First class on Pendolino

[CallySleeperKid]

I have splashed out (well I wouldn't go that far) on first class for me and my partner from Crewe to London Euston on a Pendolino, for what it cost extra to go first class, then it was well worth it, and I was just wondering if anyone has travelled first class on this route and what you get? think we depart just after 11.30am so we miss out on the breakfast but I gather there is complementary stuff but not really sure what?

Whatever you get, I can't wait for my first trip on a Pendolino, none stop from Crewe to London.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Light bites menu consists of:

One vegetarian cold option & one meat/fish/ etc cold option.

Fresh fruit
Tea cake/ Cherry Bakewell/ Sticky toffee slice. (One of these will be offered each week in September)

Drinks served throughout the journey.

If you're travelling in September, i can specify the food which should be offered to you when u travel, as long as VT follow the menu order.

This week- Smoked Salmon Salad
Cheddar & Beetroot bap
Cherry Bakewell slice

 

[splitfare]

The value you give to the "complimentary stuff" will depend on what other services you have travelled First Class. Breakfast on a Pendolino is good value but I find the rest of the day lacking in value, particularly now that I've experienced the Wrexham and Shropshire all day silver service offering.

 

[monkey]

^^this is off topic, but nice to see another caledonian sleeper fan...

edit: oh and you might be interested in the thread I started a while back>>> http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=26127

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Travelling October 22nd.

My first class experience hasd been limited, EMT Nottingham to London, Cross Country Edinburgh - Derby (evening) and Caledonian Sleeper London - Inverness, nothing out of the ordinary to be honest, but im happy fr a quiet coach, a couple of drinks and no kids screaming! Wrexham and Shropshire is on my list of first class travel to try!

 

[voyagerdude220]

VT are changing the First Class menu rotations (3 different ones in total atm) at the beginning of October, so it'll be a new batch of food being offered by the time you travel.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

Cheers for that, looking forward to trying it out.

 

[voyagerdude220]

No problem, i've just had 800 miles worth of First Class Pendolino's today myself, luckily avoiding the WCML chaos between Rugby and London.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

^^this is off topic, but nice to see another caledonian sleeper fan...

edit: oh and you might be interested in the thread I started a while back>>> http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=26127

Had a quick look at that before but not had chance to go through it all, some of the work done on there looks amazing if you ask me!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

No problem, i've just had 800 miles worth of First Class Pendolino's today myself, luckily avoiding the WCML chaos between Rugby and London.

I have had standard class Northern 158s from Langley Mill to Sheffield and back!

 

[ChrisTheRef]

voyagerdude, can you tell me what they'll have for evening meal on Mon 21/09?

cheerrs

 

[voyagerdude220]

It should be Pendolino menu rotation 2, as that's what was on offer today (with there being 3 different menus being rotated) if so, it should be:

Smoked Salmon Salad
Cheddar & Beetroot bap

-hot-:

Chicken & Asparagus tart
Mixed pepper tart

Cheese & Biscuits
Wild Berry Dessert Pot.

 

[Geezertronic]

No problem, i've just had 800 miles worth of First Class Pendolino's today myself, luckily avoiding the WCML chaos between Rugby and London.

Lucky sod, I was right in the middle of it (vandalism to trackside equipment at Bletchley apparently).

I also like the evening meal, at least you can have a beer if you so desire it

 

[Pumbaa]

Lucky sod, I was right in the middle of it (vandalism to trackside equipment at Bletchley apparently).

I also like the evening meal, at least you can have a beer if you so desire it

Yup so was I; LM did the only thing they know how to do and that was cancel most of their trains!

 

[87015]

Yup so was I; LM did the only thing they know how to do and that was cancel most of their trains!

I don't say this often, but LM were actually quite helpful in my case yesterday They were honouring off-peak tickets on a train which arrived around an hour late at Leighton 0925 ish (first off-peak normally 0932) and this was a fast one so managed arrived at Euston about half an hour earlier than booked. Stormed past eight pendos sitting patiently on the down fast and did notice some unhappy looking punters at Hemel, we did call additionally at Watford to PU there. Although, I did wonder if it was 'official' honouring or just a decent guard...

 

[Pumbaa]

Bloody hell, are you feeling alright? i think that's the first nice thing I've ever seen you say about LM! You probably saw me on the platform too, from what I could ascertain they shoved everything from higher than Tring onto the fasts through to London, leaving us with 2tph all shacks Tring service. Unfortunately, the second set was out of place, so there was a service at around 0845 (the 0705 originally) then the next one South was an hour later. Was not happy standing there, with 6 services passing straight through!

Ah well, it wasn't their *fault* after all...

 

[voyagerdude220]

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update..

VT have only just changed the First Class menus this Wednesday (16/09/09) with the menus which were supposed to start on the first week of this month.

I wrongly assumed that VT had decided to run the old menus until the end of September, because i had been offered them for the first two weeks of this month, but on travelling this Wednesday, the FC host told me that they had only literally changed that morning.

 

[bengolding]

I also noticed the change of menu earlier. Travelled to Wolverhampton earlier with a new Light Bites menu [1]. Selection was far better than the grotesque offerings of late. Returned to Euston on a so-called Evening Meal service. Reasonable portion of Vegetable Curry, but still not as good as the old Primo offerings.

