A night on the rails
Last week I went to Scotland and back from southern France - taking three very different night trains. One personal cabin, one seat and one shared couchette. Below are my reviews… can you match them to the sleep recorded on my Apple Watch?
Caledonian Express Club Cabin
This was definitely the luxury option of the three - £260 for a trip of just over 400 miles and about 8 hours on the train. Boarding starts at 2230, the train departs at 2330 and arrives at 0715.
Cabin fever
The cabin is really compact - which is kind of cute. It has a washbasin plus a tiny bathroom with shower which was perfect for being ready for the day ahead. Next time I am going to take a tape measure to measure the width of the berth though - it seemed quite narrow.
Teeny bathroom
The tiny shower was actually really good.
There were plenty of fluffy towels and nice products.
Definitely a plus!
Room (with a view) service
The Scottish breakfast was really quite good. There was plenty of choice too and it arrived bang on time.
Caledonian Express Seat
At £56 this is very much the budget option - again 400+ miles and around 8 hours of travel.
These are sleeper seats and the most charitable description I can think of is ‘stingy’. It made long haul flight seats feel positively luxurious. Plus, having sweltered in a GlasgowJune heatwave during the day, I was actually cold in the carriage for most of the night (even wearing a jacket), as well as uncomfortable. By the morning I was adding this experience to my definition of ‘false economy’.
SCNF Train de Nuit
I booked a first class berth in a shared (women only) cabin for €72. This trip is over 500 miles and takes just under 12 hours (the train departs at 2213 and arrives the next day at 1010 in the tiny mountain station of Latour-de-Carol - Entveitg.
Couchette cabin
This is a first class couchette - 4 berths rather than 6 (second class). It’s actually one of the older trains, in use in the 90s when the service was withdrawn. SNCF has renovated many of the night trains since relaunching in 2020. I went to sleep wondering where they had stored this carriage for its 20 year retirement before hauling it back into use.
Bunk bed travel
Each bunk has a pillow and a very particular SNCF style ‘sleeping bag’ which has a summer side and a winter side. These are all freshly laundered in a sealed bag on arrival. There’s a comfort pack (sleep mask, earplugs etc) with every place and water.
Trains are ace
The SNCF trains are much more ‘shared travel’ with normal train toilets and separate little ‘changing rooms’ for those who want to change their clothes in privacy. Newer trains have charging sockets and more mod cons. They all have WiFi.
The trains de nuit tend to be very affordable - although varying slightly with the season.
The Verdict
Whilst it’s easy to give a subjective verdict on the night trains, I decided to give the relatively impartial job to my Apple Watch.
Find out whether cost and sleep actually correlate below:
Make it stand out
Caledonian Sleeper - Club Cabin
£260
Sleep verdict is sound - there’s everything I normally do in a night there. Deep sleep, some lighter sleep and I do have a habit of waking up in the night, particularly in the small hours of the morning.
Sleep length is a bit shorter than usual. I usually go to sleep well before midnight but that was a bit of a stretch with the boarding time - even though the people sleeping in cabins got to board first.
Value
3/5 rising to 4/5 if you take into account the savings on a night in a Glasgow hotel
Caledonian Sleeper - Seat
What can I say? This was a very bad night whether you ask me to give a subjective view or checked the stats on my watch. The seats are hard, they barely recline and the carriage just doesn’t feel dark enough. Even with an eye mask and using my bag and a Fold+Rºll for neck support I was only able to doze briefly. I moved position regularly as my feet got pins and needles or I felt I’d leant too long in one direction.
Sleep verdict - poor all round
Value
1/5 Whilst it got me from A to B and might have been superficially cost effective, my sleep account was bankrupted.
SNCF Train de Nuit
€72 / £62
Sleep verdict - sound.
This was a good night’s sleep - about average for me. It has all the usual components including some deep sleep, enough REM and core plus unfortunately habitual wakefulness. Nothing unusual.
Sleep length - average.
This was a longer sleep because the train trip is longer and I woke up between 7 and 8am.
Value
5/5 I slept well and for less than the cost of a night in a Paris hotel - all whilst travelling over 500 miles.
On reaching home, I realised that the night on the SNCF train was almost the same price as the cheap seat on the Caledonian Sleeper - but what a difference in quality of experience. There were no frills on the SNCF, but nice bedding and a roomy bunk.
Whilst I enjoyed the Caledonian cabin it’s not something I can always justify. It was very much sold as a luxury experience - and sometimes that’s what’s in order. The contrast with the seat was also a bit stark. Did it really have to be quite so uncomfortable? It felt like a punishment for trying to be frugal.
So, for getting from A to B in good shape but without silver service, I have to give the SNCF the best marks.
