LONDON - SCOTLAND (GLASGOW, EDIGNBURG, ...) | night train

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

You can make the reservation at every UK railway station with a ticket office - even if it is a station of a different railway operator.

Almost forgot:

:arr: [b]Timetable[/b]


[b]London - Glasgow/Edinburgh[/b]

Monday - Friday

London Euston dep 2350
Watford Junction dep 0011
Carlisle arr 0511 (0518 on Saturday mornings)
Motherwell arr 0658
Glasgow Central arr 0719 (0721 on Saturday mornings)
Edinburgh arr 0720 (0713 on Saturday mornings)

Sunday

London Euston dep 2327
Watford Junction dep 2348
Carlisle arr 0504
Motherwell arr 0658
Glasgow Central arr 0719
Edinburgh Waverley arr 0720


[b]Glasgow/Edinburgh - London[/b]

Monday - Friday

Glasgow Central dep 2340
Motherwell dep 2357
Edinburgh dep 2340
Carlisle dep 0142 (0143 on Saturday mornings)
Watford Junction arr 0618 (0625 on Saturday mornings)
London Euston arr 0643 (0650 on Saturday mornings)

Sunday

Glasgow Central dep 2315
Motherwell dep 2332
Edinburgh dep 2315
Carlisle dep 0142
Watford Junction arr 0621
London Euston arr 0646


[b]London - Inverness/Aberdeen/Fort William[/b]

Monday - Friday

London Euston dep 2115
Watford Junction dep 2133
Crewe dep 2354
Preston dep 0052
Stirling arr 0456
Perth arr 0539
Inverness arr 0830
Dundee arr 0608
Aberdeen arr 0735
Fort William arr 0954

Sunday

London Euston dep 2055
Watford Junction dep 2117
Crewe dep 2337
Preston dep 0030
Stirling arr 0456
Perth arr 0539
Inverness arr 0830
Dundee arr 0608
Aberdeen arr 0735
Fort William arr 0954


[b]Fort William/Aberdeen/Inverness - London[/b]

Monday - Friday

Fort William dep 1950
Aberdeen dep 2140
Dundee dep 2306
Inverness dep 2046
Perth dep 2321
Stirling dep 0006
Preston arr 0432
Crewe arr 0532 (0534 Saturday mornings)
London Euston arr 0747 (0748 Saturday mornings)

Sunday

Fort William dep 1900
Aberdeen dep 2140
Dundee dep 2306
Inverness dep 2025
Perth dep 2300
Stirling dep 2345
Preston arr 0432
Crewe arr 0532 (0534 Saturday mornings)
London Euston arr 0747 (0748 Saturday mornings)

Head
Traveller
101 comments

There is some strange deadline for reservations - at least when I tried to make it at about 12.30 on the departure day - reservations were already closed. But the ticket office chief said that she could see availability on the train and issued some strange hand-written reservation, which read coach availability indicated. She warned me that it isn't a 100% guarantee, but since it wasn't Friday, she was sure there will be vacant seats.
The train manager had a good laugh about this reservation, but honoured it ) And there were at least two more people without advance reservations in sitting car. So on non-peak days reservation is not quite essential. The car is something like first class on the continent, so taking two seats makes acceptable place to sleep.

On my way back from Scotland, some 10-12 people were going to travel in coach, but train manager came some 15 minutes before departure and said that it was broken (one of seats indeed was) and sent us to another car in the end of the train, which turned out to be a sleaper (twin bed cabins). So we've got a sudden free upgrade. The broken sitting car also made it to London, as we found out in the morning )

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

When did this strange reservation thing happended to you? :)

In 2008 we had to change our reservations from Glasgow to London around 6pm on departure day since the guy at the counter in London Euston issued the reservations one week too late and we didnt notice at first... :D
Got the two last seats but well...those were the only ones not comfortable (it were two of those facing each other)


Flo 8)

Head
Traveller
101 comments

It was just two weeks ago, on February, 1.
Can there be different deadlines for different stations? Or perhaps there is some later deadline for ticket offices operated by ScotRail?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Well, the ticket counter at Glasgow Central was operated by Virgin Trains then.

Head
Traveller
101 comments

Well, given overall British chaotic rail situation, it won't be surprising if some ticket offices have strange deadlines for sleeper reservations or fail to issue them properly.

anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments

According to this:
http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/book-online.html

The deadlines for reservations are:
21.00 on the day of departure when travelling [b]to or from[/b] Glasgow or Edinburgh
20.45 on the day of departure when travelling [b]to[/b] Aberdeen, Inverness or Fort William (20.15 on Sundays)
19.15 on the day of departure when travelling [b]from[/b] Aberdeen or Inverness
18:30 on the day of departure when travelling [b]from[/b] Fort William

I think that in the case highlighted above you just got a person who didn't know what they were doing at the ticket office.

bimbinelle
Traveller
4 comments

Hey!
I'd like to go by the nighttrain from london to Edinburgh in august. There's a big festival there so i'd like to reserve a seat online now, because i think with all the people liking to visite that festival booking two days in advance might be to late. is there any possibility? because i tried to reservate it on their homepage but i just coul buy a seat (what i don't want to;))

thanks!

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi!

I dont think that there is a possibility of getting a reservation online. I've been travelling several times with that train and each time it was sufficient to get a reservation some days in advance - in 2008 I even got two reservations at around 6pm on departure day, as well as 6 reservations one or two days in advance last year (at the time of the Fringe festival). ;)
So you should be fine. :)


Flo 8)

anonymous
Traveller
2469 comments

Hello everybody!

I have a question to the prices for the night train.
You write that it's GPB 36 for a twin bed cabin bed. For which route is this price? I'd like to travel with this night train from Inverness to London.
Thanks for response!

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

The sleeper supplement is the same for all routes.

It is currently 38 GBP/~43,8€


Flo 8)