The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, called for the immediate grounding of the new Caledonian Sleeper fleet after reports of a brake failure near Edinburgh Waverley on Thursday morning.
Serco, which operates the Sleeper service between London and Scotland, confirmed that a Northbound Lowlander service into the Scottish capital overran the platform this morning before being stopped at the Abbeyhill Junction in the city.
The company described what happened an ‘operational issue’ which caused widespread disruption to services.
Manuel Cortes said: “Clearly this is an incredibly serious situation which calls for nothing less than the grounding of the entire new Sleeper fleet until we have the full details of the what went wrong.
“No one should be playing fast and loose with faulty brakes on our railways and Serco need to wake up to that fact and act now.”
Ryan Flaherty, Serco’s Managing Director for Caledonian Sleeper, told The Edinburgh Reporter on Thursday : “Our Northbound Lowlander service into Edinburgh Waverley this morning overran the platform, due to an earlier operational issue at Carstairs.
“An investigation is underway into the cause of the incident, but early indications are that there are no technical problems with the rolling stock. We have notified the relevant authorities. As a result of the delay guests disembarked at Edinburgh Waverley at around 8.45am and we’re sorry for the effect this delay had for our guests. We anticipate that services will run as normal tonight.”
Serco Caledonian Sleeper officially launched a £150m fleet of new trains earlier this year with new double beds and ensuites for passengers. The Scottish Government is subsidising the rail franchise for 15 years and the UK Government invested £50 million in the new fleet to improve the service. There have been some teething troubles since the new fleet was rolled out in April.
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