Caledonian Sleeper - ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper - (I)

Caledonian Sleeper - (I)

ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper

The Caledonian Sleeper

On 4 June 1996, the overnight service was relaunched under the Caledonian Sleeper brand. Each portion of the service was assigned its own identity, with the Night Caledonian to Glasgow, Night Scotsman to Edinburgh, Night Aberdonian to Aberdeen, Royal Highlander to Inverness and West Highlander to Fort William.

On 31 March 1997, it became part of the ScotRail franchise which was initially operated by National Express. The service continued to be operated using the same Mark 3 sleeping cars that had been operated by British Rail, but there were no suitable locomotives immediately available.

Accordingly, the short-term hiring of locomotives from the West Coast operator Virgin Trains was implemented. The arrangement continued until March 1998, at which point the freight operator English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) took on the contract.

Starting in January 2000, seated carriages were added to the sleeping cars; these were 11 former Virgin Trains Mark 2 carriages that had been refurbished at Wolverton Works, which included the installation of first class-style reclining seats throughout.

In parallel with this work, the sleeping cars were also refurbished, during which time they were repainted with ScotRail's purple and blue livery.

On 17 October 2004, the ScotRail franchise, including the Caledonian Sleeper service, was transferred to FirstGroup. In spite of this transfer, both the rolling stock and locomotive contracts remained fundamentally unchanged, except for the carriages and three of EWS's Class 90 locomotives being repainted in FirstGroup's corporate blue, pink and white livery.

Caledonian Sleeper Overview

Franchise(s):

Part of ScotRail (31 March 1997 – 30 March 2015)

Standalone franchise (31 March 2015 – present)

Main region(s):

West Coast Main Line

Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line

Highland Main Line

West Highland Line

Fleet Size: 75 Mark 5 carriages

Stations called at: 48

Parent Company: Scottish Rail Holdings

Reporting Mark: CS

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