Sleeper services

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
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28,857
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Canada
I'm thinking of using the sleeper service to Cornwall next week, anyone used it before? I take it it's just a normal seat if you don't spend the extra £50 for a bunk?
 
Yes, unless you pay for a bunk it's a conventional seat, which kinda defies the point really as it takes a huge amount of time.

Personally I don't really see the point unless you are getting a bunk, its not as if Cornwall is particularly far on the train anyway - 4-5 hours?
 
Hmmm, yeah it does. It's about 5 hours (Truro so an hour extra from Plymouth) however the sleeper does give me an extra half day each end, and as I'm only going for the weekend it's significant. Think i'll try it once and see if I can cope, then maybe not the next time. :p


Thanks. :)
 
I've been on a sleeper train in the Ukraine. It was the longest train in the world and it was pretty slow. Really bumpy too. I barely got any sleep.
 
The sleeper from London to Aberdeen (I caught quite a few times) isn't that bad in the seating area. I could usually get a couple of hours sleep at least although it was either really cold or really hot and never anything in between.

The sleeper from Bangkok to Surat Thani had more comfortable seats :p
 
Paddington to Penzance sleeper? I've used it quite a lot, try to get a berth to yourself, I enjoy it!

And as Smit says, Surat Thani to Bangkok sleeper was awesome!
 
You'll need to be up early to get off at Truro as unlike Plymouth it doesn't simply detatch two coaches and leave them in the station.
 
Theres no need for a bunk for any UK train journey unless your a big girl.

Last year i got the overnight from Milan to Amsterdam which took 14 hours. Wish i had got a bunk for that as sitting in a tiny booth full of sweaty loud strangers got old pretty quickly.
 
France to Rome was the longest train (time wise) I've been on. It wasn't too bad and the bunk beds were quite good (the crossaint and orange juice in the morning, however, was rubbish!).

Good for a change and variety is the spice of life.

I'd definately recommend a bunk though!



M.
 
Jez said:
Why do people get trains for journeys of such huge distances? (not referring to the UK one here).
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It's cheaper often, particularly if you are going to somewhere that isn't usefully near an airport. It can be fairly relaxing sitting there knowing that for the next XX hours you've just got to watch time and miles pass away.

Also as vonhelmet says it can be quite good fun, I took a sleeper from Helsinki to Rovaniemi with a few mates and had a great laugh on the trip, not something that we could have done on the 'plane. Although flights exist for that trip we would have been paying more than the same again as we did for the flight from Edinburgh to Helsinki - none of us were in any huge rush so figured that we might as well go that way and I'm glad we did. We had bunks on the way there and didn't bother booking bunks on the way back which was possibly a mistake as although we had pretty much a carriage to ourselves it's hard to sleep across a double seat when you're 6'+.
 
Jez said:
Why do people get trains for journeys of such huge distances? (not referring to the UK one here).
Click to expand...

I had a bike with me and no hard case to take it on a plane.Annoyingly as there were no designated bike rcks on teh train, it got a sleeper cabin of its own while i still had to sit in the crappy seats that i'd paid for!
 
Don't like flying is the predoment reason I'd get on a train - it's much less stressful you just turn up, get on and then enjoy the journey. It took us straight into the capital and a 4 minute walk away from the hotel.



M.
 
Absolutely love sleeper trains, used to get them all the time in China - it's not always easy to get a direct flight to a random town in Inner Mongolia or somewhere, so 16 hour trains are the way to go :p Didn't have a bed for that one actually, just a plastic bench seat. Not as fun as 11 hours standing to Beijing, but hey!

Anyway, I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that overnight trains in the UK will be at least as good as the ones I was using, and I found them incredibly easy to sleep on. That said, one friend who came out to visit couldn't get to sleep at all, but she's an exception in my experience. I've never actually used one in the UK, as home > Edinburgh is only 5 hours or so anyway, but probably makes sense if you want to make the most of your days at both ends :)
 
tres said:
Paddington to Penzance sleeper? I've used it quite a lot, try to get a berth to yourself, I enjoy it!

And as Smit says, Surat Thani to Bangkok sleeper was awesome!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I can only afford the £50 for an advance ticket, another £100 return for the bunk is a bit too much...!:p

[TW]Fox;15209670 said:
You'll need to be up early to get off at Truro as unlike Plymouth it doesn't simply detatch two coaches and leave them in the station.
Click to expand...

7am so not too bad, but I will be paranoid about not waking up on time.:p
 
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