Part of the apparent discrepancy may be down to a change of route.   After leaving Taunton it was scheduled to go via Box and Swindon but instead went up the Berks & Hants line.

When it passed Cogload Junction it was 194 minutes late.  By the time it got back on route west of Reading it had reigned that in to 157 minutes late. 

As the service was replaced by a five car IET at Taunton, it also saved 20 minutes with the Reading stop as it didn't pause to attach the second loco to the rear.

 

A rude awakening indeed!

 
I hope that they were all l;eft in their cabins until the IET was ready & waiting at TAU?

 
It seems that the train was declared a failure at Taunton where it had arrived at 01.38. An 802 IET was sent from Exeter to continue the service leaving Taunton at 05.05.

 

That's a result of timing the run at a sedate pace to allow sleep. Of course, once late, the train can & does go faster & catch up.

I'm sure it was 200 late when that warning was posted - why would it not be?
Lumo even post that their delays can be caught up further down/up the line.....

 

"Only" 2 hours late 

 

Goodness - how the information system is so wonderful at getting it wrong.   Due into Paddington at 05:07, actually in at 07:04 - only 117 late - and for many passengers, I suspect that's a far better arrival time anyway.  And - question - how does delay/repay work with the sleeper - fare, berth fees, ...

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07

13/02/26 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07 is being delayed at Taunton and is now expected to be 200 minutes late.

This is due to a fault on this train.

 

Point taken: you have now been added as an honourable member of our club, II.

 

An honour indeed. I will try not to let it go to my head.

 

II think that's a good idea. {hint}

 

With thanks for your post, TonyK, I noted your use of 'TG' as an abbreviation. There is absolutely no problem with that - other than that it might puzzle a new reader of the Coffee Shop forum.

I have therefore added 'TG' as one of the expanded definitions in our 'Abbreviation page' - welcome to that, TaplowGreen!

(I am also defined there, lest 'CfN' be confused with the code for Clifton Down station. )

 
From the Mirror via MSN today:


Network Rail are looking into it, but no Night Sleeper tonight.

Edit: Just spotted TG's earlier message.

 
The Penzance bound sleeper was somewhat understandably 75 minutes late into Penzance. The London bound was at one point in the journey that late but made up a lot of the time to arrive 30 mins late.

 
Time stamp on Journey check for the revised 21.15 service as posted above was 15.58.

 

So this changed?

 
The up sleeper is running, just earlier:

21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 04:34
Additional 21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 04:34 will be diverted between Exeter St Davids and Castle Cary.
It will no longer call at Taunton.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 25 minutes late.
This is due to flooding.

 
So tonight's down servce will need to return ECS to provide the same service on Thursday?

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be diverted between Castle Cary and Exeter St Davids.
It will no longer call at Taunton.
This is due to flooding.


Wed, 28 January 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04
28/01/26 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.

Wed, 28 January 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
28/01/26 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to severe weather.

 
2345 will now run to Exeter only (no sleeper berths as sleeper hosts probably told to pass back from Paddington this morning instead of lodging)

 

 

 

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:09
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:09 will be cancelled.
This is due to forecasted severe weather.

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to forecasted severe weather.

 
No Sleeper either way tonight due to bad weather forecasted for Dawlish.

 
Shocking performance - I hope all concerned get a full refund.

23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

18/01/26 23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 is being delayed between Reading and Exeter St Davids and is now expected to be 1 minute late.

This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

 
Well that's gotten to the bottom of that then.   

 
To be fair, I do prefer 'forecast', but I won't refuse to acknowledge 'forecasted' as a word.

 
SWR use forecast rather than forecasted in their Journeycheck entries.

 
I asked AI - forecast or forecasted?

 

Past Participle of "To Forecast", surely?

"The Met Office forecasted a plague of frogs yesterday"

 
Grammarist says it is.

 
I’m still not sure forecasted is an actual word. 

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be cancelled.
This is due to forecasted severe weather.

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be cancelled.
This is due to forecasted severe weather

 
  Anybody know why GWR have chosen not to operate the sleeper 21st /22nd /23rd December this year ?

 

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
Facilities on the 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55.
Will be formed of 5 coaches.

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be started from Plymouth.
It will no longer call at Penzance, St Erth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Par, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard.
This is due to a fault with the signalling system.

Additional Information
Owing to a signalling fault we are unable to operate this evenings Sleeper service between Penzance and London Paddington.

We have arranged for this service to be operated by one of our regular Intercity Express Trains, starting from Truro, which will offer a Standard and First Class seating service only. There will be no accommodation facilities.

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be terminated at Plymouth.

It will no longer call at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.

This is due to flooding.

 

Flooding at Marazion has resulted in cancelled and delayed services to/from Penzance.
Has taken out the St Ives branch, and one of the two Falmouth branch trains.
Newquay branch also suspended by flooding (not connected to thee Penzance issue).

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

09/12/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 was terminated at Truro.

It will no longer call at Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to flooding.

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be started from Plymouth.
It will no longer call at Penzance, St Erth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Par, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard.
This is due to a fault on this train.

