mjkerr

Seated passengers currently have to change at Edinburgh The proposal is that passengers in the cradle seats and Lie Flats will still be required to change at Edinburgh

I sent a request to Serco for the rolling stock specification I have also been advised technical diagrams will follow in a few weeks time, some minor details are still being finalised I've had to send up a follow up request, which confirms I would be interested in these technical diagrams These technical diagrams will then confirm the coach lengths and passenger capacity I suspect they mean Mark 3, as the new rolling stock will be closer to that than the existing Mark 2 coaches, rather than Mark 4 which also confirms each coach will have buffers allowing them to be marshalled in any order if required

Not sure this is an improvement, but it will be for the sleeper passengers (no longer being disturbed between Edinburgh and Fort William, other than to transfer between trains at Edinburgh) ScotRail will be operating an additional local service, ironically suggests it may operate to/from Edinburgh, and by 2018 they will have additional Class 156 / 158 units to cover this

The Fort William is not losing one coach, it is effectively gaining one coach At present (April to September) : two sleepers northbound Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday three sleepers northbound Friday (removed from Aberdeen portion) two sleepers southbound Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday three sleepers southbound Sunday (removed from Aberdeen portion) RLB / RFB and BUO between Edinburgh and Fort Wiliam Proposed change : Increase the portion between Edinburgh and Fort William from two to three coaches The compromise is the Aberdeen portion is shortened on Friday / Sunday

er, see post #130, the number of coaches per consist is remaining the same at 8, total train length departing Euston and Scotland (Carstairs and Edinburgh) remains at 16

I did ask for the coach specifications and configurations, but so far that is all they have provided I have therefore sent some follow up questions However, given all the coaches appear to be based on the current Mark 3 coaches, it looks like they are all going to be the same length This does present a small issue at Euston, but as I understand all departures will be from one specific platform As an aside, GBRF now have the sector codes for their Class 92 locos GBSL Caledonian Sleepers GBST Caledonian Sleepers / Channel Tunnel This confirms that one Class 92 loco will remain spare at Mossend and Wembley

Update from Serco : There are going to be four different coach designs The first is very similar to a Mark 3B BFO / Mark 3 TGS This will include the Train Manager area and Lie Flat beds There will be one such coach per consist The second is similar to a Mark 3 seating coach The will include the cradle seats There will be one such coach per consist The third is similar to the Mark 3 TCC This will include the staff area, Club Car, and storage area There will be one such coach per consist The fourth is similar to the Mark 3A SLEP This will allow the three remaining different accomodation types There will be five such coaches per consist This leaves the Fort William portion which will normally contain two coaches of the fourth type Three coaches will then be used between Edinburgh and Fort William Caledonian Sleeper will not be carring passengers within Scotland, passengers change at Edinburgh and Glasgow QS only Passengers in cradle seats and Lie Flat Beds will be served from the counter Passengers in berths and First Class ticket holders (reserved in Lie Flat bed) will have access to the Club Car Proposed ticket arrangements from 2018 (subject to change) : Passengers with Standard tickets may make reservations for the cradle seats Passengers may pay supplements for Lie Flat Bed, shared or single berth Passengers with First Class tickets may make reservations for the Lie Flat Bed Passengers may pay supplements for single berth Breakfast is included

Serco already have the passenger loading and fare basket details from the previous three years and last year (April 2013 to March 2014) and will shortly be receiving the mailing list All the new rolling stock will be DAA compliant, so there is no need for a specifically modified vehicle Instead the four cabins nearest to the Club Car will be set up for disabled access, but it could be increased to nine depending on demand

Abellio have now responded to this question Inverness will cease maintaining the Sleeper coaches from 01 April 2015, allowing them to concentrate solely on ScotRail rolling stock HST maintenance will be split between Craigentinny (Hitachi) and Inverness EGIP rolling stock will initially be allocated to Millerhilll and maintained at Craigentinny (Hitachi) This is due to the increase in rolling stock between 2015 and 2019 Replacement rolling stock contracts are required by March, so full details should be available shortly afterwards This therefore makes sense that Serco have signed a new contract with Alstom, for maintenance at Polmadie and Wembley (removing Inverness)

There are currently five (six if you include the spare RLO/RFB) different types of vehicles : BUO - Brake Unclassified RLO / RFB - Lounge Car SLEP - Sleeper with Pantry SLED - Sleeper, Disabled specification SLE - Sleeper

I have today sent a request to Serco (sleeper.scot) for details of the rolling stock, along with some other questions I have

er, the point being raised was sleepers on Saturday nights, arriving into destination on Sunday morning

Who wants to see the return of Sleepers on Saturday nights? When I worked on the sleepers in the 1990s they were almost a waste of time The journey time didn't help, plus delays on top I even remember working on an Inverness service which had just three passengers southbound As a result we bumped them up to First Class, using just the first two sleeper coaches, out of nine! They couldn't believe they were the only passengers However, it was no surprise as the train departed at about 19:00 and didn't arrive into Euston until about 10:00

This was the whole point of privitisation, be innovative The Scotland - Plymouth sleeper would serve a very limited Scottish market, so can't see TS even offering 50% of the capital cost Equally, the experimental service as part of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise would not be included in the next franchise Serco would then have to decide whether to include it in one of their other franchises, sell it to the next franchisee, or end the service Can of worms...

