Man beds down on sleeper train to London only to find it never left the station
22 July 2022, 12:13 | Updated: 22 July 2022, 12:31
A train passenger who bedded down for the night on the Caledonian Sleeper train woke to find it had never left the station.
Jim Metcalfe, who regularly uses the service for trips to London, has gone viral after tweeting about his strange experience on board.
“In 15 years of using this train, and through many bizarre twists and turns, this has to be strangest yet. 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,” he wrote.
"I’m open to offers for the film rights. It’s limited though - I slept, was inconvenienced, ate some sausage, and went home," he added.
The Glasgow-London train normally takes seven and a half hours.
@CalSleeper In 15 years of using this train, and through many bizarre twists and turns, this has to be strangest yet. 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. pic.twitter.com/MZyRwm9C7E
— Jim Metcalfe (@jim_metcalfe) July 20, 2022
Passengers can board from 10pm and get off the following morning.
Mr Metcalfe said: “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…”
He later told the BBC he got on at 10.30pm and was asleep by 11pm, then was woken up at 5am by an apologetic worker who offered him a sausage roll and a coffee and explained what happened.
“I should have been 300 miles away,” he said.
At seven minutes past midnight, when Mr Metcalfe would have been asleep, Caledonian Sleeper tweeted: "We are very sorry to inform our guests that despite all efforts being made to allow services to run this evening, unfortunately Network Rail have informed of developing issues on the rail network and as a result we will not be able to run our services".
