802209's first day of service on diagram EC303. Wow what a nice train. Even if it does ride rough over the ECML. Light loading means there's a table bay for anyone who wants one. What a bliss ride on electric compared to the drone of diesel engines on 185s or 220/1s. Diesel mode is very noticable and doesn't sound highly refined or impress in terms of performance. Not bad when coasting though. Shame it doesn't depart York on electric southbound and change over 'on the fly'. At least the engines don't randomly rev at idle like the 185s. It's good that each seat pair has 2 3-pin sockets and a USB-A for charging.
Main gripes:
The table is too far away for ideal laptop work, my drink slides all over it, and the stupid lip nearest the window is basically wasted space.
Arm rests are too narrow
Whoever specified the toilet tap must have not done any real world testing, given that it splashes everything within a 50cm radius, user included.
No WiFi/seat reservations/PIS but these will be rolled out soon enough. Manual announcements are preferable to auto anyway.
Durham - Darlington reached 116mph.
Darlington - Northallerton reached 125mph.
Northallerton - York reached 125mph in 03:24.