Allowing passengers to choose to share with strangers would help to bring in more revenue. A significant proportion of berths must run empty every night.
). But if there was an option for a, say 30% discount, I'm sure many would tick the box.Would it bring in more revenue? Presumably a proportion of existing passengers would go for the discount (money immediately lost to CS). How long would it take to attract additional passengers (which are only those who currently would like to travel but are not prepared / able to pay the current cost and are prepared to share)? Doesn't seem a sure fire winner to me.Allowing passengers to choose to share with strangers would help to bring in more revenue. A significant proportion of berths must run empty every night.
I get not everyone wants to be possibly sharing with a stranger, but it wouldn't bother me (nothing can be as awkward as the time in Morocco I shared a 4 berth cabin with a young Moroccan couple on their honeymoon
I’m sorry, I may be misinterpreting your post, but are you suggesting the current CS policy acts to ‘protect’ cisgender female passengers from trans people?
Even back in BR days lone women travellers would never have been booked to share a slleeping compartment with a random man....or vice-versa. I worked in the travel centre at Guildford for a few months in 1976/77 and the sleeper booking instructions were very specific on that subject.
I agree that berths go empty every night I'd say from my experience around 50% as its very mixed between solo travellers or 2 or more people travelling together in a group. But I genuinely don't think bringing back shared compartments would work even at a discounted rate. I just don't think theirs enough people out their willing to share to make a difference and the ones that travel solo at the minute can clearly afford the high prices so would you be putting them off by having them share now? Thus possibly loosing revenue.Allowing passengers to choose to share with strangers would help to bring in more revenue. A significant proportion of berths must run empty every night.
I get not everyone wants to be possibly sharing with a stranger, but it wouldn't bother me (nothing can be as awkward as the time in Morocco I shared a 4 berth cabin with a young Moroccan couple on their honeymoon
If you fill both berths in a cabin you would have a third more revenue than presently.
Well yeah obviously you would only share with someone of the same sex.
I wonder if a few of the classic compartments could be modified. Remove the door and add some shutters round each bunk similar to the new Nightjet stock. Then there's no issues with sharing as everyone has their own private space.
And if you don't, you'll have a third less. Plus a fat bill to alter the booking system/website to cope with it.
Given the train is often booked out, it would be worth a trial at least, no?
I have another thought why I don't think cali sleeper will bring back shared compartment is their image. I think the way they are marketing the sleeper now its more of a classier experience then it was back in the BR and first scotrail days.
Passengers on a tight budget remain at liberty to share the seated coach.
Quite!
Thats quite a good idea because they could then identify if their was demand for shared rooms. The difference in fare between just booking a classic room for example solo compared to booking it for 2 is about a quater of the price of the first person (obviously ontop of the full cost for the first person) so you would still save i reckon about 30% percentage each. Not something i'd wanna do but im sure their is a market for it. How big that market is i'm yet to be convinced
This is one of the reasons why i think cali sleeper won't go back to having shared rooms, because their imagine has changed and comes across as alot more luxury, i don't know if they would want to be seen as a hostel which is kinda what shared compartments are.
I guess if anyone is serious about getting this evaluated they should raise the matter with an MSP so that it gets put to the Scottish government who are funding the sleeper. Given the rather limited public purse these days it might just be looked at if it could be demonstrated to at least be revenue neutral.
The reservations and ticketing systems still have a "gender" field supported (even in E-Tickets barcodes!) for this exact reason back when CS did allow exactly this. Funny that this came up in conversation the other day and now here too.
Which won't give you a comfortable night's sleep. A shared berth in a sleeper compartment would. Shared sleepers and couchettes are a normal budget option all across Europe (never mind the former USSR where you have entirely open-plan platskartny dormitory carriages as a 3rd class option).
They are supposed to be providing a subsidised public service. If people want luxury then they can book Caledonian Double, providing a budget option doesn't detract from that.
You would reserve bunks exactly as seats are reserved. If you need to make a specific request it would be the same as reserving the priority seats on a daytime train. It's really not a difficult thing, it was done until 2015 on Caledonian Sleeper and (AFAIK) continutes to be the practice on the Night Riviera. It's perfectly normal across Europe.
I have no issues with shared compartments and understand they are providing a public service which should be avaliable to everyone but with the way the company is going i don't see them bringing back shared comparements anytime soon.
Apologies....I didn't express that very well. I was referring to this post:
This was my argument, regardless if the service should be providing budget options (Which i absolutely think they should) it's marketed now as basically a hotel on wheels.
First Class?
