| Just to try to provide a little more context on this. This was in the wake of an unprecedented heatwave. The all-time record high temperature was set that day, and even though this was set in a different part of the country from where Caledonian Sleeper usually runs through, the unusually high temperatures covered a very wide area of the UK. While trains can run without issue in these kinds of temperatures in other countries, the temperatures we saw over those two days exceeded the operational window much of the British network was designed and built for. It looks like there were massive Overhead Line problems on the route the Sleeper normally takes (the West Coast Main Line), and it was too late to try to divert onto the alternative line the Sleeper uses (the East Coast Main Line). Although, the ECML was arguably faring worse at the time! These are the only two lines the Sleeper can use to get south. On board the Caledonian Sleeper, you can fill in a breakfast card with items you want the next morning, but notably this card also includes options about being informed or not about disruption. So if you really want to be woken up en-route to be told about late running or cancellation, there should have been the option to do so for those whose priority is on-time running to London (versus those who are more flexible or less worried about their arrival time). It's not clear in this case whether the person from TFA used this option, or if they did and the process broke down in some way. In retrospect it was probably foolhardy for CS to advise their customers that things would be running when so much around them was figuratively crashing to the ground. Ideally they would have pre-cancelled and allowed customers to make their own plans, which could have included using the train as a hotel overnight, as happened anyway. Most train operators in the UK, including Caledonian Sleeper, operate a scheme called Delay Repay, which refunds users who start their journey and end up at their destination late. Terms differ per operator, e.g. some only pay out in circumstances that are their fault, some only pay out after 30 minutes of lateness. In this instance, Caledonian Sleeper start refunds after 30 minutes of delay, for any reason. So at least the overnight stay at Glasgow would have been free of charge! |