Additional Information
Where possible customers are advised to travel to Plymouth on an earlier service, where the over night train to Reading and London Paddington will be waiting.

 

Wheel flats on the loco. 

 
Loco issues, or carriage issues?

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be terminated at Plymouth.

It will no longer call at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be starting late from Penzance.

This is due to the train driver being taken ill.

Additional Information
Due to a resourcing issue we are unable to operate this evenings Sleeper service between London Paddington and Penzance / Penzance and London Paddington.

We have arranged for this service to be operated by one of our regular Intercity Express Trains which will offer a Standard and First Class seating service only. There will be no accommodation facilities.

 
One of the sleeper sets is now on its way from Reading to Penzance ready for tonight's up service.

 
In addition to TG post.
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
01/09/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 is now running as scheduled.
Will be formed of 9 coaches.
Additional Facilities Information
The train for Night Riviera has broken down so we have arranged for one of our Intercity Express Trains to run instead which has Standard and First Class seating. There will be no accommodation facilities.

 
A rude awakening!



21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04
01/09/25 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be terminated at Reading.
It will no longer call at London Paddington.
It has been previously delayed and is now 11 minutes late from Totnes.
This is due to a broken down train.

 

Efficient station work at Taunton and Exeter St Davids has reduced the delay to just under 40 minutes, on what (it must be said) is a generously slack set of timings that would lead to all sorts of questions if they were applied daytime.  Imagine the Day Riviera train leaving Paddington at 11:45 and arriving into Penzance at 19:55.

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

26/08/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 has been delayed at Bristol Temple Meads and is now 126 minutes late.

This is due to an obstruction on the track.

 

......I thought it was "pick up only" at Reading?

Either way, if you are correct I can't imagine trying to enforce that would have been a particularly bright move, given that it was most likely the last option for many to get home following the end of the Reading festival, may have got a bit unpleasant on the platform!

 
Officially it shouldn’t pick up anyone at Reading. 

 

I would imagine that a full-and-standing train from Reading at that time of day would drop off far more people than in picked up at intermediate stations ... so that by the time it got into deepest Cornwall it would not be as crammed.

"And standing" ... I suspect that people who found themselves standing off Reading might have bedded   /sat down in doorways and corridors and no longer been standing?

Did the Reading Festival or something end last night causing this major westward flow late in the evening?

 

The slightly earlier entry stated that it WAS full and standing from Reading.............did everyone sit down?

 
Unusual entry on Journeycheck (seen 09:32 this bank holiday Monday morning):

 
With apologies for all the ads/popups, an account of a travel writers experience on the Sleeper......

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/mans-overnight-train-journey-cornwall-10428076?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMNXKFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHuLJ0-8sOex9Dbin-TChxbXuWWCpdWzF7FLm51CAZQnJnPLsHFYbnfuggofs_aem_GFbO_JEQe2C5RZzhZdQfzQ#Echobox=1755272458

 

Having spoken to someone who has endured that experience (all the way to Penzance), those cost conscious people will be spending the following day feeling somewhat akin to your Forum name.

 
Perfectly understandable - would imagine 98% of people that plan to use a Friday night Sleeper to Cornwall in August have booked weeks ago at a much lower price. Those very cost conscious have the option of travelling in the seated coaches of course.

 

.......and so has subsidy presumably.

 

Like so many things, over the years quality and expectations have risen and so have prices.  Some of the continental sleepers remain at six beds per cabin.  And part of the financial model is (or should be) the cost of replacement of the rolling stock every "n" years.

 
And to be clear that £199 is just for the cabin.  There is the travel ticket to pay for on top of that. 

 
Personally, I don't have a spare £199 lying around. 

 
Friday night's (25th July) down sleeper still has vacant berths (as does Friday night next week) - do you think GWR pricing has reduced demand ? Or is it lower holiday demand in Cornwall this year ? The price for a single cabin is £199

 

Depends on what they use to assist it after it’s failed!!!   

 
Thought so  .

 

Much longer than that!

 
Platform 3 at Reading is 125m, how long is the sleeper nowadays?

 
Would the sleeper fit (including the inwards loco)?

 

6.35

 
How long is platform 3 in terms of coach-lengths?

 

That's not quite what I was suggesting though ... the suggestion was for the sleeper services to terminate and stay resident in a quieter platform for a number of hours ... platform 3 may not be needed for reversal of Cross County trains until (?) what time for example, and in the evening to start from there.

 

Unless you are a very dedicated Janner, you might say the same about Plymouth on the down!

 

In the case of the Up sleeper I'm not sure being dumped off at Reading at 0430 and having to wait for services to start up in order to get to Paddington would really be a very attractive prospect?

 

In various other bits of research I'm doing, it's not unheard of for a sleeper service to terminate / start somewhere on the outskirts of a city, with passengers transferring in or out via other public transport in the area. Most notable is Halkali which is a ride of about 45 minutes into / out from Istanbul.    Perhaps it allows rather more space to be provided for / and for a longer load / unload time at a station that's out of town rather that resource hogging in the centre at the start / end of each day?  I am very tempted - and awaiting howls of protest - to suggest that Stirling might be an excellent hub for the Scottish sleepers, though still providing through carriages that call there during the night to/from far flung places such as Fort William, Inverness, Oban and Aberdeen.

