There’s something about travelling long distances by train that seems much more civilised and pleasurable than flying. Certainly, for me, the glamour that may once have been associated with taking a jet plane is no longer present – at least not in economy class – and there was nothing pleasant about arriving at a very busy “London Luton” Airport at 6:30 on a Monday morning to catch a flight to Inverness.<\/p>\n
Of course, navigating our increasingly arcane airline security: disposing of liquids; removing items of clothing; and being asked to take a sizable chunk of my possessions out of my hand luggage before it can be x-ray scanned gave me something to do for an hour. That was followed by lots of waiting around at the terminal as I arrived far too early, because of the unpredicatability of rush-hour traffic in South East England.<\/p>\n
But this trip was special – my return journey would be by train – and I’d booked onto the ScotRail Caledonian Sleeper<\/a> as far as Crewe (from where I would make an early-morning exit and hop on a train to Manchester). One of only two remaining sleeper services\u00a0in the UK (there’s also a Night Riviera Sleeper<\/a> service from London to Cornwall),\u00a0I’ve often seen the Caledonian Sleeper\u00a0come through Milton Keynes as I’ve waited for my train to London and thought “what a great way to travel overnight”. This was my opportunity – and at \u00a3112.40 for train and a bed for the night, it was no more expensive than a no-frills flight and a budget hotel.<\/p>\n The day was going so well – right up to the point that my taxi driver to the station said that he’d always been delayed when he’d used the ‘Sleeper. Did he jinx me? Somehow I doubt it but I should have realised that the high winds that had made my flight a little bumpy would also be causing chaos with overhead power lines on the railways and I arrived at Inverness station to see that the 20:44 to London was cancelled. Cancelled? But that’s where I was to be sleeping!<\/p>\n Arghh! No @ScotRail<\/a> Caledonian Sleeper for me tonight then… pic.twitter.com\/TsRT0gt0gn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) October 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n