Oh yes they are better nowadays, i used to commute to and from Worcester every day, returning home on a crowded 2 car Sprinter that stank of damp as it staggered up the Lickey Incline is not that found a memory
Hear hear!
I agree. It's never been the same on the WCML since Avanti took over.
Yes! I remember when the first HSTs appeared in GNER livery with the refurbished interiors. Lovely journeys on the Highland mainline, visiting the restaurant car. Classy uniforms on the staff too. I remember non rail enthusiasts at work commenting on how nice it was.
You obviously don't remember the utter fiasco that Virgin was to start with before Chris Green came in and evicted the management "bus bandits". And I bet you don't remember the fiasco of "Operation Princess/Pumpkin" on Cross-Country. For the "legacy" of the abominal Voyager and Pendolino interiors alone, Virgin shouldn't be anywhere near this thread.
+1 for British Rail but for slightly different reasoning:
I was born in 2003.
As somebody who grew up in Sussex in the 2000's, may I ask what you liked about FCC?
First still run the Great Western franchise, of course (for now), they've just switched brands to GWR because too many people just heard 'First' and immediately went 'oh god no'.
I had very little experience of SWT, literally only using them to get to/from the rugby, but I did like the fact that they used their corporate colours well to create differential liveries and the crowd job at Clapham and Twickenham always seemed to be well run.
And yet, on the point of serviceability alone you've always championed Stagecoach East Midlands Trains, who removed almost all of the luggage space from the class 158s serving major university cities.
You might want to check the overhead rack size on the Pendolinos and Voyagers then... and whilst we're on the subject of luggage space and seating, Virgin gave the luggage stacks a prime window seat and left the passengers with blank walls. Design idiocy at its finest.
