Sounds good and probably gives me an excuse to sample the Sleeper trains once again... Or maybe make a long weekend out of it and add a couple of nights in the Central Hotel...
Peter, The sleeper trains are still the same clapped out wrecks, and given the fact of the new operators there is a mixture of branding, long gone are the days of the little goodnight packs with essentials now you have a bar of superbly engraved Sleeper soap, ear plugs! and a green eye mask, those in First have the added luxury of a pillow spray, to either promote a good nights sleep or spray it round the cabin to mask the smells...
However some comfort can be taken that the new liveried uniforms the staff are wearing were a £1000 each and your lounge in Inverness is now across the street. The old lounge beside the ticket office where it used to be is now used for storage (and that includes storing the meals and snacks used for that evenings run, they would have been loaded up in London the previous night..) but we are not supposed to know of such things.
However all is not doom and gloom, the onboard food and drink prices in my view do represent astounding value.
And the Central Hotel given the last time l stayed there, l hope, can have only improved...
For what its worth, l do relish my journeys on the Caledonia Sleeper, the dream of sipping a Martini in the bar car, a lovely late night snack in comfortable surroundings, awaking to the glorious scenery in London/Inverness with a cooked breakfast . It is replaced with the cold hard facts a luke warm can of Stella (they might ask you also want a glass !) a soggy microwaved to death meal, retiring to the sleeping berth to be gently rocked to sleep and then at some ungodly hour , the tat tat on the door as you are presented with a brown bag containing luke warm water, dip your own t bag,brown sugar sachet and a pastry of some unrecognisable description, and if all the above wasnt enough to bring you to reality, you step down from the sleeper with the horror of all horrors bed hair !!!!!
(But l do still love the Sleeper ! )
