Latest news with #CaledonianSleeper
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Fraudster conned luxury hotels and retailers out of £580k by selling fake Scottish tea
A man has been found guilty of fraud totalling almost £600,000 after he passed off ordinary tea as a premium product grown in Scotland. Thomas Robinson, 52, claimed the tea was a unique variety he had grown at his Perthshire estate using innovative techniques. Operating as The Wee Tea Plantation, he then fraudulently sold it to high-profile clients in the hospitality sector, including luxury hotels and retailers, between January 2014 and February 2019. Varieties listed on the website - which touted partnerships with train operator Caledonian Sleeper and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh - include Dalreoch White, Silver Needles, Scottish Antlers Tea, and Highland Green. Also known as Tam O'Braan and Thomas O'Brien, Robinson was found to have misled genuine Scottish tea growers by selling them plants he falsely claimed were a unique, locally-grown variety. He also bolstered his credibility by fabricating academic qualifications and industry awards. An investigation by Food Standards Scotland (FSS) found Robinson's misrepresentations led to his clients losing a total of £584,783. He was found guilty of two counts of fraud by a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday, and is due to be sentenced at Stirling Sheriff Court on 25 June. Read more from Scotland: In a statement, Ron McNaughton, head of Scottish food crime and incidents unit at FSS, said: "This was not a victimless crime - individuals, businesses, and an emerging sector of genuine Scottish tea growers suffered real financial and reputational harm as a result of deliberate deception." He then thanked a witness who came forward and added: "Fraud of this nature is often difficult to detect and even harder to prove, but we were determined to pursue every line of inquiry to build the strongest possible case."
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Scotsman
Luxury Hotels Collection is all aboard with Caledonian Sleeper
A new partnership between the Crerar Hotels Collection and Caledonian Sleeper has launched to help holidaymakers elevate their travels from sleeper to suite. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The hotel brand which has a collection of 10 hotels and inns across some of Scotland's most spectacular locations and the Lake District is now an official hotel partner with the luxury overnight sleeper train to offer discounts to those looking to pair an overnight stay on the Caledonian Sleeper before enjoying a stay at a Crerar Hotels property. The Caledonian Sleeper which has two main routes, The Highlander and The Lowlander, connects travellers from London to various places in Scotland including Aberdeen, Inverness, Fort William, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Meanwhile the award-winning hotel group also has connections in many of these areas with hotels such as Fonab Castle in Pitlochry, Dunkeld House Hotel in Perthshire and Golf View Hotel & Spa in Nairn. Guests can also choose onward travel, arriving in Glasgow and continuing on to Oban, which opens up the Inner Hebrides to travellers, most notably the Isle of Mull, visited recently by Kate and William, the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay. The Caledonian Sleeper has two main routes connecting London and Scotland. The new hotel partnership will also see travellers have the opportunity to win travel and a stay at one of Crerar Hotels' properties of their choice whilst the two brands will also begin influencer outreach to showcase Scotland as a world-class place to visit. Alison Macleod, Marketing Director of Crerar Hotels, said: 'We have been speaking with Caledonian Sleeper for some time about how a partnership could unfold however I am excited to finally announce this collaboration. 'It's a perfect fit as we know those looking to staycation in Scotland whether that's Inverness or even the west coast to explore Oban and the isles, are very likely to travel with the Caledonian Sleeper to start their journey and we have a variety of hotels and inns within the same locations. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The Caledonian Sleeper is a great service, so if we can make holidaymakers' lives easier by recommending first-class travel and accommodation with authentic hospitality at our ten locations, then it's a win-win.' The award-winning hotel group also has connections in many of these areas with hotels such as Fonab Castle in Pitlochry. Steven Marshall, Head of Sales and Marketing said: 'We are proud to partner with Crerar Hotels to support the communities along our route and showcase the depth and diversity of Scotland's tourism offering. With the Caledonian Sleeper serving over 40 destinations—from remote Highland villages to idyllic coastal escapes—guests can enjoy a truly distinctive travel experience, relaxing as they journey into the heart of Scotland.