It is very rare for additional shunting to take place at Edinburgh, in order to get a defective vehicle to Inverness Usually the consists are swapped at Wembley, a defective vehicle will then be at the rear of the Fort William / Aberdeen / Inverness (as it leaves Euston) The main issue comes if it is an ETH related fault, this then requires the faulty vehicle to be swapped at Edinburgh from the rear as it arrives, to the rear as it departs

No they don't, the sets are on an eight day cycle, they see each destination equally This results in Inverness seeing a different set every day, and can then plan maintenance accordingly Wembley and Polmadie don't do anything other than clear minor faults Faults can end up being carried for up to 7 days until the set gets back to Inverness The only exception are the two coaches allocated to the Edinburgh - Fort William service, which can spend up to 6 months without seeing Inverness This has since been resolved by swapping out with the Inverness set (detached with the loco at Edinburgh)

Odd, as the sleepers are currently maintained on an eight day cycle around Inverness, plus all the maintenance spares are moved to/from Inverness

The Fort William sleeper was merged into the Aberdeen and Inverness portions, at that was the only way to retain the service Prior to this it was a separate service in the summer and merged with the Inverness service in winter The main issue is that InterCity was not permitted to promote reduced / advance fares on the Fort William service As a result many passengers travelled to/from Glasgow and then on reduced fares Equally, even sales staff advised passengers of this I can remember a Fort William sleeper leaving Euston with just ONE passenger in the winter Even when I travelled in June 2010 there were just four of us leaving Euston

There was a proposal to cut the sleepers back even further just before privitisation This would have seen an end to the Aberdeen and Inverness sleepers, with connections via Edinburgh The proposal to cut the Fort William sleeper nearly succeeded It was one of the government proposals at the time, for privitisation, that services which were deemed socially necessary would not be withdrawn Sadly this has been twisted slightly since as some routes have changed since privitisation

The Caledonian Sleeper livery is going to be used, details are already on the Serco website and TS documents However, unlike the ScotRail livery it has not been specified in any part of the ITT The two liveries are quite different

These don't compare very well based on the Fare Basket (as it is known) Virgin Trains can offer a whole variety of fares, from £20 right up to £550 (First Class Single for illustration) Equally, each seat can be empty, reused or used once The sleeper cannot offer this wide range as a berth can only be used once As a result there is a Berth Supplement, and this offsets the one only use The base fare is also higher The other remaining overall operational costs aren't that much higher As a result it may be possible to purchase a minimum fare in First Class : Virgin Trains Glasgow - Euston for £70 Sleeper Glasgow - Euston for £120 Equally, a passenger can present an Open ticket and pay the supplement

The paths for four sleepers in each direction still remain The franchisee is free to vary the number and types of services if they see fit, however any changes must be approved in advance TS was suggesting in the ITT to ending the Glasgow sleeper and operating from Edinburgh only It would appear this suggestion has been discounted by Serco and they would retain the Glasgow sleeper Equally, in the same way as Virgin Trains extended the Class 390 units, if expansion is required then it would be much easier now as new rolling stock will be in place Sourcing older sleepers would be quite difficult now However, once the new trains come into service, that's going to be a lot of spare Sleepers (assuming the Mark 2 coaches are binned) I can see some of those going straight to Great Western, some for spares The remaining Sleepers could easily operate one additional service in each direction until further new rolling stock arrives It had also been suggested from 2018 : the Fort William sleeper would operate via Glasgow the Edinburgh sleeper separate the Aberdeen and Inverness sleeper via Edinburgh

As an aside, I can't find anything that specifies the livery So when the franchise comes up for renewal in 2030 the next franchisee could change the livery That's odd when you compare it to the ScotRail franchise

This was one of the reasons why the current franchise was split, as people wanted to know the actual finances of the sleeper service, part of which is hidden and absorbed within the current franchise There are two capital contributions The first is the £50m for rolling stock, increased to £60m if the bidder could show service enhancements The second is the £6m for stations (improvements), funded from Network Rail There are then the annual SQUIRE performance bonuses For every 1 point above 70, they receive £1m For every 1 point below 70, they are fined £1m (with an option to deduct from subsidy) The subsidy is loaded at 33% of revenue and the franchisee is free to apply any fare scheme (but must accept through tickets) In years 1 to 7 this represents 7% and in years 8 to 15 at 15% Therefore if the sleeper doesn't carry any passengers, they don't receive any subsidy This formula is intended to make up the additional cost between the number of actual passengers and the maximum capacity It is expected this could be any where between £187m and £320m (over the initial 15 year life of franchise, without extension) Serco are not expected to return a profit in years 1 and 2, returning to profit in years 2 and 3

All the ones I have (in Blue / Grey livery) have B1 bogies, except as below I am still waiting for those with B4 or Commonwealth bogies, or missed the original releases (last minute swap for my WHL rakes) 374-013 SO B4 bogies 374-013B SO B1 bogies 374-085 BCK B4 bogies 374-085A BCK B4 bogies 374-110 RMB Commonwealth bogies 374-112 RU B1 bogies 374-258B CK B1 bogies