Train travel

[MrSwerve]

Bit of a miserable experience these days, innit. Came back from Paddington yesterday, every single seat, bar 5 of them, were taken as we left the station (announced over the loudspeaker). Lots of people standing. Lots of people sitting in seats that were booked but people had no idea which ones were booked due to those rubbish new ‘booking screens’ at each row on the new Hitachi trains being off.

Speaking of the new trains, I’ve found it hard to warm to them since their introduction. Rock solid uncomfortable seats compared to the old HSTs, no buffet car (replaced by a trolley system that you’ll be lucky to see once if at all between London and Swansea, especially if there are people standing in the aisles) and the first class is an absolute joke of a product labelled as such. The old first class on the HSTs knock spots off it.

I always remember train journeys to London having a bit of excitement, but not any more.

 

[Cooperman]

I can’t argue with that. Whoever signed that seat design off needs a talking to and three hours in one of those makes for an uncomfortable experience. Punctuality has also dropped off recently and I’m on a bit of a streak for reclaiming part of ticket cost. Saying all that it still beats commute by car.

 

[legoman]

The cost of long distance train travel is a joke. Last time I looked a return from London to Swansea was £125. I'd I can't drive to Swansea for whatever reason, I use the coach service at usually around £30. Its a no brainer.

 

[Longlostjack]

Always enjoyed a bit of banter in the buffet car back in the day.

 

[Glyn1]

That's what happens when you nationalize the trains. Just not nationalized by us.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1559944313055989761

 

[Dr. Winston]

The cost of long distance train travel is a joke. Last time I looked a return from London to Swansea was £125. I'd I can't drive to Swansea for whatever reason, I use the coach service at usually around £30. Its a no brainer.

Book far enough in advance and you can do London and back for £60. Cheaper than driving for one person, and much quicker and more convenient than going by bus.

If there's more than one person going then you're probably better off parking somewhere like Watford and getting the Tube in.

 

[dickythorpe]

Always poor behaviour on trains in my opinion.
Plus always one roid head , pot head or piss head makiing people uncomfortable.
Reserving tickets is a joke.
Staff shit out when it's busy, full of bravado when nearly empty.
Can't do more than a certain mph due to no investment or upgrade of tracks or trains

Rrrrrruuubbbiisssh!

 

[JustJack]

It's the biggest scandal in this country that nobody can be bothered to really kick off about.

Imagine buying a plane ticket (or even coach ticket) and it was a) late b) dirty c) overcrowded, you'd be furious and demand your money back, yet the train companies have nobody to answer to.

It's completely out of proportion aswell, I used to save loads by splitting a ticket from Swansea to Bristol (for example) and then Bristol to London because going through the tunnel somehow cost extra.

I even did Doncaster away one year for a £20 return

They've plugged the gaps on that now and Trainline automatically put the 'split' price in, to make it seem you are saving money.

 

[JackSomething]

The cost of long distance train travel is a joke. Last time I looked a return from London to Swansea was £125. I'd I can't drive to Swansea for whatever reason, I use the coach service at usually around £30. Its a no brainer.

Book far enough in advance and you can do London and back for £60. Cheaper than driving for one person, and much quicker and more convenient than going by bus.

If there's more than one person going then you're probably better off parking somewhere like Watford and getting the Tube in.

We did similar when taking our little boy down to London for the first time at the start of the year. Parked at Ickenham Tube Station for around £10 for the weekend and caught the tube into central London.

Would have loved to have taken him on the train, but the price difference for 3 seats was staggering. Petrol price increases will have closed the gap some I would think, but probably not by that much.

 

[MrSwerve]

Re: prices, we’d booked about a month ago for yesterday’s journey and were pleasantly surprised with a £74 return per person (expecting it closer to £120+ which I’m normally used to paying). I’d also driven to London last week which I would say cost about £70 in total and that is even with the crazy petrol prices and not the most economic of cars (3 litre 354bhp V6 engine).

 

[Niigata Jack]

Bit of a miserable experience these days, innit. Came back from Paddington yesterday, every single seat, bar 5 of them, were taken as we left the station (announced over the loudspeaker). Lots of people standing. Lots of people sitting in seats that were booked but people had no idea which ones were booked due to those rubbish new ‘booking screens’ at each row on the new Hitachi trains being off.

Speaking of the new trains, I’ve found it hard to warm to them since their introduction. Rock solid uncomfortable seats compared to the old HSTs, no buffet car (replaced by a trolley system that you’ll be lucky to see once if at all between London and Swansea, especially if there are people standing in the aisles) and the first class is an absolute joke of a product labelled as such. The old first class on the HSTs knock spots off it.

I always remember train journeys to London having a bit of excitement, but not any more.

Its a joke, we'll have people sitting on the roof of trains before long, Train fairs have gone up ridiculously yet we got passengers standing in isles for hrs throughout their journeys.
Country is totally fuked up. :x

 

[Cooperman]

Re: prices, we’d booked about a month ago for yesterday’s journey and were pleasantly surprised with a £74 return per person (expecting it closer to £120+ which I’m normally used to paying). I’d also driven to London last week which I would say cost about £70 in total and that is even with the crazy petrol prices and not the most economic of cars (3 litre 354bhp V6 engine).

Pricing is a subject in itself, there’s some really odd quirks out there. I have a ticket from Heathrow to Swansea on 9th Sep where first class is a pound cheaper than standard class. The seat will still be hard though.

 

[MajorR]

We were in Italy last month - 4 adult return tickets from Civitavecchia to Rome booked 1 or 2 days in advance was €31 or £26. We had seats both ways, as we got very close to Rome it got busier and some had to stand butbit was nothing like I’ve experienced on our trains. The train was clean, but did end up runnng about 15 minutes late on a journey of 1+1/4 hours.

Last time I got a train to London it was bedlam. The train was late, bursting with passengers and very expensive.

 

[Cooperman]

We were in Italy last month - 4 adult return tickets from Civitavecchia to Rome booked 1 or 2 days in advance was €31 or £26. We had seats both ways, as we got very close to Rome it got busier and some had to stand butbit was nothing like I’ve experienced on our trains. The train was clean, but did end up runnng about 15 minutes late on a journey of 1+1/4 hours.

Last time I got a train to London it was bedlam. The train was late, bursting with passengers and very expensive.

The Italian train network is excellent, we could certainly learn from it. I regularly use their equivalent of HS2 between Turin, Milan and Bologna. Very good punctuality, clean trains, fast service, etc. Bologna to Milan week after next is €28 for a 140 mile journey that takes an hour.

 

[Robbie]

What a waste of time pre - booking seats too , always somebody in your place , should you challenge them and expect confrontation or just leave it , never an attendant to resolve the issue .

On a call to Southampton last year , changed at Cardiff Central , woman in my reserved seat on boarding the train sitting in my place , sorry do you want me to move ? , she had so many bags , as if she had been on a shopping spree , forget it I replied .

Moved to another available seat next to a couple from Barry on their way to catch a cruise liner from the port , both Bluebird supporters , they were tidy travelling companions also for that journey .