London - Edinburgh

[penaltyfines]

Hi,

I'm looking to travel to Edinburgh in July out on a Wed/Thu and return on Fri/Sat, some questions for anyone familiar with this route:

- I understand you can travel with Virgin Trains via Glasgow, or with East Coast direct. We may travel first class, can anyone recommend which TOC would be better in terms of offering?
- Somewhat related to the above, I have heard East Coast will be upping their First Class offering. We may travel First Class out, and Standard on the return, or vice versa, if a breakfast/dinner service respectively were available. Does anyone know what this offering may be, and on what sort of time trains?

Thanks
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just spotted this, which probably covers point two!

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=44279

 

[rail-britain]

First Class London to Edinburgh, my preference would depend on time of day

Virgin Trains currently offer meals as part of the fare, so for an extra few pounds this is my preference
However, once East Coast introduce their meals there will be little difference
Therefore for Edinburgh I would use East Coast

 

[penaltyfines]

I was thinking about outward 08:00-12:25, return 18:30-23:36. Could anyone confirm that the outward would serve breakfast? are the 'selected trains' for dinner published yet?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ainsworth74]

Yes you will get breakfast on the outbound train (all trains will serve breakfast) and it will offer a full english. No you won't get dinner on the southbound train but instead the 'all day' offer which does include a hot meal option anyway. The timetable which includes shading to indicate what offer will be served can be found here.

 

[penaltyfines]

Looks like they dont serve dinner on any southbound evening services - what a cop out! lol

Would both those services be hauled by 225s or could they be HSTs?

 

[paul1609]

Looks like they dont serve dinner on any southbound evening services - what a cop out! lol

Would both those services be hauled by 225s or could they be HSTs?

A pretty disapointing timetable for London to Scotland travellers Easyjet and Co will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Still for some reason trying to offer a local service in Yorkshire.
Still no late services back from Edinburgh.
Sorry but journey times of 4h30 to 4 h55 are just not good enough, roll on the next franchise.

 

[swt_passenger]

Would both those services be hauled by 225s or could they be HSTs?

It used to state traction type clearly in the timetable - but they seem to have dropped it... :roll:

 

[rail-britain]

Would both those services be hauled by 225s or could they be HSTs?

Basically if the service is to/from Aberdeen or Inverness it will be HST
If it is Edinburgh then it is most likely to be 225

Also note that breakfast is limited to trains departing London before 10:00

Experience also shows that cheaper fares on the Aberdeen / Inverness services go very quickly

 

[ainsworth74]

Would both those services be hauled by 225s or could they be HSTs?

The timetables which can be found here still show what traction is being used on which service. In your case both are being run by 225s.

Also note that breakfast is limited to trains departing London before 10:00

That not quite correct. All services before 09.30 will offer breakfast which includes a full english option. All services between 09:30 and 11:00 will offer a lighter choice of breakfast (basically a similar offer to the early breakfast but without the full english).

 

[John @ home]

roll on the next franchise.

The timetable for the next franchise will be specified. The franchise holder will have limited opportunity to change it.

 

[rail-britain]

The timetable for the next franchise will be specified. The franchise holder will have limited opportunity to change it.

With so many restrictions it is no wonder that the number of companies interested is falling, and if they are interested they make unrealistic requirements
I suspect they are forcing the hand of DfT; make it profitable or it is not worthwhile
It seems the only input a company will have is the menu to First Class customers (on a day to day basis), and the uniform

 

[All Line Rover]

Looks like they dont serve dinner on any southbound evening services - what a cop out! lol

East Coast aren't going to serve dinner on southbound evening trains, as they are usually very quiet. It would be a waste of money to hire a chef for those services. Only selected northbound services (i.e. the most busy) will be evening meal services.

Virgin serve an evening meal on all of their southbound services, and it's very nice, particularly on Pendolino's, as there is usually only a handful of people (and yet lots of staff) so it's quiet and the service is very efficient.

I can't imagine it being profitable, though, which is why East Coast have not decided to do this.

 

[ainsworth74]

East Coast aren't going to serve dinner on southbound evening trains, as they are usually very quiet.

Indeed I was on the 16:30 EDB - KGX a couple of weeks ago and in the time that I was on board (as far as Darlington) the restaurant served only 5 people (including me!). It was very nice and the crew certainly were able to be attentive but still they must have haemorrhaged money on that service.

 

[All Line Rover]

That not quite correct. All services before 09.30 will offer breakfast which includes a full english option. All services between 09:30 and 11:00 will offer a lighter choice of breakfast (basically a similar offer to the early breakfast but without the full english).

That's not as good as Virgin, because Virgin serve the full offering until 10am. Also, on East Coast services departing the origin station before 9:30am, the offer will change to the "light breakfast" at intermediate stations after 9:30am. By contrast, all of Virgin's services which depart the origin station before 10am continue to serve the full breakfast at all intermediate stations (which are highlighted in the timetable), even though it may be after 10am.

Although East Coast have released few details about the "light breakfast", I can imagine it being much better than Virgin's pathetic "breakfast rolls."