Your experiences of cases on the railway where the less premium offering is superior

Bletchleyite said:

It's really very nice, far classier than Avanti, though the seats aren't quite as nice.

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What is the food and drink offering?

im gonna say the non-club cabin on the Caledonia sleeper bar the lack of toilet is better than the club cabin if you have a large suitcase as you can store it on the top bunk
i know thats technically possible in the club cabin but never seen one with the top bunk down

BigCj34 said:

What is the food and drink offering?

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TPE's food and drink was pretty poor on the 185s: just sandwiches, snacks and instant powdered hot drinks IIRC. I'm unsure if it's improved since then with the introduction of new rolling stock

I thought the sandwiches were just on Scottish services , not sure if they are still doing them ,

I thought the sandwiches were just on Scottish services , not sure if they are still doing them ,

From London Victoria to Gatwick Airport you can get a Southern service which takes about the same time as the Gatwick Express while being a bit cheaper and you get nicer seats in the driving vehicles.

As someone who dislikes the marmite IC75 seats, a 377/5 was vastly preferable on Thameslink to a Sunday HST on Thameslink even though I’m sure many would consider the faster EMR service Premium.

Similarly, I’d take a Southern 377 to Portsmouth/Southampton over the faster South Western Railway service, as I like their 377/1-4 very much and find the Desiros boring and the 450s uncomfortable.

I also know that tatty 465/9s are considered outer suburban whereas I’ll take a “metro” 376 anyday.

I also vastly prefer the driving vehicle comfort of Southern 377s to the Gatwick Express with the 387s which I hate.

Oh, and I’d rather take a SWR “Suburban” 159 service to Exeter than a GWR Intercity service operated by a Hitachi tbh, though that’s partly down to the IMO dire announcements of the patronising Welsh woman and the man who does the safety announcements who sounds like he’s trying to be intimidating but fails embarrassingly.

I don’t like 80x (LNER excluded) so I’d rather take the Hull Trains 180 and TransPennine Express 185 over the bland and boring Paragons and Nova 1s (Nova 2s are however amazing) that were said are massive improvements.

Oh and as a devoted Sweden lover, the aforementioned Arlanda Express which I have been on is a waste of money as while the cheaper Pendeltag is indeed a bunch of cheap plastic crap, the just as cheap SJ X40 that serves ultra nearby to the airport Marsta station offers far superior comfort and views to any other train connecting the airport with Stockholm.

I love the 332s, so no complaints of the Heathrow Express as of yet. That is, until the dreaded 387s come along. Then I think we’ll be onto National Express instead

Once again very subjective and expecting to be shouted down here but but for my money
Any
Service that might be construed as being an intercity route on which a class 170 or other species of crapulous turbo star huffs and puffs it's way in and treats it's long-suffering passengers to an underwhelming performance of poor acceleration, multiple internal bangs and rattles and and indescribable dullness

A journey from Glasgow to Oban or fort William
Scottish citylink can offer comfortable seats on a high specification vehicle which is replaced every 2 or 3 years with Wi-Fi and USB charging for all passengers and plenty of leg stretch stops as the timing is quite slack but yet still arrives quicker than the train
All ScotRail can offer is a 156 chugging it's way slowly up and since refurbishment the as-built low back seats have now been replaced with wonderful high specification ironing boards. and better still you get to suffer them for longer as the journey time is just a bit crazy.

Having travelled between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury many times on both the limited-stop Avanti West Coast and Transport for Wales services, as well as the slow West Midlands Trains stoppers, I can safely say that despite Avanti West Coast being the "premium" option, I much prefer the West Midlands Trains stopper.

The Avanti West Coast and Transport for Wales services aren't bad, but they're often packed from my experience - particularly the Cambrian Coast services during the summer, with good reason!

The stopper, however, has always been relatively empty when I've used it, and I find the West Midlands Trains 170s much more comfortable and spacious than the 221s and 158s on the route.

Although, one of the good points about the Avanti services is the onboard shop.

xotGD said:

On Chiltern, Standard Class seats are available right behind the loco, while those paying for First Class are deprived of the thrash at the back of the train.

TPE have learnt from this.

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An enthusiasts post. A normal business person would likely be glad to be away from the racket!

I went first class from Waterloo to Exeter once, and found the first class seats on the 159 to be less comfortable than the standard ones (not a problem for me as I find the 159's to be excellent anyway).

On a similar subject, I've long found the slow journey from Waterloo to Exeter to be preferable to being crammed on to a busy train of holidaymakers from Paddington (so long as it's six carriages between Salisbury and Exeter).

I always found VEP's to have more pleasant furnishings then the hard seats and harsh colours of the refurbished CEP's in Kent.

Also, I never understood why first class in the 1980's had such dull and uninspiring charcoal grey check moquette, compared to the much more attractive Trojan/Bournemouth Blue in standard.