Travel after 28 October 2018

We have announced that there will be a delay in the availability of our new trains, and so we are sorry to say that will not be able to operate our new fleet on our Lowland services from October as we expected.

As a result, the new rolling stock will be brought in on the Lowland route between London and Glasgow and Edinburgh from spring 2019, rather than the original date of October 2018. There has been no change to the planned introduction on the Highland route between London and Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William, with new trains to debut from spring 2019.

We will instead, be running our current trains on all routes until Spring 2019 and can therefore still ensure you get to your destination and experience our excellent levels of service and hospitality on board.

Guests who have already booked on our Lowland service for travel on or after October 28 are being contacted by our team directly.

To date, our train manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) has delivered to the UK 40 of the 75 sleeper carriages ordered. The remaining 35 carriages are in the final build stage in Spain and will be shipped to the UK in the coming weeks. You can find out more about this here.

We offer a unique advantage as a train operator, allowing guests the opportunity to book up to 12 months in advance of travel. To facilitate this booking option for our guests, the UK national rail booking system requires us to finalise our pricing a full 15 months in advance.

Advance planning for the introduction of the new fleet began in 2016 and it was necessary to build in some flexibility with launch dates due to the scale of the project. As part of this plan, it was decided that during the new trains roll out period, a system of “transitional” fares would be offered.

These ‘transitional’ fares were based on the “new trains” configuration and products, to ensure that no matter whether a new or current train arrived for any service, we could provide comparable services to fulfil the conditions of all bookings.

These transition fares will be continuing on our Highland services departing from 28 October 2018, and all new bookings made on our Lowland service for dates after 28 October will be under these transition fares.

As always, we value your feedback and will be listening carefully to our guests and staff throughout these changes. We thank you for your patience and support at this time.

Accommodation on journeys up to 28 October 2018

– First Class – Solo use rooms with breakfast and First Class station lounge access (where available) included.
– Standard Class – Shared (Twin) room. This may include sharing with a person of the same sex if you have not booked both beds. Breakfast is available to purchase.
– Seats

All services from 28 October 2018

From this date, all services will change to a transitional booking and fares system, until we can confirm definitive introduction dates for our new trains. Until then, all services will operate using our current fleet of trains but using a temporary fare structure based upon solo use or shared use rooms.

It is possible that a service may be confirmed as being provided by a new train at some point after you have made your reservation. If this is the case, your booking will automatically be transferred on to the new train in a comparable class of travel. Once the date of introduction of the new trains is confirmed, we will open up sales for the products we are unable to offer on our current train.
Accommodation on journeys from 28 October 2018

During the transition period we will be offering the following accommodation types:

– Solo Rooms – Solo use rooms with breakfast and First Class station lounge access (where available) included.
– Twin Rooms – Shared (Twin) room. Exclusive use. Breakfast is available to purchase.
– Seats

Shared Room Products from 28 October 2018
Shared rooms can be reserved for two guests travelling together. Rooms can only be shared when made as part of the same booking.

We also have great Family Fares for those guests travelling with children. This will automatically be shown during the booking process.

Solo Room Products from 28 October 2018
Solo rooms can be reserved for guests who want their own room. Solo Room products will receive access to stations First Class lounges and priority access to the on-train Lounge Car. Breakfast is included in the price.

Railcards from 28 October 2018
All Railcard holders can obtain discounts on seated tickets or Anytime / Off-Peak / Super Off-Peak tickets.
The option of purchasing Railcard discounted Anytime / Off-Peak / Super Off-Peak tickets and undiscounted room supplements will remain unchanged.

For further information on Railcards on Caledonian Sleeper services, please visit our dedicated Railcards section.