The most generous comment one might make about the cabins on Scotrail's Caledonian Sleeper service from London Euston is that they are "compact". The American students on our train were more critical, calling them "caves" and it is easy to see why; at a little over six feet long and about four feet wide they can hardly be described as luxurious.
To be frank, there were a couple of other problems that seemed more serious. Various parts of the train were basically broken, including the power sockets in the lounge (the only ones on the train at which phones could be charged), the door to the lounge (which worked, but only just, and only very slowly) and the toilet at one end of the carriage (whose door appeared to work but had malfunctioning lock status indicators). Breakfast was functional but not very good; it was standard airline fare, delivered a little later than requested.
It is also unfortunate that some of the staff seemed to have suffered fairly serious sense of humour failures. Their more polite colleagues, who made up maybe 50% of the crew, gave adequate service but were unable to save the reputation of Scotrail.
Even a cave can be more than just a cave but the fittings in Scotrail's cabins are extremely utilitarian, closely resembling the mass-produced, style-free cabins one finds on cross-channel ferries; the Orient Express this most definitely is not.
That said, the price is fairly low. The nine hour trip (which includes station time at both ends of the journey, during which you are on the train but stationary) cost £130 each (two travellers) in first-class, which gave us two standard cabins with a linking door - twice the space of a standard class cabin. Compared with the Orient Express, Scotrail are almost giving the service away.
And what about sleep? The bed was comfortably basic and the cabin was warm but the irregular noise and the unfamiliar movements as the train accelerated and cornered made sleeping somewhat tricky. In the end I gave up, dressed and took photos through the open windows of the carriage doors for a while before returning to the cabin to complete this post.
There were some good points, particularly when compared to flying. Firstly, it was completely stress-free - a big advantage - and the freedom to carry whatever luggage we wanted (including 200ml bottles of potentially "dangerous" liquid) was most welcome. Transit through the stations at both ends of the journey was quick and painless - markedly different to the major airports. The train left on time and arrived on schedule, and apart from the aforementioned acceleration the trip was completely turbulence free, delivering us straight into the centre of Edinburgh, a ten minute stroll from our hotel.
Would we use the service again? Yes, I think so, but we would probably go Standard class rather than First and we would skip breakfast. Overall, a viable alternative to air travel if you can spare the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment