Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
 Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 17:15 02 May 2025
 
- Activists say ship aiming to sail to Gaza was attacked by drones
- Trump disliked Trudeau. Here's why Carney may fare better
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]		 tomorrow - Walk to Pilning
10/05/25 - BRTA Westbury
10/05/25 - Model Railway Show, Calne
13/05/25 - Melksham TUG / AGM

On this day
2nd May (1999)
Last special train to Weymouth Quay (link)
Train RunningCancelled
17:25 Okehampton to Exeter Central
17:34 London Paddington to Hereford
17:35 Swindon to Westbury
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
18:51 Evesham to Oxford
20:14 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
15:51 Paignton to Exmouth
15:55 Exmouth to Paignton
16:16 Paignton to Exmouth
16:23 Exmouth to Paignton
16:32 Exeter Central to Okehampton
16:50 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:57 Exmouth to Paignton
17:04 Didcot Parkway to Evesham
17:15 Exeter Central to Barnstaple
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury
20:06 Westbury to Cheltenham Spa
Delayed
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 18:13 Chippenham to Westbury
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 18:37 Westbury to Chippenham
An additional bus service has been planned to operate as shown 19:14 Chippenham to Westbury
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:35 Westbury to Salisbury
•
PollsOpen and recent polls
Open to 08/05 09:07 Steam Excursion - or diesel excursion with a featured steam section?
Open to 07/05 09:27 Should train, bus and coach operators be required to accept cash
•
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
•
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
•
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
•
Train companiesSelect from:
GWR
SWR
XC
Chiltern
TfL
TfW
WMR
Southern
• Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple Meads • Bath Spa • Chippenham • Swindon • Didcot Parkway • Reading • London Paddington • Melksham
Exeter St Davids • Taunton • Westbury • Trowbridge • Bristol Parkway • Cardiff Central • Oxford • Cheltenham Spa • Birmingham New Street
May 02, 2025, 17:27:25 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[131] In memory of the Weymouth Harbour Tramway on the anniversary o...
[61] Steam excursion - except there's much more diesel than steam!
[56] Taplow-Hassocks
[56] 2025 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury...
[41] Bath Spa station - dealing with future capacity issues - ideas...
[38] Low passenger numbers due to train unreliability
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Great Western Coffee Shop > Journey by Journey > Cross Country services > Morning Cross Country changes
Pages: 1 [2]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: Morning Cross Country changes  (Read 15419 times)
John R
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4416


View Profile
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2008, 20:52:56 »
Hopefully. I was a bit disappointed last week, as one of the sets was out of action, so we had a Voyager on M/W/F.  I felt quite cheated.

Travelled down to St Austell on Saturday on an unrefurbed Mk 3 buffet with the rather nice brown seats. What a treat! 6 hours of 1st Class travel for ^20. The Devon and Cornwall countryside, and a Travelling Chef on board too. Travel as it should be!   
Logged
dog box
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 653


View Profile
« Reply #16 on: September 29, 2008, 21:47:19 »
joined a voyager at Taunton lunchtime today...full and standing couldnt wait to get off it at BTM▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative))
Logged
All postings reflect my own personal views and opinions and are not intended to be, nor should be taken as official statements of first great western or first group policy
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 19588



View Profile Email
« Reply #17 on: September 29, 2008, 21:50:02 »
Hmmm.  The moral of the story: Don't join a Voyager!  Roll Eyes Grin
Logged
William Huskisson MP▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: Stop, Look, Listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
John R
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4416


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2008, 09:44:17 »
Quote from: chris from nailsea on September 29, 2008, 20:07:47
Thanks for that information, Liam!

John - are you still catching the 08:46?  Care to compare notes on this refurbished version tomorrow?  Cheesy

Sat with a colleague so not really able to form anything other than a very superficial view. But my initial reaction was much nicer than the FGW▸ (First Great Western) refurb - much less claustrophobic - seat backs aren't so high, and you can see down the carriage (so why does FGW think it's a H&S▸ (Health and Safety) thing whereas XC▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) can install lower seats?) Sat by the little window so must have been where the toilet has been removed. Fortunately they had remembered to take away the partition.  Grin

Seat seemed hard, but I guess that's true with all of them these days. Still I would much rather travel on a refurbed XC HST▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) than a Voyager, and generally the ambience seemed much more inviting than FGW.
Logged
dog box
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 653


View Profile
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2008, 16:24:38 »
Quote from: chris from nailsea on September 29, 2008, 21:50:02
Hmmm.  The moral of the story: Don't join a Voyager!  Roll Eyes Grin

not much choice really....could have waited for the unit and took twice as long
Logged
All postings reflect my own personal views and opinions and are not intended to be, nor should be taken as official statements of first great western or first group policy
Btline
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4782



View Profile
« Reply #20 on: September 30, 2008, 19:55:36 »
Clearly the XC▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) got a much better designer, that actually KNOWS the health and safety regulations, and LOOKS where the windows are when they are deciding where to put the table seats.

I think the FGW▸ (First Great Western) designer must have been the Voyager designer - put in seats without looking for windows, made train claustrophobic.
Logged
Ollie
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2312


View Profile
« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2008, 01:44:23 »
Quote from: Btline on September 30, 2008, 19:55:36
Clearly the XC▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) got a much better designer, that actually KNOWS the health and safety regulations, and LOOKS where the windows are when they are deciding where to put the table seats.

I think the FGW▸ (First Great Western) designer must have been the Voyager designer - put in seats without looking for windows, made train claustrophobic.

For FGW the designers were: Michael Rodber and Mike Muldoon
Logged
FarWestJohn
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 240


View Profile
« Reply #22 on: October 01, 2008, 13:40:25 »
Well I certainly hope I do not ever meet 'Michael Rodber and Mike Muldoon' after the appalling uncomfortable claustrophobic mess they have made of our previous wonderful HST▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) mk 3 carriages. I hope they never ever have anything to do with a train I travel on again.
Logged
Tim
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2738


View Profile
« Reply #23 on: October 01, 2008, 14:06:06 »
FGW▸ (First Great Western) won a "special commendation" (ie, second prize) for their "refresh" at the national rail awards.   http://www.natrailawards.co.uk/cat_project.html

 I don't know why! The prize was in the "project of the year" category so it might have been for good project management rather than the poor design.
Logged
dog box
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 653


View Profile
« Reply #24 on: October 01, 2008, 17:37:38 »
on the XC▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) HST▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) today...actually forgot how uncomfortable the old standard seats are with that useless fixed arm rest on the ex MML» (Midland Main Line. - about) Set
Logged
All postings reflect my own personal views and opinions and are not intended to be, nor should be taken as official statements of first great western or first group policy
John R
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4416


View Profile
« Reply #25 on: October 01, 2008, 18:25:36 »
The refurbed (I'm presuming) set seems to be around 40 down at present on it's way south "due to an earlier train fault".
Logged
Ollie
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 2312


View Profile
« Reply #26 on: October 02, 2008, 00:16:50 »
Quote from: FarWest on October 01, 2008, 13:40:25
Well I certainly hope I do not ever meet 'Michael Rodber and Mike Muldoon' after the appalling uncomfortable claustrophobic mess they have made of our previous wonderful HST▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) mk 3 carriages. I hope they never ever have anything to do with a train I travel on again.

Have you ever travelled on the Eurostar? Because Michael Rodber was involved with that..
Logged
John R
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4416


View Profile
« Reply #27 on: October 02, 2008, 07:30:57 »
Quote from: Ollie on October 02, 2008, 00:16:50
Quote from: FarWest on October 01, 2008, 13:40:25
Well I certainly hope I do not ever meet 'Michael Rodber and Mike Muldoon' after the appalling uncomfortable claustrophobic mess they have made of our previous wonderful HST▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) mk 3 carriages. I hope they never ever have anything to do with a train I travel on again.

Have you ever travelled on the Eurostar? Because Michael Rodber was involved with that..

I guess it's all down to the brief he's got from his customer as to what's required.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules via admin@railcustomer.info. Full legal statement (here).

Jump to top of page • Jump to Forum Home Page