https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wlpz8vj4po

 
Yesterday I read an article on another railway forum which suggested that the lovely new grab handles will actually prevent the refreshment trolleys being moved along the train! Fake news?

 
Having had a measured read of the article the thing that struck me most was that none of the "4 man" tables in First Class seem to line up with the windows.  Extra charge for a proper window seat ?

 

Close....the trolley operator will get crushed knuckles if they aren't careful when passing down the train. The trolley fits however, just the knuckles that lack clearance.

 

If look at a photo, also appears the reading lights overhead, and the seat reserved indicators don't line up either.

My guess is seats have been moved, but no one bothered to alter the above window figments that apply to each pair of seats.  Sort of 3/10 score, looks nice, but basic errors and mistakes.

 
Geoff Marshall has just released a YouTube vlog on the refurbished Class 220s.

 
CrossCountry's publicity mentions "Improved bike spaces" but this appears to comprise just adding wheel channels to the same terrible hanging spaces. I think 3/10 is possibly generous.

 
There's... curious aspects... to that event. Not least that work to the carriage interiors is not complete.

Mark

 
Returning through Bristol on Saturday, and alongside a platform there, a refreshed set. I didn't have the chance to look at the interior, and Geoff Marshall's video from the launch event involves a train with temporary lighting in the carriages.

There's a rumour that the reservations displays haven't been renewed, but that cannot be the case as the originals have pretty well faded into obscurity in the way that those magic eye valves from 1950's radios did. OK that was a long time back but, looking it up, I was surprised to read that the Voyagers were introduced as late as 2001 - something that makes the built in and fragrant little headphone sockets even more surprising, but I suppose that that idea was being borrowed from aviation. (The 3.5mm jack socket and plug has been around from the 1950s I read, so it does thoroughly overlap with the mainstream existence of the magic eye indicator valves that the designers didn't specify for the Voyager seat reservation displays...)

Mark

 

It was very much a crossover time.  Like with the entertainment carriage on Class 180s the spec was designed in the latter part of the last century when to listen to music on the move you basically took your Discman, complete with 3.5mm headphone jack socket.  Portable MP3 players were just starting to be introduced, but were very niche until the iPod came along in 2001, and it was of course long before smart phones were around.

Also, reservation displays were a very new thing.  Were the Voyager fleet the first?  And that has quickly been refined into much better displays with the excellent IET/Azuma 'traffic light' system the most fundemental change.  It will be a shame if XC haven't upgraded them with some of those developments, even if their less-than-ideal positioning would be tricky to change due to the carriage design.

{Quote altered to remove the 'Mark' - we can see it's you!}

 
The last two I have been on, only appear to have the new livery on a driving car.

The bonus, for most people, is a bar/shop which is possibly old. But it means the bike spaces, four, have been relegated to a gloomy little area backing one of the driving compartments. Don't know what the situation is with the large luggage area that used to be next to the bike spaces.

Yours unimpressed of Reading