TheAdelante Rides the Rails!

[TheAdelante]

Hi.

I like the idea of these trip reports so I thought I’d do my own thread on them. I don’t travel that often outside of weekends really but I have got a weekday trip in January coming up where I’ll be experiencing the First Class on the 390. I might post a review on this thread if I have an interesting journey. I’ve done first class on Virgin Trains East Coast from edinburgh to Inverness on a weekend and enjoyed that so maybe I will do a comparison.

 

[Kite159]

Welcome to the club

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Welcome to the club

Ooh, Kite159, you’ve been doing a lot of Scotland trips recently, what can we expect at Glasgow’s first class lounge?

 

[Kite159]

Ooh, Kite159, you’ve been doing a lot of Scotland trips recently, what can we expect at Glasgow’s first class lounge?

Can't say as I've never been in there. Although IIRC it was just a small area in the corner of the VT travel centre.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Cool, thanks!

 

[TheAdelante]

Welcome to the club

Hi,

Thank you!

 

[185143]

Can't say as I've never been in there. Although IIRC it was just a small area in the corner of the VT travel centre.

The Glasgow VT First Class lounge is rather disappointing-especially when compared to what passengers get at the other end of the line!

Fairly standard in the drinks/snacks offering-the lounge isn't manned as such, the ticket office staff let you in.

There's literally a partition to segregate the lounge from the rest of the ticket office, nothing else.

Had I actually had a First Class ticket rather than being let in to charge my phone so I could meet a friend I may have been quite disappointed!

Though that said, it's got NOTHING on the FC lounge at Liverpool South Parkway during the Lime Street closure! A handful of sofas and a coffee machine under the stairs. That was it.

 

[TheAdelante]

The Glasgow VT First Class lounge is rather disappointing-especially when compared to what passengers get at the other end of the line!

Fairly standard in the drinks/snacks offering-the lounge isn't manned as such, the ticket office staff let you in.

There's literally a partition to segregate the lounge from the rest of the ticket office, nothing else.

Had I actually had a First Class ticket rather than being let in to charge my phone so I could meet a friend I may have been quite disappointed!

Hi. OK, thank you for the information! We will be expecting evening meal service on the train, so I am not too worried about the lounge. I don’t base my trips on what I get to use/have for free!

My twin brother does though...

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Ahem. I can read small print!!

 

[TheAdelante]

Ahem. I can read small print!!

Yes, but it’s true - that’s why your upgrading to first class tomorrow and I’m not - because you’re snobby and I’m not!

Hi,
He we go this is my first trip report.
I transfer by car to Woking where sadly we miss a pair of 159s but we do end up on a pair of 444s so that “softens the blow”. I transferred to Euston on 1995 stock and bought a sandwich from Boots. My brother bought welsh cakes from M&S (he likes them but I think they taste like egg custard tarts dry and ugly sister) and we boarded a horribly smelly and sauna like Virgin Pendolino (why you like them TT-ONR-NRN beats me!) although it was quite funny how Will Farrell spoke in the toilets! That’s new I’m sure!

Birmingham has a good shopping centre, had a good look in Sports Direct for a new jacket and bag. My brother went off to do the Stourbridge shuttle, I stayed in Birmingham and tram bashed !

I took a double 172 to Stratford upon Avon. It stopped EVERYWHERE and took for ages but the traction motor sounds good.

So my thoughts;

444s I’m used to, they are local to me.

390s are so good looking externally, less so internally. The seat was comfortable enough, I’ll be returning on one tomorrow, my brother will be upgrading to first - I won’t as I’m saving up and it is a weekend after all! The smell is bad. The tilt is enjoyable. The windows are nowhere near as small as you’d think. The announcements are VERY ANNOYING though and horrifically cringey.

172s. They need armrests and tables. Then I’ll like them!

If I’m honest though, unlike my brother I more looked forward to the destination than the journey as I don’t like Pendolinos very much, but it was a good day!

The hotel in Stratford is a Hallmark one and very nice. I’d recommend it.

Thanks for reading,

 

[185143]

Yes, but it’s true - that’s why your upgrading to first class tomorrow and I’m not - because you’re snobby and I’m not!

Hi,
He we go this is my first trip report.
I transfer by car to Woking where sadly we miss a pair of 159s but we do end up on a pair of 444s so that “softens the blow”. I transferred to Euston on 1995 stock and bought a sandwich from Boots. My brother bought welsh cakes from M&S (he likes them but I think they taste like egg custard tarts dry and ugly sister) and we boarded a horribly smelly and sauna like Virgin Pendolino (why you like them TT-ONR-NRN beats me!) although it was quite funny how Will Farrell spoke in the toilets! That’s new I’m sure!