The National
18-05-2025
- The National
There has never been a better time to visit to Paris from Scotland
Well, I've just been back and the French capital is buzzing. I'd actually argue that there has never been a better time to ease to Paris all the way by rail from Scotland. My journey began not at Edinburgh Airport, but at Waverley easing south aboard the Caledonian Sleeper ( It's now a brilliant connection. Wake up in Euston, grab a shower in the lounge and hop along the road to St Pancras. Here Eurostar awaits. It's worth shelling out for a Business Premier seat – I booked mine through Rail Europe ( – as you get a lounge with a smoothie bar before an onboard meal curated by a Michelin chef. The complimentary Champagne Fleury adds a splash of anticipatory joie de vivre too. Parisian hotels are pricey, but not all are quality, with some poor efforts by the big international brands in particular. READ MORE: Beloved Scottish cinema to reopen doors following 'extraordinary' support This time I went for two smaller hotels with a personal touch. Hôtel Filigrane ( on the Grand Boulevards welcomed me like an old friend and handily had a Metro station nearby. It was only a 20-minute walk to Gare du Nord too. The Hôtel Grand Cœur Latin ( is a new Left Bank bolthole with an equally warm welcome. They also have a swish basement pool, with a hammam, that is free for all guests. They have an impressive breakfast spread too that really sets you up for a day of sightseeing. Getting around Paris has got easier of late. The Navigo Easy card lets you load up the €2.50 tickets (valid for two hours) that work on buses, Metro and RER. I always do a lot of walking in Paris too. It's a fairly flat city and my usual day-long sweep from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre Dame takes in many of the main attractions en route, including the Champs-Élysées, Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. Notre Dame has been impressively reborn – to make sure you get in, book a free slot online on the day as soon as you wake up. Don't fall for companies trying to charge you – head to READ MORE: Gillian Martin: We must stop thinking Scotland's safe from climate disaster A great new way of exploring is with Green River Cruises ( Their swish wee electric boats ease the pressure tourism places on the environment, but don't skimp on luxury. You have the use of a whole boat that can take up to 12 guests, with wine bottled by the owners and a plate of charcuterie. It's a glorious experience easing under the landmarks so close to the water with your own captain and your tunes on the stereo. You get the opposite view from the Tour Montparnasse. They've big plans to revamp Paris' tallest building and it will probably end up all gleaming and corporate. For now it's a low-fi joy with a rooftop terrace that boasts the capital's best view. Time your visit for sunset to enjoy the gloaming playing with the Eiffel Tower and the sparkling lightshow that follows after dark. Paris always puts on a great show on the plate too. I discovered three cracking restaurants. Restaurant Margaux is a new venue on the banks of the Seine that gazes towards the Eiffel Tower. Tuck into classics like Burgundy snails and fillet steak with a spiky peppercorn sauce, finishing off with a crème brûlée or tarte tatin. A decent wine list and low-key service complete a winning cocktail. The same owner is behind Biche, just off the Champs-Élysées. Here I savoured a proper French onion soup, followed by Normandy ribeye served on the bone, washed down with a delicious Margaux wine. I met the owner Michel and could feel his passion for serving well-cooked French classics with aplomb. My wildcard eatery was the Chalet des Îles. Take the RER out and cross above the Boulevard Périphérique, to the great green lung of the Bois de Boulogne. You might think I'm leading you on a wild goose chase eking through the woodland on a narrow trail, but then you'll see the lake and the wee boat you catch over and smile, like I did. Take a seat on their terrace feeling a million miles from Paris and enjoy prawn tartare reinvented with a Thai sauce, then a decadent sole meunière. Their raspberry tarts are delicious too. I left Paris after three nights as I always do – desperate to come back to one of the world's truly great cities as soon as possible. The Auld Alliance for me never wavers; only strengthens on each visit. Forget any rumours that Paris is suffering from any post-Olympic dip and jump on the Caledonian Sleeper at a Scottish station soon. You can be in Paris for midday the next day without a stressful flight in sight. See for more information on Paris.
New York Times
18-05-2025
- New York Times
As Europe Speeds By on Rail, America Is Stuck in Traffic
How civilized to catch a train, enjoy a meal on board and then go to bed in a cozy cabin while the moonlit world zips past. Recently, I've boarded sleeper trains in Brussels and disembarked in Vienna; bid 'Gute Nacht' to Munich and 'buongiorno' to Venice. Closer to home, the Caledonian Sleeper shrinks the 400-mile journey between London and Edinburgh to just 40 winks — with supper, a nightcap and breakfast en route. Such journeys are possible on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but the future and fate of night trains in Europe and the United States are set on very different tracks. In 2025, Europe's sleeper train network has been enjoying a renaissance. Revitalized in the age of flygskam (the Swedish word for the feeling of climate guilt associated with the emissions from airline travel), the continent's expanding offering of nocturnal routes aims to compete with short-haul flights on speed, cost, comfort and climate impact. The European Union has plans to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and link all major cities in the bloc. But as Europe embraces the night train, the United States seems to be sleepwalking into a transport dead end, slashing funding for public infrastructure and firing transit workers. Long-distance public