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Is it deliberate that Grand Central feels ‘budgety’?

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RailWonderer

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I missed my LNER service this evening because I got lost in the dark, so I went to the machine to buy a new ticket since my advance was wasted. On the day, an off peak single in standard on LNER was £74.95 and the same off peak single but in first class on Grand Central was only £60. First on LNER is £159 in comparison.

I’m not sure the budget feel is deliberate and a proper budget operator wouldn’t have a first offering. On the class 180 the interior feels dated. Then the 180s rattle and shake about so the extra comfort in first makes little difference, and you have to be an acrobat to drink your tea/coffee without spilling it. Then they’re only 5 car so you’re more likely to be standing for a while. Is it the 180 that’s a budget train?

Either way, the first class, while given complimentary refreshments, is underwhelming and feels a disappointment compared with what I would’ve had on LNER had I caught my train.

Any experience with GC and the 180s, and the first service?

P. S. The 180s are a horrible train. I prefer the modern stuff but I’d rather have an HST > 91 > 800.
 
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peri

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I recently travelled Doncaster to London on Grand Central and London to Hull on Hull Trains, standard class both ways.
Grand Central was a very smooth ride and generally seemed smarter and cleaner.
The seats were very uncomfortable with the "wings" of the headrest digging into my shoulders, I'm around average height.
Hull Trains was a pretty rough ride and not so smart, but much more comfortable seats.
This was an upgrade as usually I was going Megabus plus for £5 Hull to London, now it's £10 I'm as well going Grand Central for £13.
I don't miss the 2hr 50min bus from Hull to East Midlands Parkway, but the EMR HST to St Pancras was very pleasant.
 

yorksrob

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It never used to, particularly when they had HST's and gave standard passengers a free tea.

I ceased using them when they started booking out all the seats on the train.
 

yorkie

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I missed my LNER service this evening because I got lost in the dark, so I went to the machine to buy a new ticket since my advance was wasted. On the day, an off peak single in standard on LNER was £74.95 and the same off peak single but in first class on Grand Central was only £60. First on LNER is £159 in comparison.
What journey was this?
Any experience with GC and the 180s, and the first service?

P. S. The 180s are a horrible train. ....
I avoid them as they are not very good.

GC mistreated us when we last travelled with them towards Sunderland. The last time I went to London on them, we came to a stand and blocked the main line near Hitchin for about 20 minutes due to a brake problem (which is normal for 180s).

I used to support GC and I like the idea of open access operators, but they're so rubbish that I can't bring myself to use them.
 

yorkie

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I see you paid £60.05 for the Off Peak 1st Single with Railcard; this isn't worth it over the £35.65 Off Peak Single, but you probably realise that now!

They mistreated us because we were delayed by over an hour; I had to write 3 letters to them to get a complementary ticket as compensation and I think one other member of our group did too, but others (e.g. @yorksrob) gave up and got nothing. They don't want my custom so I am not giving them it.
 

yorksrob

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I see you paid £60.05 for the Off Peak 1st Single with Railcard; this isn't worth it over the £35.65 Off Peak Single, but you probably realise that now!

They mistreated us because we were delayed by over an hour; I had to write 3 letters to them to get a complementary ticket as compensation and I think one other member of our group did too, but others (e.g. @yorksrob) gave up and got nothing. They don't want my custom so I am not giving them it.

Oh, I'd forgotten about that !

It's a shame as they did genuinely feel a bit different (in a good way) in the early years.
 

yorksrob

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One word. Arriva.

Is there even one of their operations that isn't just that bit mediocre? Even Chiltern isn't what it was under John Laing.

Yes, I'm sure if you wanted to clamp down on a companies individuality, passing it to a large franchise operator is the way to do it.
 

RailWonderer

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:rolleyes:
I see you paid £60.05 for the Off Peak 1st Single with Railcard; this isn't worth it over the £35.65 Off Peak Single, but you probably realise that now!

I paid £40 in advance for the original LNER ticket and won the 1st upgrade in Seatfrog for for just £11! Shame I missed it. I didn’t want a standard ticket to remind myself of my idiocy so I thought the first would be good value. I was wrong :rolleyes:
 

yorkie

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£25 for an upgrade is way more than I'd pay! The cost of the complimentary items at the station would be about £4, and the seat upgrade isn't worth much.

I'm in a fortunate position I know but I have travelled for less than that, in 1st (on LNER with discount)

As for the 1802 being around £40 in Standard with a Railcard discount, I'd be surprised if it wasn't possible to beat that with one of the split ticketing providers (e.g. RailEurope, Trainpal, Trainsplit) as that seems rather expensive to me.
 

RailWonderer

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I hear people book first on GC because the 180s are 5 car and often rammed and want the guarantee of a seat but the down trains in the evening aren’t busy anyway.
 

DanNCL

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Grand Central used to be very good. Back when they had the HSTs I travelled in first fairly often on them and even though I'd usually only travel between Sunderland and York, the staff were always brilliant and even though the complimentaries aren't as good as what you get on LNER, at least they were generous with how often you were offered them. Since the HSTs went, I've only used Grand Central once as I'm really not keen on the 180s and whilst the interior (and indeed just about the train) wasn't great the staff were still very good. I've never had any issues with the staff or the on board service, and I've certainly never got a "budgety" impression of them. The 180s do feel a bit cheap compared to the HSTs, but I wouldn't go as far as saying they had a budget feel to them. Certainly if Grand Central ever replace the 180s they probably will regain my custom.

I have heard about issues with Grand Central over delay compensation, however thankfully I've never had any problems with it myself.
 
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