Travelled last night from Glasgow, in a club room.
Likes:
Bed very comfortable.
Convenient having a toilet
Very quiet - to the extent I couldn't decide if ear plugs were helpful or not, as they seemed to accentuate some noise that was inaudible without them in. Left them in due to rail/wheel noise but I was near the bogie.
Very friendly host in the lounge car. Service was fine, no long waits and I enjoyed eggs royale for breakfast.
The chargers points are great. I was sceptical my phone would stay on the shelf, but the high friction coating on the shelf worked well.
Needs tweaking:
The room temperature control seems biased towards hot. I got it just about cool enough to sleep, and the duvet is quite cosy so would have liked it properly chilly like you could do on the old stock. The panel under the sink was almost too hot to touch, perhaps a water heater is in there, but it seemed to be the source of some of the unwanted heat. Took a long time to cool down and didn't seem to really cool until we got underway. In contrast I turned the heat up a couple of notches after my shower and was sweltering in moments.
As someone commented recently, the illumination around the lighting switches is far too bright, a donut of blu tak sorted that. Wasn't bothered by the light in the toilet, it didn't seem to escape from round the door.
The shower temperature was "refreshing".
Sink water wasn't hot enough for a shave.
Ride was OK. Very smooth on good track, but a bit "clunky" and bumpy on points and poorer track. It would help if the train slowed down a bit and kept to time. We were half an hour late leaving Carstairs, so fair enough to make that time up, but we then arrived half an hour early into Euston. I'd have preferred an on time arrival and less interrupted sleep.
Breakfast was good, nice poached eggs and good quality muffin and toast (although in true hotel style it was soggy, I don't know what hotels do to turn toast into plastic - it's a universal problem).
Dislikes:
The stool seating in the lounge car is awful. The seat is too small and the distance between it and the footrest/floor too short to be able to sit comfortably. Dunno what they can about this as the height is set by the table height which in turn is set by the lower window edge, there's something awkward about using the zigzag table too. It was ok for a drink whilst stationary. The couch seating is comfortable.
[Edit to add the cabin lights came on when power was restored after the Carstairs shunt. Maybe the systems needed resetting (delayed leaving Carstairs so perhaps some computer issues). The physical shunt itself was imperceptible.]
Teething problems:
The toilet stopped working, got halfway through a flush cycle and then just sat there with the button flashing. No big deal as it was just before I got off. Let the steward know and he put it on some kind of defect list.
Other observations:
The check in at the end of the platform is a bit silly. I stood for a couple of minutes whilst the two guys argued with someone at Serco over the phone and got in a flap about "well we can't unless there's a no-show, it's full" - appears someone senior was trying to get a VIP on board. Anyway when they finished that one checked my ticket, ticked my name off a list and told me which berth I was in, which I already knew.
The bed is a little wider but feels a little narrower, I think because of the bolster on the wall.
Overall I think it's a massive improvement on the old stock. I booked ages ago so paid old prices, I'm not sure it's worth the current asking price. I'd have to think hard about club or classic - I'd rather have a proper shower at Euston if they can't get the water properly hot but it's convenient having a toilet, especially when my insomnia hits.