transport in America may be heading inexorably toward a binary choice: fast, exclusive and environmentally ruinous or slow, tortuous and run-down. America has long been in thrall to cars, of course. 'Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?' Jack Kerouac asked in 'On the Road.' In 2025 the answer seems to be home, or to the local airport. In President Trump's second term, with many climate commitments and environmental protections already up in smoke, the road ahead seems clear: more gas-guzzling cars, planes and rockets. The national rail system is written off as either irreparably broken (like the long-suffering Amtrak) or a mismanaged white elephant (as with several stalled high-speed rail projects). One reason for this is America's identity as a land of individual freedom, an idea embodied by the mid-20th-century automobile. It's clear that it hasn't served America well. In an April study, 'Does Car Dependence Make People Unsatisfied With Life?' researchers highlighted the correlation between high levels of car dependence and a crash in American drivers' happiness and mental health. Far from freewheeling dream machines, cars now can represent headaches and nightmares — a depressing necessity in a congested land with few alternatives. Yet, rather than invest in ways to help people leave their cars at home, America's typical response to congestion has been to build more lanes and highways. In a nation where cars are king, it's no surprise that more freeways are often portrayed as the only way. New and refurbished rail networks and subway systems would seem an obvious way forward, but rather than investing in such infrastructure, America often opts to spend millions, if not billions, reinventing the wheel with unproven moonshot projects, niche urban merry-go-rounds or bijou supersonic passenger jets. Elon Musk, America's anointed tech guru in chief, is on record enthusing about China's impressive bullet train network while disparaging America's railways as a national embarrassment. This is ironic coming from a man whose now shelved Hyperloop — a theoretical high-speed transportation system — beguiled and distracted a lot of potential investment from tried and tested transit systems across the United States. The secrets to China's fantastically successful matrix of high-speed railways are clear: consistency of vision, courage of conviction, a successful nationwide rollout and, crucially, adequate funding. The only transit system Mr. Musk has built successfully is a series of tunnels beneath Las Vegas through which his Tesla vehicles loop, much like an underground rail service, only, at present, much less efficiently. In both cases, capacity seems laughably limited — a couple of dozen passengers per Hyperloop capsule, sedans of five in rotation. Then there is the current drive to revive supersonic passenger jets. Boom Supersonic, the U.S. company following in the Concorde's contrails, is hoping its 64-seat concept will take off by attempting to circumvent some of the sticking points that grounded its predecessor — namely demand, price, and regulation. Such dreams are attractive for the few who can afford them, while leaving the vast majority in the dust. An exclusive, myopic mind-set prevails. Be it five or 64 seats, such limited capacity won't move America. In the age of billionaires talking up ballistic futures beyond this planet, it's easy to dismiss old and underfunded technologies as systems begging to be superseded. The early railways also had their share of 19th-century tech-bro hype, but they were always built for mass transit. Trains, synonymous with community, connection and shared purpose — the 'traveling coincidence' of Philip Larkin's poem 'The Whitsun Weddings' — allow for chance meetings and brief encounters with fellow travelers. (I should probably declare myself as someone who doesn't drive and enjoys meeting and talking to strangers.) Once the glamorous go-to for travelers rich and poor, trains were a staple of 20th-century culture, woven into the worlds of Agatha Christie's Poirot, Ian Fleming's James Bond and the characters in Alfred Hitchcock films. In 'The 39 Steps,' 'The Lady Vanishes' and 'Strangers on a Train,' Mr. Hitchcock loved a train for its powerful collision of velocity, romance and intrigue, a defined cast of passengers but perils unknown. But once the jet age got underway and travel habits changed, train thrillers ceded to the generally less-satisfying genre of airplane action movies. Meanwhile, American railroads went into a tailspin. In Europe, trains are the old/new answer — old-world comfort married to new, faster rolling stock. The drive between London and Berlin, for example, is about 12 hours. The fastest trains get you there in just under nine hours. Contrast that with the 13-hour drive between New York and Chicago, a trip that takes roughly 20 hours by train. Europeans have sleeper trains because we value the infrastructure, and we are the better for it. The prospect of that kind of commitment for 50 states so reliant on insular cars and planes would be a game changer. However big the United States might be, however divided about the future, revitalized railways offer an alternative way ahead. To streak across the country day or night, to see the nation pass and talk to your fellow citizens and strangers as you go: There's surely no better time for the rediscovery and rebuilding of that American dream.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Telegraph
I spent a year travelling 4,000 miles on UK railways. These are my 10 favourite stations
