2.5
A journey of two parts
I found it very hard to obtain useful pre-travel information about the Caledonian sleeper service, so had to take a chance and book. It turns out that the first problem occured at booking itself, as I had been advised to make a booking then call in and ask to have it moved to a wheelchair berth. I found that unusual because how can I be sure the berth is not going to be booked before I get it put into my name? In actual fact the booking had never been moved, so we were booked into a non-accessible berth, check your tickets carefully, I don't know about other trips but the Edinburgh carriage for wheelchair berths is B1&2. We had to wait until the other sleeper carriages came in at past 1.00am to board the train.
I had also been told that the toilet was ensuite but it turns out it's immediately next door, but some several feet away. The main difficulty for me was that you have to wait for quite slow automatic doors to open and close between the berth and the toilet, so it was slightly too long for me to stand without my wheelchair.
The accessible cabin is very small indeed, I had to go into the toilet to make a turn then back into the berth and the doors *just* shut. The space left over after putting my wheelchair inside was less than a single square metre. Much of the storage wasn't reachable from the wheelchair, so we had to put things on the floor. Under bed storage of bags or folding wheelchair was precluded by there being an aisle chair under the bed, so if you intend placing items under the bed ask in advance for these to be removed. I could not get the chair turned inside the berth areas, so couldn't have used the sink anyway, but even if I could turn there is no knee room underneath, though I could get to the sink by sitting on the bed and sliding towards the sink. It would be very challenging for an assistant to find enough space to help with dressing in this space with the wheelchair inside the berth, although the chair could be put out into the corridor for a while to get additional space.
There are no 3-pin plugs available in the cabins, only low power USB, so you cannot charge electric mobility equipment in the berth. They were unsure if the lounge car would have enough power to do this even if I could have left the chair in there with teh 3-pin plugs available.
On both journies, the published disembarkation times were incorrect, the timetable shows you can remain in the berth until 8am but I was asked to be ready to disembark immediatley in London and at 7.30 in Edinburgh. This was quite difficult for me as I hadn't expected to need to get ready on a train that was in motion.
On the return trip, you can take up your berth from 22:00 but the departure time is published as 23:50. Because of the published departure time, the assistance office refused to place the ramp until 23:20, but fortunately the on board sleeper staff put the ramp out for me.
There is no provision for deaf travellers to be alerted to arrivals or breakfast service, I had to have my daughter tell me someone was at the door.
This is not adequately thought through as a genuinely accessible service, but it was at least possible, and I might have rated it a little higher but for the booking problems. I will probably use the service again, but I do hope the new service will be somewhat better.
I do apologise if the photos aren't very good, it was hard to line up the panoramic and photosphere pictures on a moving train, but I still think that the result allows you to get a sense of the size and layout. It may be that you need to download the photos in order to view them as spheres or panoramas so the online version might be distorted.
I found it very hard to obtain useful pre-travel information about the Caledonian sleeper service, so had to take a chance and book. It turns out that the first problem occured at booking itself, as I had been advised to make a booking then call in and ask to have it moved to a wheelchair berth. I found that unusual because how can I be sure the berth is not going to be booked before I get it put into my name? In actual fact the booking had never been moved, so we were booked into a non-accessible berth, check your tickets carefully, I don't know about other trips but the Edinburgh carriage for wheelchair berths is B1&2. We had to wait until the other sleeper carriages came in at past 1.00am to board the train.
I had also been told that the toilet was ensuite but it turns out it's immediately next door, but some several feet away. The main difficulty for me was that you have to wait for quite slow automatic doors to open and close between the berth and the toilet, so it was slightly too long for me to stand without my wheelchair.
The accessible cabin is very small indeed, I had to go into the toilet to make a turn then back into the berth and the doors *just* shut. The space left over after putting my wheelchair inside was less than a single square metre. Much of the storage wasn't reachable from the wheelchair, so we had to put things on the floor. Under bed storage of bags or folding wheelchair was precluded by there being an aisle chair under the bed, so if you intend placing items under the bed ask in advance for these to be removed. I could not get the chair turned inside the berth areas, so couldn't have used the sink anyway, but even if I could turn there is no knee room underneath, though I could get to the sink by sitting on the bed and sliding towards the sink. It would be very challenging for an assistant to find enough space to help with dressing in this space with the wheelchair inside the berth, although the chair could be put out into the corridor for a while to get additional space.
There are no 3-pin plugs available in the cabins, only low power USB, so you cannot charge electric mobility equipment in the berth. They were unsure if the lounge car would have enough power to do this even if I could have left the chair in there with teh 3-pin plugs available.
On both journies, the published disembarkation times were incorrect, the timetable shows you can remain in the berth until 8am but I was asked to be ready to disembark immediatley in London and at 7.30 in Edinburgh. This was quite difficult for me as I hadn't expected to need to get ready on a train that was in motion.
On the return trip, you can take up your berth from 22:00 but the departure time is published as 23:50. Because of the published departure time, the assistance office refused to place the ramp until 23:20, but fortunately the on board sleeper staff put the ramp out for me.
There is no provision for deaf travellers to be alerted to arrivals or breakfast service, I had to have my daughter tell me someone was at the door.
This is not adequately thought through as a genuinely accessible service, but it was at least possible, and I might have rated it a little higher but for the booking problems. I will probably use the service again, but I do hope the new service will be somewhat better.
I do apologise if the photos aren't very good, it was hard to line up the panoramic and photosphere pictures on a moving train, but I still think that the result allows you to get a sense of the size and layout. It may be that you need to download the photos in order to view them as spheres or panoramas so the online version might be distorted.
For additional detailed accessibility information, please contact: enquiry@sleeper.scot
