A passenger on an overnight rail service from Scotland to London said he was left speechless after waking to find the train had not even left Glasgow, where he boarded.
Jim Metcalfe, who has been using the Caledonian Sleeper service for 15 years, posted on social media about the “bizarre” experience on Wednesday (20 July) morning.
“In 15 years of using this train, and through many bizarre twists and turns, this has to be strangest yet,” he tweeted. “Wake up, and the train never left Glasgow. It was just sat here all night, and now we have been thrown off it at 5.30am in the wrong city.”
The sleeper service runs two routes connecting London with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Fort William. It is one of only two sleeper operators remaining in the UK.
The charity chief executive, who lives in East Renfrewshire, added: “Cal Sleeper tweeted that the service was on last night, let people board, and just left us sitting here all night. They let everyone get in and go to sleep, and just left us here.
“I’m travelling for work. It’s hard to even know what to say …”
It followed days of severe rail disruption earlier this week as engineers worked to repair the effects of an unprecedented heatwave.
Kathryn Darbandi, Serco’s managing director for Caledonian Sleeper, said: “We apologise to guests affected by the cancellation of our overnight services between Scotland and London.
“This was due to a fault identified on the line, late in the evening, related to the extreme temperatures causing problems across the network, which were outside of our control.
“We made all efforts to support guests impacted, including providing overnight accommodation on board and options for travel on alternative rail services the next day. All guests will receive a full refund.”
