Severe disruption to Caledonian Sleeper to continue until Wednesday

Caledonian Sleeper has cancelled more trains until Wednesday, extending disruption caused by wheel damage to a week.
The 150 million new Caledonian Sleeper fleet has been dogged with faults since being introduced in April. Picture: The ScotsmanThe 150 million new Caledonian Sleeper fleet has been dogged with faults since being introduced in April. Picture: The Scotsman
The 150 million new Caledonian Sleeper fleet has been dogged with faults since being introduced in April. Picture: The Scotsman

The London-Edinburgh service will not run tonight along with the Edinburgh-London service tomorrow night.

On Tuesday, the London-Glasgow service has been cancelled and the Glasgow-London service on Wednesday.

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The trains, whose Edinburgh and Glasgow portions normally join/split at Carstairs, will still run to/from the other city.

The move follows damage to the London-Edinburgh/Glasgow train early last Wednesday when the emergency brakes came on and it was terminated at Stafford in the West Midlands.

This is understood to have dragged the train along the track after the wheels stopped turning, wearing part of them flat on nine of the 16 carriages.

It has led to some services being cancelled on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

A Caledonian Sleeper spokesman said: "Unfortunately, we have taken the decision to cancel a number of our services over the next few days as a result of wheel damage sustained on the train during Tuesday night’s service.

"There aren’t enough to cover these carriages being out of action.

"We are looking to have all services back to full capacity in the next week.

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"We would like to extend our apologies to our guests for this disruption."

The spokesman said passengers would be offered alternative overnight coach travel or free travel on LNER between Edinburgh and London.

They will also receive full refunds.

The firm is hoping to arrange the same with Virgin Trains between Glasgow and London.

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The fault is the latest of a series of problems to have beset the £150 million new fleet of trains since they were introduced in April on the Edinburgh/Glasgow-London route.

They boast double beds and ensuite toilets and showers.

However, passengers have complained of late boarding, toilets not working and showers having no water.

Caledonian Sleeper said it still plans to launch the trains on its remaining routes, between Aberdeen, Fort William, Inverness and London in three weeks' time.

Ryan Flaherty, operator Serco’s managing director for Caledonian Sleeper, said: “Several of our carriages sustained wheel flats following a deployment of the emergency brake on the Lowlander service between London and Scotland on Tuesday night.

"As a result, we have had to cancel a number of planned services while repairs are carried out.

"We apologise to those guests affected and have taken steps to give them as much notice as possible.

"We are working hard to ensure the carriages are back in service as soon as possible.”