Seriously unimpressed, very poor experience.
I was seriously unimpressed by the Caledonian Sleeper on a trip from London to Edinburgh recently. The ride quality of the relatively new Mark 5 coaches is so poor that it prevented us from sleeping, you could feel every bump and jolt, plus there seemed to be a fault with the suspension on our coach that caused it to make a noise like a muffled car horn every 30 seconds. The soundproofing was very poor. The beds were very narrow and extremely uncomfortable, especially as on the lower bunk the ladder was sticking into my side. I did not get a wink of sleep and felt like a zombie when we eventually arrived into Edinburgh. I thought the catering was overpriced and very poor - for example, £5 for a minuscule pot of porridge, and there was only a very limited choice of breakfast items in the basic cabins (and as it turned out, no room in the very small dining car for non-first class passengers wanting breakfast). I remember really enjoying the service (and a good night's sleep) on the British Rail-era Mark 3 coaches when I had to make the trip down from Glasgow to London multiple times in the mid-1990s. In future my wife and I have both agreed that we will be taking the plane on our trips up to Scotland...... such a pity as the actual concept of a sleeper train is great, but absolutely no use at all if you cannot actually sleep.
17 March 2025
Unprompted review