Right, I'm going to take this from a hypothetical viewpoint that they are all 7 coach long, as if the extra coaches are delivered, so I can offer a fair, like-to-like comparison with any other intercity train, without saying straight off they are too crowded due to only being 4/5 coaches long
- They still haven't sorted out the vestibule and toilet smell. And it's not just on busy train, the other morning, on the 6:08 Bristol - Plymouth, from Exeter only a couple of people in my coach, but as soon as I board the smell just hit me.
- There is nowhere near enough luggage space.
- There are numerous rows of seats which don't line up with the windows, and you just get a plastic pillar (If you're lucky, it's a plastic pillar with a wifi sticker on it, which proudly announces how this XC voyager has wifi, yet I have never successfully connected to it on my iPhone
- The Plastic rattles around - wherever it is, it rattles, be it the overhead racks or one of the other numerous plastic items in the interior. Someone needs to go around with a screwdriver and tighten everything back up.
- The seating is not that comfortable at all.
- The interior is far too cramped. However, this was so that it could tilt, which ironically enough is disabled on the XC 221s (doesn't exist on 220s anyway), so you get all of the problems of a cramped interior with none of the gains of it tilting.
- The electronic reservation displays are a disaster of a system. They frequently do not work, and when they do, they are actually quite difficult to read, being quite dim.
- I don't like a rumbling and vibration under my seat when on an intercity train. I am not anti-DMU at all: 159s happen to be one of my favourite classes, but for an intercity, long-distance train it is just wrong in my book.
- Finally, and this is more to do with the operator, some of the XC examples are getting pretty tatty and could do with a deep clean. Just look down some of the sides of the seats and you'll realise that a hoover down there once in a while would be welcome.
Despite this, I will admit that technically they are fantastic, with great accelaration.
Yes, I do dislike voyagers, but I've tried to take it from a viewpoint where we have levelled the playing field as little bit to give it more coaches if you get my drift.