Great Northern Weekend Cancellations

[GoatSarah]

I'm presuming this is in (declassified) first?

Indeed. The only way to travel.

 

[GoatSarah]

Not necessarily.

On a weekend you can have declassified First at the rear full up before departure from the origin station (I had it from Bedford myself and have heard of the phenomenon with ECML-side trains) with Standard remaining comfortably empty as everyone "in the know" (i.e. staff and their families, the time I witnessed it) flocks to it.

I walked straight through into Standard and had 2 seats by myself all the way to St Albans, where I alighted. This was at about 8am on a Saturday morning.

It's much less well known on the ECML Thameslink services, so there's pretty much always space IME.

 

[Hadders]

Declassified 1st is becoming very chavvy at weekends. Particularly for Kings Cross starters where the declassified end is nearest the buffers.

I tend to avoid it nowadays and travel in the front carriage (standard class). The chavs can't be bothered to walk 200 metres so you'll often find it's wedged at the centre and back of the train but those prepared to walk to the front rewarded with an almost empty carriage, in exchange for less comfort though

I find 12 car 700s generally operate the 'fast' Stevenage services at weekends.

 

[GoatSarah]

Declassified 1st is becoming very chavvy at weekends. Particularly for Kings Cross starters where the declassified end is nearest the buffers.

I guess they aren’t going to St Pancras

 

[Hadders]

Going towards London declassified 1st is generally busy at weekends, whether the train goes to Kings Cross or through the core.

Coming back if the train starts at Kings Cross declassified 1st is best avoided. If it's a train via the core then it's not so bad and you'll generally get a seat, especially if you join the train south of St Pancras.

 

[MikeWM]

If I can, I avoid the CBG-KGX services completely now. I always try to catch the CBG-BTN services, even if I'm just going to London. The Great Northern trains are cattle trucks. The 700/1s have a better ride, go to central London, and you can always get plenty of space.

A few years back, I got into the habit of getting the semi-fast rather than the fast up to London on Sundays, as you usually couldn't get a seat on the hourly fast. Then they added extra coaches to (most of?) the Sunday fasts and things were fine. We seem to have gone significantly backwards since May 2018.

Nowadays, as mentioned before, I mostly go for GA services. I like the 387s but you simply can't rely on GN (a) running the trains at all, (b) putting enough carriages on them. And I actively avoid the 700's wherever possible, for all the reasons that have been discussed ad nauseam over the last few years. (I will grant that the ride quality is better than on the 387s, after whch I immediately run out of positive things to say about them).

 

[GoatSarah]

And I actively avoid the 700's wherever possible, for all the reasons that have been discussed ad nauseam over the last few years

So no possibility of having a discussion about our lord and saviour, rear first, then?

 

[GoatSarah]

As for the 387s, yeah, the ride quality on electrostars is grim, but at least they aren’t 755s: ride them once, see a chiropractor for life.