[Redjohn]

I use it quite a bit, usually booking an advance First Class ticket to guarantee a single berth. As others have pointed out, it is hardly the most modern of rolling stock, the carriages must date from the 1970’s, but they have been well maintained and are perfectly adequate. The bar carriage is really charming, it is like sitting in an old bar, bench seats and tables where you can while away the first couple of hours with a bit of food and a drink. The service is pretty good.

The cabins are a tight fit, but well equipped, the beds comfy and you get a kit whether standard or first, but the night is the time where you realise the age of the carriages as the suspension means it does tend to lurch around on our less than perfect track.

It is a tough one, I love it, but I am a train geek and kind of get the romance of the thing and would use it specifically to see it get the refurd and revamp it needs.

[GordyUK]

i used to use this service about 10-12 times a year through the 80s and early 90’s. It always had a charm about it and there were few things nicer than being woken with tea and shortbread, then hurtling through the Highlands with your smoked salmon & scrambled eggs in the restaruant car.

as with everything though, cost cutting has reduced it to an unromatic shuttle.

The last few times i tried it just seemed old, tired and in desperate need of a revamp. The bigger issue is the cost. Who is going to pay over £350 for a single berth return, when you can fly from City Aiport to Aberdeen for a fraction of that and in 90 minutes.

[Theadora]

I have travelled on the Sleeper several times, on a Bargain Berth ticket between Motherwell and London Euston – the service is exceptional! Well done, Scotrail. Keep up the good work, and keep this service in operation – we need it!!!

[Bath_VIP]

Some of you may have seen this story about the sleeper service on BBC. The story of the philandering wife is hilarious!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27623739

[DavidGordon10]

The BBC report is indeed fascinating – but not completely correct in one respect. It says that “Across Europe, sleeper trains seem more and more of a quaint anachronism” and points out (correctly) that the Madrid-Paris service has gone. But City NIght Line (http://www.citynightline.net/) goes on and there was a new route for 2014 – Chur/Zurich to Amsterdam and Hamburg.

[Author]

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