Bagpipe welcome for Wigan's luxury train journey to Edinburgh

A tratan-clad piper will play a sad lament at Wigan’s North Western Station next Thursday (August 20) before Britain’s poshest train sets off for Edinburgh.

Red carpets will be laid across the platform as passengers board the 1930s Pullman-style Northern Belle.

Then liveried stewards will hand them their first glass of champagne before they tuck into a slap-up breakfast during the journey to Scotland.

Tickets for the trip – with the option of visiting the late Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Yacht Britannia – have sold out despite costing between £500 and £750.

A spokesman said: “Edinburgh is always one of our favourite destinations, especially when the Fringe Festival is happening all over the city.

“But we do still have a few places left on two other trips to the Scottish capital from Preston on August 29 and September .

“And it is always worth trying our booking office in the hope of some last-minute cancellations.”

On the way home in the evening, passengers will be served more champagne followed by a sumptuous six-course gourmet dinner, with caviar, wine and port.

The spokesman added: “We won’t just be taking them to Edinburgh, we will be transporting them back to the golden days of rail travel when nothing was too good for the pampered passenger.”

Actor Bill Nighy described the Northern Belle as “the Grand Dame of luxury travel” when it featured on a Channel 5 documentary.

And last year, it was voted the world’s fifth greatest train by readers of the prestigious Condé Nast Traveller magazine.

For further details about the train, see www.northernbelle.co.uk