Would A North-East And South West Sleeper Service Be A Good Idea?
I ask this question as in the October 2021, there is an article entitled A New Sleeper, which has this explanatory sub-title.
Des Bradley describes his concept for a North-East to South-West Overnight Service
Paraphrasing his resume from the article, Des Bradley is probably best described as a rail enthusiast, who has travelled all over Europe by train, especially on sleeper trains. He has also worked recently with ScotRail, where he led their integrated travel activities.
I regularly use the Caledonian Sleeper on my trips to Scotland, often taking a sleeper one way and a day time train the other. Towards the end of next month, I have tickets booked for a low-cost Lumo train to Edinburgh and a sleeper back to London in the evening.
In this blog, I have regularly written about the sleeper trains being introduced across Europe and this summer I had intended to go via Eurostar and NightJet to Vienna. But the pandemic has kept me in England for two years.
An Edinburgh And Plymouth Sleeper
Des Bradley is proposing a sleeper train between Edinburgh and Plymouth.
- A typical daytime trip on this route takes eight hours and forty-five minutes.
- Intermediate stops would be Berwick-upon-Tweed, Newcastle, Durham, Darlington, York, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham New Street, Cheltenham Spa, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St. David’s and Newton Abbot.
- Journey time would be just over twelve hours.
- By comparison a sleeper between London and Edinburgh takes about seven hours and thirty minutes.
He calls the service the NESW Sleeper.
I have some thoughts on the proposal.
A Spine Route Between Edinburgh And Penzance
The route is effectively a spine between Edinburgh and Plymouth on which other services can be built.
Unlike the Caledonian Sleeper, Des Bradley doesn’t feel the train should split and join as it travels up and down the country.
But I do think that the NESW Sleeper can be timed to fit in with high-quality connecting services to extend the coverage.
An Innovative Timetable
Des Bradley’s timetable is innovative.
- Trains leave Edinburgh and Plymouth around 21:00.
- Trains arrive at their destination around 09:00.
- Trains stop for about two hours at Derby.
- After resting at Derby, the trains are effectively early morning trains.
Note.
- The wait at Derby, adds extra time, that can be used to make up for engineering diversions, which often happen at night!
- The trains could be used by non-sleeper passengers to get to Plymouth or Edinburgh early.
The consequence of the second point, is that the trains will have to offer some Standard Class seats.
Should The Train Serve Penzance?
The Great Western Railway’s Night Riviera sleeper train calls at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, St.Austell, Truro, Redruth, Cambourne, Hoyle and St. Erth between Plymouth and Penzance.
According to a proposed NESW timetable, the Night Riviera has long gone, before the NESW Sleeper arrives in Plymouth at 08:58.
But I’m sure Great Western Railway could arrange for a convenient service between Plymouth and Penzance to pick up passengers in the morning and deliver them in the evening. This picture taken at Plymouth, indicates that cross-platform interchange may be possible.
This picture shows a pair of GWR Castles, which regularly work additional services between Plymouth and Penzance.
What About Wales?
I suspect that Cardiff, Swansea and other towns and cities in South Wales, can be served in a similar way, by connecting with GWR services at Bristol Parkway station.
Other Connecting Services
Birmingham New Street, Derby, Leeds and Newcastle are important interchange stations and I can see services being timed to bring passengers to and from the NESW Sleeper.
Rolling Stock
The author offers choices for the trains, based on what is used currently in the UK and adding multiple units. But he is definitely tending towards fixed formations.
I feel that the trains should meet the following criteria.
They should be of similar standard as the Caledonian Sleeper.
They would need an independently-powered capability for sections without electrification.
They should be zero-carbon.
They should offer a range of accommodation including Standard Class seats to cater the early birds and budget travellers.
The possibility to run at 100 mph or faster might be useful to catch up time on some sections of the route.
I think that two trains could be possible.
- A rake of coaches hauled by a hydrogen-electric locomotive.
- A battery-electric Sleeper Multiple-Unit with a range of perhaps eighty miles on batteries.
This is a sentence from the article.
The concept of ‘Sleeper Multiple-Units’ has also emerged in recent years, and this idea could be attractive; although it has some inherent inflexibility, it could in the future allow multi-portion or experimental new routes to be tagged onto the core service.
Sleeper Multiple Units might enable a South Wales and Edinburgh service, that used the same train path between Edinburgh and Bristol Parkway, where the two trains would split and join.
Conclusion
I like this proposal and definitely think it is a good idea.
The Anonymous Widower 
I know des from CILT. We’ve been on several Europe trips together. He doesn’t use a credit card, only cash. I wonder how he coped in the pandemic !!!
Lawrence
Sent from my iPhone
Comment by Lawrence Wilson | September 26, 2021 |
There used to be such a service as part of Motorail – I travelled on it in 1968. We started at Stirling IIRC and disembarked at Newton Abbot. Cars on wagons at the back passengers in sleeper car’s at the front. Avoided a nightmare 500 mile drive and two nights’ hotel bills. The train was pretty slow then too, but obviously did not stop much en route – perhaps Edinburgh, Sheffield and Bristol. Summer only AIR.
Comment by R. Mark Clayton | September 26, 2021 |
Wikipedia gives some details.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorail_(British_Rail)
I only used a similar service in France from Calais to Aix-en-Provence.
Comment by AnonW | September 26, 2021 |
Not sure when it last run but a similar service used to run in the 90’s as I remember travelling overnight from Edinburgh to Exeter on a Friday night in summer. I was in standard class so not sure if there were sleeper carriages or not
Comment by Chris Whiffin | September 27, 2021 |
I lived in Cornwall untill late 2003, and used the train between Redruth and Peterborough a few times. Plymouth was an important pick-up point for service personel, who mostly changed trains at Westbury, or Birmingham when I used that route. There was still a once a day service from Penzance to Aberdean. I believe it took 23 hours. The problem of increasing speeds from west Cornwall is the winding and hilly route, which cannot be speeded up easily. Its a good idea for the summer, but a survey to determine potential traffic flows to ensure profitabilty would need to be done first. Perhaps building a straighter, and level rout from Tiverton to the West would be a good reason to increase speeds and traffic levels. I used to arrange transport from west Cornwall to the Midlands, and it was difficult and expensive to shift large items. Cornwall is keen to get a better communication network installed.
Comment by jagracer2021 | September 27, 2021 |