Birmingham has a good shopping centre, had a good look in Sports Direct for a new jacket and bag. My brother went off to do the Stourbridge shuttle, I stayed in Birmingham and tram bashed !

I took a double 172 to Stratford upon Avon. It stopped EVERYWHERE and took for ages but the traction motor sounds good.

So my thoughts;

444s I’m used to, they are local to me.

390s are so good looking externally, less so internally. The seat was comfortable enough, I’ll be returning on one tomorrow, my brother will be upgrading to first - I won’t as I’m saving up and it is a weekend after all! The smell is bad. The tilt is enjoyable. The windows are nowhere near as small as you’d think. The announcements are VERY ANNOYING though and horrifically cringey.

172s. They need armrests and tables. Then I’ll like them!

If I’m honest though, unlike my brother I more looked forward to the destination than the journey as I don’t like Pendolinos very much, but it was a good day!

The hotel in Stratford is a Hallmark one and very nice. I’d recommend it.

Thanks for reading,

Sounds like a better day than I've had!

Highlights include being on hold to Arriva Rail North for FOURTY NINE minutes-and then topping off the day by leaving my tablet on an aircraft!

And tomorrow I'm on GTR Southern...

 

[TheAdelante]

Sounds like a better day than I've had!

Highlights include being on hold to Arriva Rail North for FOURTY NINE minutes-and then topping off the day by leaving my tablet on an aircraft!

And tomorrow I'm on GTR Southern...

Ooh, sorry to hear that!

 

[TheAdelante]

Good evening,

I am writing this report six days after the actual event.

So we started the day in Stratford, as part of a mini break for my parents anniversary, Stratford is a very nice town I've been once before and it really is nice. We had lunch at a restaurant there but had to hurry it as the 5:30 train from New St had been cancelled. After my brother and my dad made a load of frantic phone calls (I know that a fast train to London is every twenty minutes so I didn't give one and continued trying to enjoy my meal) My brother wanted to get on a Pendolino so he could upgrade. We don't like Super Voyager first class seats on VT. I don't like Virgin Trains WC very much no matter what unit (to my brothers absolute confusion) so i didn't care which train as long as I had BEAM to make the journey go faster. However, I was told it doesn't work on 221s apart from travel magazines so we all dashed to get the next Stratford train.

An eleven coach pendolino turned up, a table seat was available. Being the snob he is my brother swanned off to first but to my delight (I laughed a lot when he crossly texted to tell me) he got stuck in the rammed vestibule in standard because it was so busy people were blocking the way to first and couldn't move forward or back, plus a load of standing passengers formed behind him and he had to stay there standing outside the toilet until international while myself, sister and parents were enjoying a nice table seat. Ha. I've read his trip report (Rail Days or whatever) and I notice he failed to put that detail in! Serve him right for thinking he's too good for standard!

He did get a mini one facing one table in first at International so went into first class to see what it was like, I couldn't find him at first so ended up keep on walking past these drunk ladies in their late teens or early twenties I think who were cluttering up the vestibule and shouting "Back and forth back and forth! Friends with the first class queens are you?" and another girl said "Ha, I bet his name's Elliott or something!" (It isn't).

First class looked nice, little picnic tray cute. Good for a five pound upgrade.

I went to the shop and got a tea and crisps and that satisfied me.

Anyway, I enjoyed a quiet journey back to Euston, went into Boots and got a sandwich while my brother went to the lounge to get a drink and comically large flapjack, then took tube and train back to Woking.

The day was fun, BEAM worked, the 172 wasn't too uncomfortable and the pendolino didn't stink of urine as usual thankfully.

PS: Then again, I wasn't the one who had to stand outside the toilet so I wouldn't have noticed!

 

[cactustwirly]

Good evening,

I am writing this report six days after the actual event.

So we started the day in Stratford, as part of a mini break for my parents anniversary, Stratford is a very nice town I've been once before and it really is nice. We had lunch at a restaurant there but had to hurry it as the 5:30 train from New St had been cancelled. After my brother and my dad made a load of frantic phone calls (I know that a fast train to London is every twenty minutes so I didn't give one and continued trying to enjoy my meal) My brother wanted to get on a Pendolino so he could upgrade. We don't like Super Voyager first class seats on VT. I don't like Virgin Trains WC very much no matter what unit (to my brothers absolute confusion) so i didn't care which train as long as I had BEAM to make the journey go faster. However, I was told it doesn't work on 221s apart from travel magazines so we all dashed to get the next Stratford train.

