All Line Rover awards

[Robinson]

My first post on here, and seeing as I've recently finished a 14 day all line rover (standard class with railcard) I thought I'd give some best/worsts/records.

TOCs I DIDN'T MANAGE TO TRAVEL ON: Heathrow Express, Grand Central, Gatwick Express, Wrexham and Shropshire Railway (also no Southeastern High Speed); other than that I travelled on every TOC.

LONGEST TRIP (DISTANCE): Birmingham New Street to Glasgow Central, 289.6 miles (correct me if that figure is wrong!). (This is the longest distance covered without changing trains; I probably made longer end-to-end journeys with detours and train changes!)

LONGEST TRIP (TIME): Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig, dep. 0907, arr. 1409. (Again, only using times spent on one train between connections.)

BEST TOC: ScotRail (excellent punctuality, catering trolleys provided even on shorter trips, courteous staff and an ample supply of local information).

WORST TOC: First Great Western (every other train late, poor punctuality, extremely variable staff, old and sometimes pretty shabby trains; ironically the very trains they got rid of over reliability concerns - the class 180s - are now performing very solidly indeed for Northern and Hull Trains).

BEST ONBOARD CATERING: Virgin Trains (although I will accept that, had I travelled in first class, I might have come away with very different impressions).

BEST ROLLING STOCK: c2c.

BEST ONBOARD ANNOUNCEMENT: First Hull Trains. Far less aggressive than many East Coast conductors, informative but not long enough to bore us.

MOST IRRITATING PIS: Southern: "Would customers please note this train will divide en route at Horsham. Coaches 1 to 4 will continue to Portsmouth Harbour; coaches 5 to 8 will continue to Bognor Regis. Please make sure you are travelling in the correct part of the train." (pause) "This is coach number 2 of 8." - before AND after every stop before Horsham, and even after we we still given "This is coach number 2 of 4" despite it no longer serving any purpose at all.

MOST POINTLESS ANNOUNCEMENT: Again part of an automated system, this was heard on SWT's 458s: (beep, beep, beep) "The door buttons are now activated. This is..." etc. Why do we need that first sentence, when it's already been made clear that the doors are unlocked?

BEST SURPRISING WORKING: No doubt locals can oblige, but how often do 170s work Norwich to Great Yarmouth?

WORST SURPRISING WORKING: What possible excuse can Northern have for giving us 142s on a Manchester Piccadilly-Crewe service? I got so annoyed at this I waited back for the next one!

BEST LIVERY: I must admit I'm rather fond of the "one" livery which NXEA are now replacing. Fortunately neither the class 90-hauled train I took nor 317669 had yet been repainted, although I then did get an overhauled 321 later on.

 

[Any Permitted]

I feel your pain absolutely about the irritating PIS on Southern.

Living in Great Yarmouth and using that route pretty much every other day I have to say I probably see a 170 about once or twice a month, I used to see them a lot more often but it's almost always 156s now with occasional, irritating 153.

 

[atomicdanny]

I feel your pain absolutely about the irritating PIS on Southern.

Its exactly the same on south eastern (although its not as bad on the routes that I usually travel on, well except for going through the medway towns then its almost non stop PIS )

 

[87031]

I did a 7 day ALR last year and i avoided Virgin Trains completely, i hate Pendolinos and Voyagers.

FGW i found good for punctuality but i suppose they have bad weeks, but overall i rated them.

Scotrail i must agree are excellent and very professional paticuarly the sleepers which are great to travel on.

Best meal i had was on the WAG express plus East Coast was also good or National Expresss at the time but not free.

Grand Central where good as well more so for the fact that it was Valenta powered!

Cross Country i found ok despite them gettin slated all the time...but i only used the HSTs but there was no shortage of complimentrys

I didnt really do mine to compare the Toc's but i found Scotrail excellent right down to the Cleanliness of the stations.

Always good to hear other peoples ALR tales though

 

[Robinson]

87031, I wasn't out there solely to compare TOCs either, just thought I'd put my reflections on.
I suppose it depends which part of FGW you travel on, the 165 and rural branch line services to Looe and Gunnislake I found to be more reliable, the HSTs were the main ones that kept getting delayed.
XC were decent enough when I used them (class 170 working from Birmingham to Ely, which just happened to be one of those "selected services" where the trolley came round; also an HST between Plymouth and Exeter which I only ended up using because the FGW train stalled due to a mechanical fault).
I was going to book the Caledonian Sleeper to Fort William and catch the Mallaig train from there but couldn't get a sleeper reservation anywhere, so had to change plans by heading up to Glasgow the night before then taking the Mallaig train straight through from Queen Street. Grand Central - well it was either them or HT from Doncaster to Kings Cross.

 

[Donny Dave]

BEST SURPRISING WORKING: No doubt locals can oblige, but how often do 170s work Norwich to Great Yarmouth?

Not that often from what I've seen and heard, so when a 170 turned up on the 2040 Norwich - Great Yarmouth last Monday (the 2nd), I was a bit surprised as well.

 

[Any Permitted]

After saying I rarely see 170s I turn up to the railway station and what should I see working the 0555 to Norwich? A 170. 170270 to be precise, it's what I'm sat on as I type.

Typical, eh?

 

[Ivo]

Welcome to the forum, Robinson!

WORST TOC: First Great Western (every other train late, poor punctuality, extremely variable staff, old and sometimes pretty shabby trains; ironically the very trains they got rid of over reliability concerns - the class 180s - are now performing very solidly indeed for Northern and Hull Trains).

Hmm. Now either FGW have decided to transport themselves back in time five years or you got very unlucky! Or, alternatively, you did the sensible and avoided CrossCountry as much as possible.

BEST ROLLING STOCK: c2c.

Hey? What's so great about a 357? Having lived around them between circa 2000 and 2009, I can tell you that they're pretty dreary when you're used to them. 3+2 everywhere, very few tables, toilets that rarely work, no First Class, lousy route (okay, that's not their or AdTranz/Bombadier's fault, but still), and now, lousy voiceover! "No smoking is allowed on any c2c service. This includes toilets and gangways. Coach A on this train is designated The Quiet Coach. Please do not use 'mobile' phones, personal stereos, or other electronic devices which could cause a nuisance." We know that! And what happens when the service has 8 or 12 coaches, and there are multiple A coaches? Not to mention that the new liveries are poor...

MOST IRRITATING PIS: Southern: "Would customers please note this train will divide en route at Horsham. Coaches 1 to 4 will continue to Portsmouth Harbour; coaches 5 to 8 will continue to Bognor Regis. Please make sure you are travelling in the correct part of the train." (pause) "This is coach number 2 of 8." - before AND after every stop before Horsham, and even after we we still given "This is coach number 2 of 4" despite it no longer serving any purpose at all.

For the most part, I agree. I feel that Southern themselves make it worse than the people concerned, which is especially true at Victoria! They make Phil Sayer sound like a dictator!

MOST POINTLESS ANNOUNCEMENT: Again part of an automated system, this was heard on SWT's 458s: (beep, beep, beep) "The door buttons are now activated. This is..." etc. Why do we need that first sentence, when it's already been made clear that the doors are unlocked?

You should have written the whole announcement. Why? The emphasis on the next station is sometimes ridiculous! "The next station is... Earley..." Sounds kinda uninterested. "The next station is... Bracknell!" What? Are they trying to encourage tourism to Bracknell, or something? Or is it because it's a lousy town that no-one likes and SWT need to make people aware that it is there...