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I'm planning on catching the Caledonian sleeper from London to Perth which arrives at 5:39am. How late can I stay on the train once it has pulled into the station?

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    Before I saw the tag, I was wondering if you intended to take the train from England to Australia! (Or even from Canada to Australia.)
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 0:22

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For London-Perth it looks like you'll have little more than around 5 minutes, from looking at the details. [Update: a link in Andrew's comment seems to confirm 3 minutes].

The excellent Seat61 gives heaps of info on the practicalities of train travel, and has a detailed guide to the Caledonian Sleeper. It confirms:

  • That the segment of the train that goes from London to Perth continues on to Inverness. Perth isn't the end of the line for any segment of the train
  • That the train that arrives in Perth at 5:39am from London arrives at Dunkeld & Birnam, which is the next stop after Perth, at 6:00am

That's a journey time of 21 minutes compared to a normal journey time of 17 minutes, so unless the Sleeper is somehow faster than a normal train, it looks like the maximum extra time they might allow you to get up and get ready is an extra 4 minutes on top of the usual stopping time.

Best plan to be ready or almost ready to disembark at 5:39am.

If you were hoping to sleep in on the train until a more reasonable hour, unfortunately that's only possible on trains arriving in to Edinburgh and Glasgow:

You can remain in your sleeper until 08:00 on arrival at Edinburgh & Glasgow.

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    Live data from yesterday looks like three minutes scheduled, and three minutes in practice as well (they were running late): realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G67162/2016/03/23/advanced
    – Andrew is gone
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 9:32
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    That suggests that the best way to not end up too early in Perth is to take the sleeper to Edinburgh, get off just before 8am, and then take a local train to Perth.
    – pjc50
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 14:48
  • This matches my experience on the train as well. Going the other direction (to London) you'll get some time as well.
    – Joe
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 16:19
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    Unless things have changed greatly, there'll be a knock on the door and a pot of tea to wake you in plenty of time before the stop.
    – user_1818839
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 18:10
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Source: I've been on the sleeper myself a number of times, usually between London and Dundee, which is on the Perth/Aberdeen route.

It very much depends where you're getting off. If you're getting off at an intermediate station, then you will need to be prepared to get off as soon as the train arrives. It stays at each station no longer than any normal train does - usually under a minute. However, you may well be asked by the train's hospitality crew when you get on where you're getting off, and they will come round to rouse people ~30 minutes before their station.

If you're getting off at the terminus, you have slightly longer to get moving as the train is turning round. However, the cleaning crews will want to get on and get through the train quickly so that it can be prepared for the next run, and will not appreciate long stayers!

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