True stories from the Great Railway Disaster

A weekly chronicle of the absurdities caused by the Government's privatisation programme No 1: so you want to book a sleeper?

A passenger trying to travel on the sleeper from Euston to Glasgow telephones Euston to find if there's a free berth on that night's train. Date, January 13, time, 8.30pm, more than two hours before the sleeper is due to leave. The information is not available, it is politely explained, because of "restructuring." This word refers to the break-up of services in May, when the West Coast Main Line division of British Rail will still run the sleepers that remain but the Scotrail division will admins ter the accommodation on board them. Hence a stall to help passengers understand this new complexity has been set up on the Euston concourse. Once the computer list has been handed over on the day of travel, sleeper reservations are taken only at this co ncourse stall. It does not, of course, have a telephone.

Readers with other examples of folly and inconvenience, either present or to come, may send them to the Independent on Sunday in an envelope marked Mad.