Charles Dickens once wrote: 'I am never sure of time or place upon a railroad. I can't read, I can't think, I can't sleep – I can only dream. Rattling along in this railway carriage in a state of luxurious confusion, I take it for granted that I am coming from somewhere, and going somewhere else. I know nothing about myself – for anything I know, I may be coming from the Moon.' It was exactly this feeling of disappearing along the tracks that I hoped to capture during my journey of more than 4,000 miles last year around Britain on (many, many) trains. That long trip, 143 rides in all, took me clattering and sliding across Britain from Darlington, across the north of England via the Settle and Carlisle line, around Cumbria, through the old industrial heartlands of the north-west into Wales and down to Penzance in the south-west tip of Cornwall. From there, the tracks wound across the south coast, up the east coast, wiggled southwards through the Midlands, before rolling northwards on the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Aberdeen, followed by an investigation of Scotland by train, and finally returning to where I had started – and trains did too, in 1825 – in County Durham. It was quite a journey, featuring encounters with guards, stationmasters, train drivers, fellow passengers and rail enthusiasts aplenty – many happily proud of the 'trainspotter' tag. Despite the recent controversies over high ticket prices, delays, franchise inadequacies, and – dare one mention – the failure to complete HS2 from London to Manchester, British trains still, usually, ran on time. Surrendering yourself to the tracks was strangely liberating. You can, naturally, only go where the lines lead – and there is a sense of freedom (of happy release) in allowing them to do just that. Currently, there are roughly 10,000 route miles in Britain; not bad, all things considered, even if it's less than half the number of the early 20th century, when routes topped 23,000 miles ahead of the 1960s cutbacks championed by Dr Richard Beeching, the chairman of the British Railways Board at the time. So, even though British trains – with franchises now being re-nationalised – remain in a state of flux, there's plenty of railway out there still waiting to be explored. That's just what I did for my new book Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes from a 4,088-Mile Adventure on 143 Rides, enjoying seeing great swaths of the country from the carriage window and stopping in plenty of wonderful stations along the way. Here are a few of my favourites. 1. York With its enormous curved roof supported by classical columns, York station, dating from 1877, has a graceful elegance. It's Britain's biggest station without ticket hall barriers, creating a pleasing sense of spaciousness. Enjoy a cappuccino in the former signalman's box or something stronger at the jolly platform-side York Tap. The National Railway Museum is close by. 2. Appleby The 73-mile Settle and Carlisle Railway opened in 1876 at great cost, traversing rugged moorland and requiring 14 tunnels and 22 viaducts. The route features many charming, quaint-looking stations, of which Appleby's is perhaps the pick. Expect gingerbread-house-style platform buildings with gables, smart burgundy-coloured doors, old-fashioned lanterns, plus a great little bookshop that's a rail enthusiast's dream. 3. Dalmeny Simple, sleepy Dalmeny station – eight miles west of Edinburgh – is on the southern side of the dramatic Forth Bridge spanning the Firth of Forth. From its platforms you can see the cranberry-red metal cantilevered structure rising ahead, gaining a close-up appreciation of the audacity of the 1889 engineering feat. Disembark for an even better shore-side view. 4. Blaenau Ffestiniog This station in Gwynedd is a mainline terminus from the north coast, and also where you can join the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highlands, a heritage railway featuring narrow-gauge steam trains linking to Porthmadog. It's tucked away in the hills, at 709ft, between former slate quarries with steep slopes. There's a strange sensation of pulling into a secretive 'Welsh Alps'. 5. Penzance It's no particular 'beauty' – a hulk of a shed with high (slightly mouldy-looking) walls and a rudimentary arched roof – but Penzance station is nevertheless a treat. This is Britain's most southerly station, a terminus that linked with London in 1859. A salty breeze crosses the tracks from the nearby shore, with the striking, pyramid-shaped St Michael's Mount rising beyond. 6. Hull Paragon This station is higgledy-piggledy with a wonderful old part dating from 1848 featuring neo-classical columns and original fittings. By the platforms is a splendid statue of Hull's famous 20th-century resident poet, Philip Larkin, pictured as though rushing to catch a train. It's inscribed with lines from his evocative train-themed poem The Whitsun Weddings. 7. Ryde Pier Head The Portsmouth ferry deposits you at Ryde's pier and Ryde Pier Head station. This is a curious, rickety-looking affair offering Island Line services along the 2,200ft pier in former London Underground carriages. The 8½-mile railway runs to the east coast seaside resort of Shanklin, from where you can purchase a 'ticket to Ryde' back. 8. Edale Edale station is halfway along the 40-mile Hope Valley trans-Pennine railway between Manchester and Sheffield. Enjoy wonderful hill and moorland views from its platforms, including the summit of Mam Tor, the big local attraction. The superb platform-side Penny Pot Café offers excellent granola bars and coffees, with a pleasant back garden, folksy music and poetry lining the walls. 9. London St Pancras Before the Eurostar trains to Europe, London St Pancras International station was simply St Pancras station. It dates from 1868 and features a marvellous single-span roof designed by William Henry Barlow (known as 'Barlow's Shed'). The glorious, gothic St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel is by George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1873 – with a great cocktail bar these days. 10. Okehampton This station in Devon reopened in 2021 at the end of a restored 15-mile line from Exeter. Expect a cosy, well-run café, a railway-themed bookshop, glossy green décor, vintage railway posters and hiking trails leading to Dartmoor National Park. The line's success has put wind in the sails of 'Restoring Your Railway' national plans for re-establishing rural railways.
