. An integer n is divisible or evenly divisibl ...

into two portions: the front eight carriages continue to with one intermediate stop at , while the rear eight carriages reverse at Carstairs and continue non-stop to , 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. During 2019, these were replaced by Mark 5 carriages; the new rolling stock was first operated on the Lowland services from April, and subsequently on the Highland services from October. Heavy maintenance on the carriage stock was performed at

Inverness TMD Inverness TMD is a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Inverness, Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land ...

until April 2015, when the work was contracted out to

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

and transferred to Polmadie Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot. 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 . In March 1998, these were replaced by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) . , Serco has a contract with GB Railfreight who use . However, due to mechanical problems, a Class 90 locomotive was used, initially hired from DB Cargo UK, but later changed to Freightliner. From 2015 until 2019, AC Locomotive Group heritage and 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 to Fort William and to Aberdeen and Inverness until June 2001 when began to replace the Class 47. The Class 67 units were also used on the Fort William route from June 2006. Four locomotives were fitted with cast iron brakes and restricted to 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 . The first of these came into service in February 2016.

Current fleet

Past fleet

Former train types operated by Caledonian Sleeper include: File:Caledonian Sleeper Single berth.jpg, Sleeping cabin in a Mark 3 sleeper File:Caledonian Sleeper Seated Compartment.jpg, Saloon of a Mark 2 seated coach File:Caledonian Sleeper Lounge car.jpg, Lounge car in 2007

Incidents

During April 2019, new Mark 5 carriages were introduced to service, however, the inaugural journey was more than three hours late arriving at London Euston. Various other services through 2019 were reported as delayed on account of "technical faults". Services run joined between London and Scotland where they are split into shorter trains to serve multiple destinations. After being split at on 1 August 2019, a brake isolating valve was closed preventing control of the train brakes from the locomotive, resulting in the Edinburgh portion running past the platform at . The incident was investigated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch with two recommendations. One was addressed to the Rail Safety and Standards Board to change the wording of the railway rule book to make it clear that the brake continuity test should be undertaken after all coupling-related activities have been completed. The second was addressed to Caledonian Sleeper to review the vulnerability of the isolating cocks on its rolling stock, to prevent inadvertent operation by persons or objects.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Rail franchises in Great Britain, state=collapsed Named passenger trains of British Rail Night trains of the United Kingdom Railway franchises in the United Kingdom Railway services introduced in 1996 Rail transport in Scotland Serco Transport in Aberdeen Transport in Dundee Transport in Edinburgh Transport in Glasgow Transport in Highland (council area) 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies of Scotland