AllLineRover
Member
- Joined
- 2 Aug 2018
- Messages
- 6
Day One: Having tried the Trans Siberian, Ghan, Shinkansen etc I thought I’d have a post retirement trip closer to home. So I bought an first all lines seven day Rover. Five hundred quid for us oldies, and a chance to see the GB landscape in comfort and some great Victorian engineering.
Starting at Chester this morning and with Plymouth the day’s destination, I planned to bail out at Newport and then to Reading to try out the Pullman GWR service heading towards the West Country. It has a great on-line advert promising freshly cooked food but it didn’t turn out quite like that.
The 7:15 WG special to Cardiff was cancelled in favour of a 175. Not fancying crisps for breakfast I jumped on a Virgin
who subsequently cooked me bacon and eggs. A brisk walk along the Euston Road and thence to Paddington. I had a lunch reservation on the advertised 12:30 Pullman but apart from the staff wearing Pullman badges it was nothing but coke and crisps again. Two long distance journeys on heavily promoted flagship first class services, but nothing delivered.
One of the potential joys of train travel is eating while the World slips by. Of course It’s a #firstworldproblem compared with the poor folks fighting their way into London or Manchester to work on unreliable, chaotic services and, to be fair, the on train staff were apologetic but it’s been an eye opener as my U.K. rail travel tends to be confined to Virgin advance runs to Euston.
Dawlish and Teignmouth were pretty enough as we passed by though
Starting at Chester this morning and with Plymouth the day’s destination, I planned to bail out at Newport and then to Reading to try out the Pullman GWR service heading towards the West Country. It has a great on-line advert promising freshly cooked food but it didn’t turn out quite like that.
The 7:15 WG special to Cardiff was cancelled in favour of a 175. Not fancying crisps for breakfast I jumped on a Virgin
who subsequently cooked me bacon and eggs. A brisk walk along the Euston Road and thence to Paddington. I had a lunch reservation on the advertised 12:30 Pullman but apart from the staff wearing Pullman badges it was nothing but coke and crisps again. Two long distance journeys on heavily promoted flagship first class services, but nothing delivered.One of the potential joys of train travel is eating while the World slips by. Of course It’s a #firstworldproblem compared with the poor folks fighting their way into London or Manchester to work on unreliable, chaotic services and, to be fair, the on train staff were apologetic but it’s been an eye opener as my U.K. rail travel tends to be confined to Virgin advance runs to Euston.
Dawlish and Teignmouth were pretty enough as we passed by though
