Best Seat from Penzance to London Paddington

[haho]

Hi,

I am currently planning to travel to Cornwall using the Britrail Pass. On the inbound journey to Penzance we want to take the Night Riviera, on the way back direct service to Bath Spa. My question is: Which are the best seats? They are supposed to be in the direction of travel, facing the seaside and have an non-obstructed view.

Greetings, Matthias

 

[yorkie]

Welcome

When you say "we", how many of you are there?

If there are 4 of you, a table may be best. If only two, then I am not sure I could recommend a table, at least not in Standard Class, as they're a bit cramped (but bearable if you know everyone at the table!)

When are the journeys? If travelling on a weekend, a Weekend First upgrade would be recommended.

 

[haho]

We are two, so it should indeed not be a table

 

[yorkie]

I'd highly recommend a 'table for two' in 1st class then. Edit: since posting this, I've realised the tables for two don't have a seaside view. So this may not be best after all.

Assuming your Britrail is Standard Class, then a Weekend 1st Upgrade is £15 between Penzance and Bath, if you are travelling at a weekend. If it's a weekday then it's probably going to be prohibitively expensive.

For the Night Riviera, are you happy with seats? A sleeper cabin (with beds) would be better. More info at 'Seat61'

I've attached a seating plan to this post. This is applicable to the Penzance-Bath train. If the train is the usual way round, Coach A (with train manager's office) will be at the rear of the train from Penznace, meaning the seats shown at the bottom (ie, right hand side) of each coach will be those with a seaside view, e.g. seat 4 has a seaside view, while seat 1 doesn't.

That said, while GWR do try their best to have the trains the right way around, it can never be guaranteed.

If you can say what day & times you are looking to travel, we will also have an idea how busy the trains are likely to be.

Someone more familiar with GWR can probably give you a bit more information; it's not quite my area I'm afraid.

 

[haho]

Yes, we will reserve a cabin on the Night Riviera. As we are travelling on a Monday a first class upgrade is not within our budget. We want to take the 0741 service. Thanks for you information so far, but which seats in the digram are in the direction of travel?

 

[30907]

The seats all face towards the one table half way along.

So If the train is the normal way round, with A at the Penzance end, its the highest numbers.

If the train is reverse formed, this won't apply, but in practice you can occupy any seat that isn't taken on the "right" side, and at least as far as Exeter there should be spare seats.

 

[Crossover]

Indeed in First Class, the tables for 2 are on the "land" side of the train - that said I did such on a Pullman service and the view was still good across the other table. Once beyond Tiverton area, there isn't too much to see anyway from what I recall