FGW HSTs vs Arriva XC Voyagers

[whole diary]

[old original]

Just to be different.. I actually prefer the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sets above FGW^▸ (First Great Western) hsts or XC voyagers.

[JayMac]

Can someone tell me what the purpose is of the panel between the seats is? It has headphone jacks, volume/channel buttons, but if you plug anything in there's no sound.

When the Cross Country franchise was operated by Virgin, they offered a selection of music channels and radio stations via these jack sockets. When Arriva took over the service was removed.

Virgin had a similar service on their Pendolino and West Coast Voyager fleet but they have replaced this with Wi-Fi. Arriva promised us Wi-Fi on their XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services in November 2007, but as yet, nothing.

[Mookiemoo]

ok - I've travelled on a vomiter from reading to birmingham on a few occasions now and whilst they are not as good as FGW^▸ (First Great Western) they are not that bad

They vibrate - but no worse than a 158 or 175.

The only issue is the smell of the toilets......and they are not as comfy as a FGW HST^▸ (High Speed Train) but are no less comfy than a pendolino or any other DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)

[thetrout]

There management of First Class between Plymouth & Bristol is as follows IME^▸ (in my experience)...

The hosts are told to serve a trolley service to Standard Class before First Class Passengers as it makes them revenue on catering, yet on their HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s if you go to their little catering galley ask them for a coffee, they won't give you one but tell you you can buy one (Why the heck would I pay for a coffee that effectively tastes like Water when i'm ment to get a free one on my ticket) However they will let you have some biccys

But in their defence, I will say that they will occasionally give you one, but always think they are doing you a favour by doing that... Well i'm sorry, i've paid for FC^‡(resolve), so I would like my free coffee thanks

(I'm not ment to sound arrogant or snobby there, I just get mift when I know i'm entitled to something but it is not delivered)

Whereas with FGW^▸ (First Great Western), If you want a cuppa or some biccys, the staff are more than happy to serve it too you... either from the trolley or Buffet... and although FGW do have time keeping issues, I've not had anything within the last 3 months that has put me into a negative situation, whereas (as I may have ranted before) the 14:44 from Bristol - Plymouth is hardly ever on time and has made me miss crucial meeting...

[inspector_blakey]

But in their defence, I will say that they will occasionally give you one

Cough.

 

I'll get my coat.

[The Tall Controller]

ok - I've travelled on a vomiter from reading to birmingham on a few occasions now and whilst they are not as good as FGW^▸ (First Great Western) they are not that bad

They vibrate - but no worse than a 158 or 175.

The only issue is the smell of the toilets......and they are not as comfy as a FGW HST^▸ (High Speed Train) but are no less comfy than a pendolino or any other DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit)

This route has had a lot of complaints recently due to small trians and big overcrowding. I think its prob the overcrowding issue that makes people hate these trains!

[Super Guard]

I might add that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) usually has a lot of Station dwell/make-up time at Birmingham & Bristol which brings a lot of their trains back on-time by Taunton/Exeter - whereas FGW^▸ (First Great Western) has very little generally.

Also with FGW showing record on-time results, these delays cannot be too bad.

[devon_metro]

I might add that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) usually has a lot of Station dwell/make-up time at Birmingham & Bristol

And Taunton, and Exeter etc

The XC HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) always make me laugh, they often sit in Exeter and Taunton for 5 minutes.

[Super Guard]

I know there is the standard 2 minutes at Taunton and Exeter, but for some reason there seems to be a longer journey time allocated from Tiverton to Exeter than is required - if the driver puts his foot down (which they normally do  )

[devon_metro]

Indeed, a 2+7 HST^▸ (High Speed Train) can easily do Tiverton - Exeter in 11 minutes, and yet XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) allow 16!!

[thetrout]

Interestingly enough... When Virgin were in charge... on a good day, you could do Bristol Temple Meads > Newcastle in 4hrs 55mins... Now with AXC^» (Arriva Cross Country - about) in charge... it now takes a minimum of 6 hours

I tend to avoid XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) now like the plague simply because they are rather unreliable... I would rather sit on a Mk3/Mk4 from Kings Cross than go via BHM... and to be honest, Grand Central get me closer to where i normally need to go for such reasonable prices that even though it takes longer, is a much more pleasent journey than sitting on a Voyager drinking Tea/Coffee out of a cardboard cup

XC Looked like they were going to transform the XC Route and IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) it has turned into a bit of a shambles and the majority of things they planned in 2007 still have not yet been delivered...!

[paul7575]

Interestingly enough... When Virgin were in charge... on a good day, you could do Bristol Temple Meads > Newcastle in 4hrs 55mins... Now with AXC^» (Arriva Cross Country - about) in charge... it now takes a minimum of 6 hours

Really? The next few direct trains are 5h01, 5h07, 5h04.

Maybe you've been looking up engineering diversions or something...

Paul

[thetrout]

Really? The next few direct trains are 5h01, 5h07, 5h04.

Maybe you've been looking up engineering diversions or something...

Paul

In which case I retract my previous statement... The only reason I was saying 6 hours was when I last did my Newcastle run it was 6hrs 15m there (train arrived 5 mins early) and 6hrs on the way back... so whether it was engineering works i don't know... still took too long

[JayMac]

Just to be different.. I actually prefer the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) sets above FGW^▸ (First Great Western) hsts or XC voyagers.

Those XC HST sets are actually quite nice. I do prefer their 1st class seating to FGW's slippy leather.

However Arriva are apparently withdrawing two of the five sets from the December TT change, according to the Fact Compiler's Railway Eye blog.

[inspector_blakey]

I suspect I'm in a minority of one, but I really don't like those XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) in standard class - cruddy legroom in the airline seating (way less than an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) refurb), flip-down tables that were drooping beyond horizontal so nothing would stay on them, and this was in a set that had been in traffic for only a few months!