An eleven coach pendolino turned up, a table seat was available. Being the snob he is my brother swanned off to first but to my delight (I laughed a lot when he crossly texted to tell me) he got stuck in the rammed vestibule in standard because it was so busy people were blocking the way to first and couldn't move forward or back, plus a load of standing passengers formed behind him and he had to stay there standing outside the toilet until international while myself, sister and parents were enjoying a nice table seat. Ha. I've read his trip report (Rail Days or whatever) and I notice he failed to put that detail in! Serve him right for thinking he's too good for standard!

He did get a mini one facing one table in first at International so went into first class to see what it was like, I couldn't find him at first so ended up keep on walking past these drunk ladies in their late teens or early twenties I think who were cluttering up the vestibule and shouting "Back and forth back and forth! Friends with the first class queens are you?" and another girl said "Ha, I bet his name's Elliott or something!" (It isn't).

First class looked nice, little picnic tray cute. Good for a five pound upgrade.

I went to the shop and got a tea and crisps and that satisfied me.

Anyway, I enjoyed a quiet journey back to Euston, went into Boots and got a sandwich while my brother went to the lounge to get a drink and comically large flapjack, then took tube and train back to Woking.

The day was fun, BEAM worked, the 172 wasn't too uncomfortable and the pendolino didn't stink of urine as usual thankfully.

PS: Then again, I wasn't the one who had to stand outside the toilet so I wouldn't have noticed!

It's good to know that you're more sain than your brother, I'm not a fan of Pendolinos either. HSTs (even the EMT ones) are far superior.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

It's good to know that you're more sain sane than your brother.

What’s that supposed to mean??!!!

 

[TheAdelante]

It's good to know that you're more sain than your brother, I'm not a fan of Pendolinos either. HSTs (even the EMT ones) are far superior.

Haha, don’t worry, no love for Pendolinos here! I haven’t done an EMT HST, I must soon though. My brother and I both dislike the seats. I prefer the GWR ones (he hates them) and he prefers the VTEC style ones. (They’re OK...)

Anyway....


Good morning,

I don’t have photos, it didn’t occur to me to take any. Oops.

But anyway, I planned to go to Bristol yesterday and do a Heart of Wessex Rover, but sadly that didn’t work out because of timings, so TT-ONR-NRN and I decided to go to Reading.

I went from Farnborough Main, he went from Farnborough North. Even though we don’t live actually in Farnborough, it has two good links to Reading. I wanted to win my final units with SWT/SWR, he’s almost finished the 165/166s. I was annoyed to find my XC connection not running at Basingstoke, but I did get on 165129 which took me to Reading. I spent some time at Reading station until about midday, when I took an unidentified Turbo to Oxford and met back up with my brother in Oxford. There he bought a massive 1.25l bottle of Fanta. I got a less stupid, normal sized Americano from the Costa express thing in WHSmith.

I went to Banbury on a pretty much empty 165 whilst he went off to Reading to catch an IET. I hate the things so I steered well clear! Few 168s came in and out, wow those things kick up a racket!

Had to wait ages to get back on a double CrossCountry Voyager service formed of 220017 and 221124. I sat in the Non-Super Voyager as I’ve already been on 221124.

TT-ONR-NRN got on at Oxford after doing a full Oxford-Reading-Didcot-Oxford-Oxford Pkwy-Oxford trip, he told me he was getting in the Super Voyager part as it was pretty much empty. I wish I’d known that because the
NonSuper Voyager I was in was pretty busy!

We took an HST back to Didcot. Grr, what should turn up then but 800005, and to make matter worse it was a single unit and full of football fans! They were quite noisy but I’ll let them off because I think they were Tottenham Hotspur fans like myself.
The seats are disgraceful. DISGRACEFUL. I’d seen pictures before and without even giving them a chance decided to hate them. Theyre even worse than people say! Horrid units. TT-ONR-NRN likes them, for goodness sake why????

We took a HST to Oxford and another back to Reading. Then we took 165104 to Farnborough North.

Good points:
First time going on a double Voyager;
Saw a nice lot of 168s at Banbury;
Got two HST trips in, good because I love the GWR HSTs!
The Americano was very good.
I now prefer Costa to Starbucks!

