I ran your comments by a colleague, a CS regular who is very experienced on the mk3s but by no means an apologist for Serco, and who travelled on the Lowlander earlier this week. He made the following observations. He sees truth in everything you've said but is a lot less strong on the negatives and also sees a lot of positives.
My review of the service, Euston to Glasgow on Wednesday night.
1. Messaged to ask whether the train would definitely be available to board at 10pm. Was assured it would be. It wasn't. Boarded at 11pm. Really annoying.
They're having masses of teething technical problems so I understand that they've no more idea of when the train's ready to board than you have. It's very frustrating, but they're not doing it because they're slack.
2. Euston really is a dreadful little hole. Not the sleepers' fault but how amazing it would be if they could find a way to run it out of St Pancras. However, it is the sleepers' fault it they advertise and make a song and dance about 10pm boarding and can't deliver it.
Euston is a building site now, which doesn't help. Use the Virgin lounge, but obviously this is little use if boarding is so late that it's shut. Comments as above on 10pm boarding.
3. My restaurant didn't have quite a lot of the alcohol selection. Need to sort their ordering and logistics out.
Agree that this is annoying but could just as easily have happened on the old stock.
4. The service was painfully slow in the restaurant with passengers getting really annoyed. One polite guy must have put his hand up 50 times to no avail. They need to change how the staff run the service.
Your crew were probably working the lounge and kitchen for the very first time other than when they were trained. Sure get annoyed about this if it's still the case in six months, but not on day four.
5. The train in general looks nice inside. Those corridors do feel even narrower though.
The corridors are narrower. It allows the beds to be longer.
6. The cabins are full of errors as follows.
7. The width of the beds feels smaller than the old stock. There is plenty of floor space, they could have had quite a bit of a wider bed. Massive error and really affected ability to get the sleep.
Beds are an inch longer and, apparently, slightly wider, although he agrees that they look narrower. He disagrees that there's too much floor space considering the suitcase palaver caused by there being no overhead racks.
8. The cabin was far too hot. I had it on the lowest setting and had to take the duvet out of the cover and was still far too hot. In contrast the corridors were freezing. Lord knows how they have managed to achieve that screw up.
Looks like a localised fault, he had complete control of cabin temp.
9. The shower bracket is in the wrong place. It is over the toilet so you have to pick it out of the bracket and hold it over yourself. Unforgivable as a basic design error.
Agreed. This needs to be fixed. He thought it was a one off in his cabin until reading your report. It looks like they were maybe tested with higher water pressure than the onboard pump is capable of. Somebody needs to get their screwdriver out.
10. Shower pressure was poor and the water was cold. I use much older sleeper stock in Sweden and the shower is great.
Pressure is adequate, no more than that, but equally you don't want to drain the tanks. No problems with temperature.
11. If train is on some camber, water doesn't drain. I spotted it just before it flooded the main cabin. That is going to happen. Drain plug in wrong place, door lip not big enough and floor wrong shape to allow for draining. Get ready for smelly musty carpets.
The lip is low and yes this could become a problem. Wet carpet risk isn't helped by there being no bath mat, he used a hand towel but it isn't everyone who'd go to the bother of doing this.
12. No hangers or shelves in the room. Why??? Really stupid.
Doesn't know why, and there is a lack of storage space for larger items generally, I've heard that safety regs prevented overhead luggage racks and the sink is uncovered because unfamiliar users didn't realise it was there in the mk3s. I see that there's been comment about the hangers elsewhere.
13. The lighting consoles seem to me big and unnecessarily intrusive. Can't believe there wasn't a better design option.
Dunno - is it because faulty units can be swapped out easily? Agrees that they're a bit Soviet era chunky in their aesthetic.
14. This one is a classic. Somebody has decided people need room service. There is an intercom button next to a light switch. Most people including me seemed to hit it by accident. It is noisy in your cabin and you can't cancel it. It is noisy in the stewards room at the end of the cabin. The guy in the end cabin didn't get any sleep because of the noise. You don't need room service in the evening on the sleeper. If you really want to provide it just use paper and pen or smartpads in the restaurant. It is also going to drive the staff mad. Really stupid and my favourite for feature that will be switched off in 2 months. The mind boggles as to how they didn't see that one coming.
Didn't look at or think about the intercom. The blue attendant button in the mk3s was in an equally accident prone position. They could be converted to telephone handsets if they get too annoying I suppose.
15. It doesn't feel much quieter than the old train. A bit perhaps.
The mk3 sleeper is a masterpiece of smooth quiet running at speed amidships and arguably has never been bettered by any UK train type. Gangway noise and lateral jerking din at mk3 coach ends is a disaster however and he thinks that the combination of Dellners and silent gangways has transformed this aspect on the mk5s. No rattling doors and other knackered fittings loosened from their fixings.
16. Now the really big one. I didn't sleep. You feel every bit of poor track, the movements are all jerky so no rythmn. I might even say it is worse that the old train although it doesn't have bit where the carriages pulling up the slack from a standing start at least. They need to keep it on the smoother fasts at all costs. Really disappointing they have not got this right.
He says ride and vibration feels similar to a 385, which is hardly a ringing endorsement. It isn't soaking up the bumps like mk3 air suspension does, so probably slightly inferior. Slept fine however.
17. There is a pointless light beneath the toilet that you don't seem to be able to switch off, is really bright and lights up the door frame like a Christmas tree. Really stupid. I don't need illuminated items at thigh level in the bogging area.
Thinks this might be to cast a shadow at the door lip so you don't trip over it, but that's just a theory.
18. They seem to have a night light in white around one of the switches that you can't turn off. It is really white and annoying. Is it a safety requirement to have a night light you can't switch off in a sleeper cabin?
The light cast is very dim and you need to be able to see the light switch to turn it on. Not bothered by this.
Basically it is abundantly clear that they didn't get anybody to sleep in and use a mock up before spending millions on these trains. I love sleepers but this could have been so much better. They should have focussed less on the hotel on wheels guff and more on reducing annoyances to the minimum.
There are things that could be better but a lot of them are teething problems or can be easily fixed. However, if cabin noise and vibration is only better than a mk3 in certain ways and not others, and it's more susceptible to poor track, then that is disappointing and not easily fixed. On the other hand a mk5 lounge is light years ahead of a rickety clasp braked mk2 with the ambience of an eighties nightclub.
He adds that the big step forward for him is that the whole thing is very smart and no longer a dilapidated swirly carpeted boghole, and that is what 99% of passengers will think about.
