The Caledonian Sleeper Scotland-London service is canceled after the train has been punctured

Pbadengers on the distressed Caledonian Sleeper train connecting Scotland to London are facing uncertainty following the cancellation of Wednesday night service from Edinburgh and Glasgow to the English capital.

Travelers were told: "Unfortunately, this service was canceled due to damage to the wheels on the train during last night's service."

L & # 39; Independent understands that some of the new cars, as part of a 150 million pound upgrade, suffered "severe punctures" when the emergency brakes were inadvertently activated.

The reserved pbadengers were offered night buses to London.

Steve Howitt, a pbadenger, complained, "You are offering a coach, but you do not know at all where it is time to arrive in London. It would be useful for me to make an informed decision. "

The company replied, "We can not give you a precise arrival time, but considering the traffic, the trip takes about 12 hours by bus with speed restrictions."

The train ride takes less than eight hours. At Euston Station, the arrivals table indicated that the service was "Delayed".

Caledonian Sleeper, part of Serco, canceled the train after the failure of the "Lowlander" train heading north on Tuesday night from London-Euston to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The problems began when the train crossed the north of Warwickshire. The train continued at 15 mph to Stafford Station, where it ended at 5:46 am – "About the time it should have pbaded Lockerbie," as observed the railway writer, Philip Haigh.

The pbadengers were still hundreds of miles south of their destination and some complained about social media treatment.

Frank Fletcher tweeted: "All your staff disappeared when we landed at Stafford."

He also criticized "the total lack of communication when we landed at Stafford, and let all your customers stand in the rain, not knowing what to do or where to go".

The pbadengers were finally transferred by coach to Glasgow, where they arrived at noon. Travelers on their way to Edinburgh were forced to take a separate connecting train to the Scottish capital.

Some chose to stay in Stafford and continue north with Virgin Trains, which accepted the Sleeper tickets.

Jane Davis tweeted"I have been traveling on the old sleeper for over thirty years. Several times a year.

"Some delays, some technical difficulties too, from time to time, especially with the aging of the trains. But never, during my hundreds of trips, the train did not reach its destination. "

Other pbadengers complained of flaws in the en suite bathrooms.

Ryan Flaherty, Managing Director of Caledonian Sleeper, said: "We are working to understand the cause of this problem and we apologize to all concerned."

If a serious underlying problem related to new rolling stock is identified, other trains may need to be decommissioned for modification.

The failure is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Spanish-built train fleet bought to replace the 1980s sleeper cars and a 1970s buffet.

The new rolling stock was scheduled to come into service in the spring of 2018. The launch was first postponed to October 2018, and then delayed another six months.

At the end of April, the inaugural night train trip between Edinburgh and Glasgow and London-London Euston arrived in the English capital 200 minutes late because of Network Rail's problems.

The introduction of new rolling stock on the "Highlander" service between London and Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William was to take place on June 2, but was delayed by five weeks due to rolling stock issues .

Serco called the deployment of new corporate stocks "extremely complex, with many challenges".

Mr. Flaherty said, "We appreciate that guests on the Highland line are not traveling as planned in June, but we believe this decision ensures customers receive the quality service they expect from new trains.

"By the second week of July, our new trains will be operational on all routes."