First great western sleeper

[anthony263]

Thanks for the warning, anyway i am planning to sleep in the seated coaches tonight and i am not to woried about only getting about 2 hours sleep since that will be all i need lol.

 

[Aictos]

I'm going to try and use the Penzance bound service on Sunday and the Paddington bound service on Monday.

Now I would have assumed that the service heading into Paddington on a Sunday would be more busier then the one heading to Penzance or is that not the case?

 

[87031]

i think all sleepers including caledonian ones are at there busiest on fridays and sundays in both directions.....this is what i was told by the attendant on sunday and whilst at Aberdeen ticket office staff said the same too.

 

[Aictos]

Well I can't travel down on Saturday as it doesn't run, pity as it should really run 7 days a week.

So will be travelling down on Sunday instead.

Thanks for the answer though,

 

[paul1609]

After a break of about 4 years I had reason to use the night rivera down to Plymouth last week.
It appears that there is still very little publicity for this service. I could find no leaflets at either Plymouth or Paddington. Despite only needing a simple off peak return and sleeper berth there was still no on line booking system so I ventured off to Plymouth to book the return leg. The purchase took around 25minutes. The system didnt seem very straight forward and the clerk seemed to have to input it three times before my reservation was complete.

Arriving at Paddington at approximately 23.00 the service was already shown as delayed on depot due to technical difficulties. Passengers were invited to wait in the first class lounge on platform 1.
The station manager was in the lounge and kept advising passengers that the train would arrive in about 15 mins. Eventually at midnight 15mins after advertised departure we were told that the train had now left the depot and went outside onto the normal departure platform 1. After another 5mins the manager rounded everbody up to tell them that platform 1 was now closed by an engineering possesion and that the train would "unfortunately" tonight leave from platform 11 on the other side of the station.
We set off many of the passengers with young children being dragged round Paddington.

There is some work being carried out on Platform 11 I dont know what but there is a lot of shuttering and scafolding and temporary lighting along with some large puddles.Unfortunately half of the lighting wasnt working and we stood there in dripping water in semi darkness. After a couple of minutes our train arrived with a FGW 57 at the buffers and Virgins "The Hood"as the train engine. We had to wait for another 10 mins for the doors to be released, this caused the normal frustration with passengers tugging the doors against the central door locking.

When the doors eventually opened our steward very sensibly suggested that everyone get on and find their own cabins and he would be along to collect the tickets and breakfast orders in a bit.
I was quite impressed with the condition of my single berth certainly more impressive that the lowland sleeper that ive travelled on a couple of occasions recently. My only quip was that my velo tv didnt work.The train about 40 mins late set of quite rapidly and I was quite surprised at how bad the ride was on the relief lines.

The sleeper attendant was very friendly and efficent and the choice of breakfast items was far better than on Scotrail. I can tell you that we went straight on at Reading but after that I quickly fell asleep.

One annoying aspect is the very loud PIS announcements at every station after Exeter, you dont really want to be woken up by these at every station. It seems to me that the down train runs about an hour early from every station after Exeter for most customers, Plymouth is reached at the unearthly time of 05.14 and even Truro is at a too early 07.10.

If you asked me at Paddington this experience would have scored0/10 but the friendly staff and good condition of the train raised this to an overall 3/10. The service was reasonably well patronised compared to my experiences ofprevious years.

 

[fgwrich]

Supprised you havent been able to find any information about the Night Rivera, for a while ive always been able to find info/ leaflets about the Night Rivera at reading, Paddington & even Exmouth...Perhaps FGW were out of stock of leaflets at the time of your vist...also - by the sounds of it you got one of there bad nights...57 reliability still continues to drop... and still FGW are having to hire in Virgins 57's...

 

[anthony263]

I had a nice rice up on the sleeper yesterday morning, although i i thought it was timetabled off Exeter st davids at 01:44 yet it arrived in Taunton yesterday at 01:34, where i got on and found it to be very empty and after having the conductor stamp my ticket i noded off till i got woken up at 02:40 as the train started crossing over onto the line to westbury, even though its supposed to run via Bristol according to the timetable.

In the end i couldnt get back to sleep so decided to watch the train speed on its way to Reading where it stode for abou 25 minutes before making its way to Paddington where it arrived at 05:20 about 20 minutes.

the only bad thing i have to say was that the information screens at taunton said the seated carriages were at the front yet when it arrived the sleeper carriages were at the front.

anyway apart from these minor points the carriage was nice and warm and i had a nice cup of coffee on the train.

 

[rail-britain]

the only bad thing i have to say was that the information screens at taunton said the seated carriages were at the front yet when it arrived the sleeper carriages were at the front

The same thing happened on mine
When the set arrived at Penzance the staff told me the set was back to front, and it had been like this for a few days now, it therefore looks like no attempt has been made to reverse it

It was quite annoying sitting in the sleeper passenger coach and having local passengers walking through, or even taking up residence!

I then went to my berth after departing Plymouth
At Reading I was woken up, took my breakfast to the sleeper passenger coach
It was full of FGW staff!