Just a bit of info for anyone wanting to travel to or from London - Inverness at the start/finish of a LEJOG. Scotrail sell "Bargain Berth" sleeper tickets at prices of £19, £29, £39, £49. This is a sleeping berth not the seating carriage on the sleeper. They are E tickets so after booking you get an e-mail which is printed out as your ticket.
They can only be booked from the Scotrail page at http://www.scotrail.co.uk/buytickets/index.html
The tickets are released for sale about 12 weeks ahead so the tickets for the week up to 30th April were released today 5th February. I've booked a £19 sleeper today from Glasgow to London for a Hastings to Cape Wrath tour.
You need to be flexible on your travel date as by the time I checked today there was one day that week with a £19 fare left for Glasgow - London. There were other £29 fares left. The Bargain Berths are only sold for Sunday - Wednesday nights.
NOTE: The Bargain Berth fares don't show on a search on Trainline.com. The only place is to buy them is online. When I spoke to Scotrail telephone bookings they quoted a far higher fare and when I mentioned Bargain Berths they confirmed they couldn't sell them over the phone.
The online booking system doesn't allow bicycle bookings. What to do is first check what Bargain Berth fares are there. Then phone Scotrail bookings on 0845 755 0033 and book the cycle on the train (free). They give you a booking reference. If going London - Inverness a cycle booking for the Inverness - Thurso/Wick could be made at the same time. Then book the sleeper.
As an example today a London Inverness berth is available on 30th April for £29. Gets into Inverness at 0830 in time to get breakfast then the 10.38 train getting to Thurso at 1424. Thereafter there's plenty of time to get to JOG 20 miles away and down to Wick for a first night.
At these prices (£29 bargain berth and £10.50 Inverness - Thurso) it's competitive with budget airlines and avoids dismantling and bagging or boxing the bike and letting airline baggage handlers near it. It also has the advantage over a daytime train that you'll be asleep for most of the long train ride from London - Inverness reducing the disadvantage of the train travel time compared to going by air.
Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
Re: Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
Top tip thanks. I love the sleeper.
Re: Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
Does anyone know when each batch of tickets are put on line - is it on a set day each week, set time?
Any ideas
Any ideas
Re: Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
Usually every Friday.
No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
Re: Scotrail Sleeper - Bargain Berths
irc wrote:The online booking system doesn't allow bicycle bookings. What to do is first check what Bargain Berth fares are there. Then phone Scotrail bookings on 0845 755 0033 and book the cycle on the train (free). They give you a booking reference. If going London - Inverness a cycle booking for the Inverness - Thurso/Wick could be made at the same time. Then book the sleeper.
The number of bargain berths is limited. 2x£19, 2x£29 etc
I'm informed that there are only 3 cycle bookings available southbound from Inverness because the other 3 spaces are full of seafood heading for London restaurants.
There are most likely other people going for the same bargain berths, so you can find that the £19 ticket gets sold whilst you were making the bike booking. You then have to make a quick decision on whether to pay more or cancel. Best to have decided beforehand. Please don't abort and fail to phone up and cancel the bike booking.