Bad points:
I was pretty much stranded at Banbury for hours!
I ended up on an IET. Yuck.

That’s it for now

 

[cactustwirly]

I'm glad someone else likes the GWR HSTs as well (my favourite seats!)

I don't find 800s that bad, they're much better than a Voyager or Meridian, although not as good as a HST!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I'm glad someone else likes the GWR HSTs as well (my favourite seats!)

How can they be your favourite seats?!!! They’re awful for long journeys!

 

[185143]

Grammar seats are fantastic! I was still perfectly comfortable after arriving into Inverness on one ex Thurso!

 

[TheAdelante]

OK.

So I've got a load of exam revision so I can't do that many trips but these are the ones planned:

Tomorrow I'll be reviewing South Western Railway's first class en-route to Guildford.

Wednesday 3rd: Zac and I will be reviewing Virgin Trains' first class en-route to Glasgow Central.

I also intend to book a trip with Virgin Trains East Coast in order to review their weekday first class en-route to Newcastle. TT-ONR-NRN and I are currently in the process of seeing if this trip is "do-able".

TT-ONR-NRN also has a number of other trips scheduled including a review of GWR and CrossCountry's first class, but I won't be attending these. These can be found on his thread.

 

[TheAdelante]

Ok. TT-ONR-NRN has at long last provided me with a completed itinerary for the Glasgow trip next week. I can confirm the plan is:

32x ScotRail trains
3x Virgin Pendolinos (all in first)
2x SWR trains
1x Southern train

38x trains in total; as quite a few will likely be in multiple we should get a few winners there! London Buses, London Underground and the Glasgow Subway are all also involved.

 

[DanNCL]

Ok. TT-ONR-NRN has at long last provided me with a completed itinerary for the Glasgow trip next week. I can confirm the plan is:

32x ScotRail trains
3x Virgin Pendolinos (all in first)
2x SWR trains
1x Southern train

38x trains in total; as quite a few will likely be in multiple we should get a few winners there! London Buses, London Underground and the Glasgow Subway are all also involved.

That sounds like a great trip; though you might want to be aware that on many of the ScotRail services formed of two units, you can't get from one unit to the other without getting off and walking down the platform. The 318s, 320s and 334s are definitely like this, and although the 380s are through gangwayed; I'm not sure if passengers are allowed to walk between the units. You can walk through the 156s that work in multiple though

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

That sounds like a great trip; though you might want to be aware that on many of the ScotRail services formed of two units, you can't get from one unit to the other without getting off and walking down the platform. The 318s, 320s and 334s are definitely like this, and although the 380s are through gangwayed; I'm not sure if passengers are allowed to walk between the units. You can walk through the 156s that work in multiple though

Thanks for the tip but we count both units in a Double formation as being travelled on.

 

[DanNCL]

Thanks for the tip but we count both units in a Double formation as being travelled on.

That's cheating!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

That's cheating!

Well cactustwirly told me he does it too, and he’s an expert at trip reporting, sooo! Yeah

 

[TheAdelante]

That's cheating!

Maybe but it’s a lot safer and less risky than what we used to do which was jump off at a station and rejoin!

 

[DanNCL]

Well cactustwirly told me he does it too, and he’s an expert at trip reporting, sooo! Yeah

I suppose that is a valid point; I consider locomotives as traveled on without actually being in the loco!

Maybe but it’s a lot safer and less risky than what we used to do which was jump off at a station and rejoin!

I do it with the Tyne & Wear Metro all the time (it helps knowing which stations the train is going to sit and wait at for a while though! )

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I suppose that is a valid point; I consider locomotives as traveled on without actually being in the loco!

I do it with the Tyne & Wear Metro all the time (it helps knowing which stations the train is going to sit and wait at for a while though! )

Plus if you are travelling in the rear unit of a double train, you are travelling in one unit under the power of another so surely here you can count both?!

 

[DanNCL]

Plus if you are travelling in the rear unit of a double train, you are travelling in one unit under the power of another so surely here you can count both?!

I'd never though of it that way before; but now come to think of it that makes a lot more sense than making a mad dash between units at a station! The only double units that I regularly get to use are on the Tyne & Wear Metro (they're all doubles; though many of pairings haven't changed for more than a year!) Everything else in the North East; Pacers, 156s, 185s, Voyagers* (with a couple of exceptions) are all single units only

 

[cactustwirly]

Well cactustwirly told me he does it too, and he’s an expert at trip reporting, sooo! Yeah

I also cheat at shacks as well