Plans for Thurso trip

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Here's where I aim to be for a late lunch on Thursday 21st April.


However, being a bit of a realist, I try to plan what to do if any of the transport fails. So, what are the chances of  a cancelation or being over 15 minutes late? 

According to Office of Rail and Road, Caledonian Sleeper cancelations for the last quarter were 5.7%, not too bad but over the next month I'll be on 4 sleepers so there's approx. 1/5 chance of one of them being cancelled.

ScotRail cancelations currently stand at 3.7%, that's for all their services but a reasonable figure and with 99.2% of those that are not cancelled arriving within 15 minutes of schedule I'm reasonably confident they will cause me no trouble.

At the London end there's no problem on local train or bus as they all run 4 or 6 times an hour.

If the Caledonian Sleeper from Euston to Inverness on Wednesday is cancelled: 
    I'll postpone this trip and re-book for next week or later.

From Inverness the problems grow. 

If the train from Inverness to Thurso on Thursday is cancelled:
    I'll get the next train (over 3 hours later) and stay Thursday night in Thurso. Currently there are two hotels with vacancies within walking distance of the station. 
    I'd also re-book my sleeper for Friday night. They can be heavily booked so I may have to check which other sleeper has a vacancy - Aberdeen or Edinburgh - and get the next train from Inverness to catch that sleeper.

If the train from Thurso to Inverness on Thursday is cancelled:
    it's the last train of the day so it'll be a hotel in Thurso and re-book the sleeper as above.

If the sleeper from Inverness to Euston on Thursday is cancelled:
    (or I miss it because the train from Thurso is very late) I'll either re-book sleeper for Friday as above or stay overnight in Inverness and get the Friday daytime train to Kings Cross.

NEXT:  sleeper-to-inverness

Location: London, UK

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