On this visit to UK I obtained a railpass as part of my preparations. The experiences on several rail services are very mixed. These are my observations and should not be read beyond this.
Obtaining reservations on LNER are straight forward and user friendly; on GWR everything appears to be a trouble.
My worst experience was on a LNER Edinburgh to Kings Cross service. On arrival at Newcastle the service was promptly cancelled. The reason being an incident further south preventing the relieving driver from arriving. The subsequent efforts to obtain alternatives for continuing the journey can only be described as a frustrating hassle. I will lodge a “delay repay” claim.
Almost as bad was the experience on a GWR service from Paddington to Exeter. The car numbers were not displayed near the doors so how was anyone, particularly a visitor, to know which was their car? On board, the seat reservations had not been changed from those for the previous arriving service. All very customer unfriendly.
Generally, I had no problems using the Pass. Some gateline and onboard staff looked more closely than others but never an issue. A gateline member at Charing Cross did know whether it was valid on South Eastern trains. A Scotrail conductor had never previously seen one and was very interested to inspect it. There were no problems.
I spent a few days at Exeter. It was very clear that the local services are inadequate to meet the demand. Many times during the day the numbers of passengers exceeded capacity on services to Exmouth and also to Paignton. Longer trains would help but increased frequency would also help.
These statistics are by no means exhaustive.
I travelled on a total of over 40 individual services over the month. Train companies included; LNER, South Eastern Trains, Scotrail, Southern Trains, South Western Trains, Cross Country, GWR.
Places visited starting from London included; Aberdeen, Inverness, Kyle of Lochalsh, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gourock, Helensburgh, North Berwick, Folkstone, Dover, Crystal Palace Loop, Portsmouth, Exeter, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Exmouth, Paignton, East Grinstead, Truro, Penzance, St Ives, Falmouth. The final journey was by Heathrow Express from Paddington.
Overall, the system treats passengers badly. Worst of all is the reservations system. Too often I saw too many reserved seats which were unoccupied. The system seems to allocate seats against body panels with little view from windows first. On GWR reservations allocated cannot be changed. There are several better ways of managing reservations.
Obtaining reservations on LNER are straight forward and user friendly; on GWR everything appears to be a trouble.
My worst experience was on a LNER Edinburgh to Kings Cross service. On arrival at Newcastle the service was promptly cancelled. The reason being an incident further south preventing the relieving driver from arriving. The subsequent efforts to obtain alternatives for continuing the journey can only be described as a frustrating hassle. I will lodge a “delay repay” claim.
Almost as bad was the experience on a GWR service from Paddington to Exeter. The car numbers were not displayed near the doors so how was anyone, particularly a visitor, to know which was their car? On board, the seat reservations had not been changed from those for the previous arriving service. All very customer unfriendly.
Generally, I had no problems using the Pass. Some gateline and onboard staff looked more closely than others but never an issue. A gateline member at Charing Cross did know whether it was valid on South Eastern trains. A Scotrail conductor had never previously seen one and was very interested to inspect it. There were no problems.
I spent a few days at Exeter. It was very clear that the local services are inadequate to meet the demand. Many times during the day the numbers of passengers exceeded capacity on services to Exmouth and also to Paignton. Longer trains would help but increased frequency would also help.
These statistics are by no means exhaustive.
I travelled on a total of over 40 individual services over the month. Train companies included; LNER, South Eastern Trains, Scotrail, Southern Trains, South Western Trains, Cross Country, GWR.
Places visited starting from London included; Aberdeen, Inverness, Kyle of Lochalsh, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gourock, Helensburgh, North Berwick, Folkstone, Dover, Crystal Palace Loop, Portsmouth, Exeter, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Exmouth, Paignton, East Grinstead, Truro, Penzance, St Ives, Falmouth. The final journey was by Heathrow Express from Paddington.
Overall, the system treats passengers badly. Worst of all is the reservations system. Too often I saw too many reserved seats which were unoccupied. The system seems to allocate seats against body panels with little view from windows first. On GWR reservations allocated cannot be changed. There are several better ways of managing reservations.