On both occasions, I couldn't help but evesdrop on the First Class hosts continually moaning amongst themselves about new rosters that were introduced last week, which doesn't appear to be going down too well. Any more info?

[1] The First Class Lounge at Wolves is lovely and spacious but really in an inconvenient location on platform 4 where no Euston trains depart from, so it is hardly used. And who thought about putting the relatively new steps at the top of the station? It really is a long walk from ticket office to plat 4 (bulk of fast Birmingham trains), and even worse when the weather is at its worst! Must be one of the worst station layouts I've seen.

 

[ian959]

[1] The First Class Lounge at Wolves is lovely and spacious but really in an inconvenient location on platform 4 where no Euston trains depart from, so it is hardly used. And who thought about putting the relatively new steps at the top of the station? It really is a long walk from ticket office to plat 4 (bulk of fast Birmingham trains), and even worse when the weather is at its worst! Must be one of the worst station layouts I've seen.

Err, every Euston train I have ever caught from Wolverhampton, bar one, has left from platform 4 since it was opened (the odd one left from platform 3). I know some Euston services leave from platform 2 so obviously not every Euston passenger can use the first class lounge but to say platform 4 is not used by Euston trains is plain wrong.

 

[87015]

Err, every Euston train I have ever caught from Wolverhampton, bar one, has left from platform 4 since it was opened (the odd one left from platform 3). I know some Euston services leave from platform 2 so obviously not every Euston passenger can use the first class lounge but to say platform 4 is not used by Euston trains is plain wrong.

All daytime ones seem to go off 2 or 3 since VHF as they no longer run emcars to Oxley due to reduced turnaround time.

I also agree the new footbridge is totally stupidly positioned, don't see why they can't put the majority through 3, especially now they don't have the Walsall unit sitting in the platform for ages. But I think the thinking was the new footbridge could be put in there cheaper and quicker than one positioned anywhere near passenger friendly. No idea why they didn't extend the canopies to at least provide a covered walkway to it though.

 

[bengolding]

It is a bit of a shambles, I'm glad I don't use the station on a daily basis. Even the AM peak trains to London depart from plat 2. Will explain why the FC Lounge is virtually always empty, as VT refuse to allow CrossCountry FC ticket holders entry and the only VT on plat 4 tends to be the hourly Birmingham Voyager.

 

[voyagerdude220]

When i jumped on the 14:45 Wolves to Euston Pendo a few weeks ago, after taking one from Edinburgh, it left from platform 2, with my Edinburgh-Bhm sent into no.3, to allow any passengers wanting connections (i.e. Sandwell & Dudley, International, Cov, Watford) to make it.

 

[bengolding]

The key problem with that Scotland-Birmingham service is that a lot of people change at Wolves onto the xx41 Bournemouth service. Usually a 10 min connection, but based on my limited experience, if the VT is a few minutes late from Crewe, it runs behind the CrossCountry service all the way to Birmingham.

 

[voyagerdude220]

That was my planA on the day of my Preston-Edinburgh-Wolves-Euston-Preston trip, as I was going to take the 14:41 Wolves into Bomo & back to Birmingham, until i did a bit of research using pre-historic LDB data on the connections & thankfully didn't stay with plan A when i was booking my AP singles..

The TM indeed announced between Stafford & Penkridge that the XC Bomo had left in front of us, adding another hour onto the journey for anyone going south of Reading towards Bournemouth.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Enjoyed pie and mash on the way back from Heathrow this evening.

After 9 days living on avocado and nachos, British food was amazing

 

[navin]

Hi Voyagerdude

Please can you tell me what they will be serving on the evening meal service this week? I'm travelling from London to Mcr this Friday (25th).

Thanks

Navin

 

[voyagerdude220]

Hi Navin,

welcome to the forum,

i'm afraid i can't, because i've not actually seen two out of the three new rotations, but i'd be very interested to find out myself.

I hope you enjoy your journey.

 

[bengolding]

Travelled earlier on an 'Evening Meal service', and the options were either the rather nice Vegetable Curry or the Pie and Mash. Dessert options were a small cheesecake or cheese and biscuits.

The rotation changes over on Wednesdays, so it may be a new offering from tomorrow. At least they've got rid of this horrible salad boxes from the Light Bites menu, for the time being at least.

 

[Greenback]

I was on the 1234 ex Manchester yesterday in Coach H. I had a Wensleydale and Carrot chutney roll, plus loads of tea! It was menu 1 according to the literature.

This was my first time ona pendolino, in either class, and I didn't care too much for the small windows, or the fact that I had to lean forward to see out! However, I can't fault the service, it seemed as if I was being offered a drink every five minutes from Stockport to Milton Keynes! I was also offered pretzels and fruit as well as my roll.

My overall impression was that the toilet on board was great, the staff excellent, but the train itself seemed more like an aircraft.

 

[First ScotRail]

What is the light bites menu now? Still Sandwiches? I heard Risotto being mentioned elsewhere...

 

[Greenback]

Yesterday's light bites were either the cheese roll or a coronation chicken roll, with dessert of fruit and a chocolate somehting or other which I didn't have!