 
Given the above and the reason given on Journeycheck as “a problem under investigation” I have visions of someone walking round Reading Traincare Depot scratching their head and saying “I’m sure there was a class 57 here somewhere.”

 

There is no loco at Reading to work the empty sleeper set into Paddington, the same reason the sleeper terminated at Reading in the morning.

Last nights up sleeper from Penzance has a 57 on the rear to resolve that issue

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be started from Reading.

It will no longer call at London Paddington.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

 
It was a late night too.  Service started behind schedule from Penzance as crew were delayed getting to the train due to yesterday’s problems. 

 
Up sleeper terminated at Reading this morning, a rude awakening for all concerned.

Reports suggest the loco failed.

 

Totally agree.

 

True, but that's not much consolation for those hanging around at intermediate stations in Cornwall and Devon for a couple of hours at that time of night waiting for it to arrive - remember the customers Graham?

 

It started 111 minutes late ... on such an easy schedule that it has just passed Slough only 16 minutes late.  It's now around 05:00 in the UK, due in to Paddington in 4 minutes. Journeycheck is still forecasting an 06:58 arrival, and real time trains 05:18

 

The crew travelling down to Penzance were heavily delayed because the lines outside Plymouth were shut because a driver reported striking two individuals on the track.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/emergency-services-respond-railway-incident-10323460

 
21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04

21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:04 will be starting late from Penzance and is expected to be 60 minutes late.

This is due to the train making extra stops because of service disruption.

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54

27/06/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54 was terminated at Plymouth.

It will no longer call at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to a broken down train.

 

It failed the night before as well, I believe it was terminated at Plymouth
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:P08204/2025-06-18#allox_id=0

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07
19/06/25 21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07 has been delayed at Penzance and is now 130 minutes late.
This is due to a fault on this train

Currently left Reading 84 minutes late (having left Newton Abbot 143 minutes down)

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55

23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 will be terminated at Bodmin Parkway.
It will no longer call at Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.
This is due to a fault on this train.

 

In the end it went to Laira, Plymouth, for repairs.   Due to head to Penzance this afternoon.

 
Looks like set GW08 43156/43186 was used for the rescue, as 2C00 was cancelled and 2E06 was partially cancelled.

 

Looking at RTT, it was a 3 carriage train from London to Exeter!

 

What are they going to do without "Thunderbird" Castles?? 

 
Sleeper loco suffered a fuel leak.   Now been rescued by a Castle Class set and on its way, empty, to Long Rock in Penzance.

 
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55
27/05/25 23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:55 was terminated at Exeter St Davids.

It will no longer call at Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth and Penzance.

This is due to a fault on this train.

.....all lines currently blocked at Exeter St Davids as a result.

 

My highlighting. Oh dear ... the use of the words "attempt to" doesn't fill one with confidence!

 

Must have been a pretty unpleasant experience all round...........and I suspect is responsible for this......

07:10 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:29
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington due 12:29 will be started from Plymouth.
It will no longer call at Penzance, St Erth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Par, Lostwithiel, Bodmin Parkway, Liskeard, St Germans and Saltash.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Will be formed of 5 coaches instead of 10.

 
Looks like a 5 car IET left Penzance around midnight and arrived in Paddington 0515

 
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:07 has been cancelled.


This is due to a fault on this train.

Further Information
Sadly, the 21.45 Penzance to London Paddington service is broken down near Penzance. Maintenance are on route to attempt to fix this train. ETA 23.00 at Penzance.
-
Passengers who do not need to travel this evening can attempt to travel tomorrow. Tickets will be honoured.
-
Road transport has not been organised. Transport in the area is extremely limited at this time of the evening.
-

 

Can't complain too much as it was only 8 minutes late arriving at London Paddington!

 
Not a good week for the Up sleeper.

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:08

21:45 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:08 has been delayed at Penzance and is now 61 minutes late.

This is due to a fault on this train.

 

Given the economics of sleeper services would it be justified to modify their delay repay conditions?

It's awkward as some may be heading for onward connections and need that early arrival time - but their needs may be better met by them having travel insurance to cover disruption, which might meet the actual costs they may incur.

The Paddington arrival being ~05:04 and cabins to be vacated by 06:45, if GWR honours delay repay on the basis of that 5:04 arrival there must be many many travellers who'd regard anything before a 6:45 arrival as meeting their needs (and quite a few who'd be fine with 8am but of course Paddington needs the platform...) If, on the occasion that the service arrives an hour down, GWR are meeting a lot of delay repay claims on the basis of that 5:04 arrival it might be that they're compensating some for the hour or more that they'd have spent snoozing anyway.

More relaxed arrangements for delay repay on sleeper services might be for the general good as long as the railway doesn't then regard itself as deincentivised to run the services to time - but again, the avoidable costs involved in tying up a platform in the morning peak should address that.

Mark

 

Not many.

In fact with delay repay I expect most would be pretty happy.

Not ideal for passengers joining at stations enroute of course, but hopefully they would all be understanding of the reason.