Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Railways

  • Cross Country : Sheffield to York

    Cross Country : Sheffield to York

    The image above is of the beautiful York railway station, it’s always a delight to arrive into this glorious location. This was the second part of my trip from Chesterfield, having changed at Sheffield. The service was the 11:29 from Sheffield into York on Cross Country, a trip which was going on to Newcastle.

    This is the train after it arrived into York. I had a reserved seat but I, and others as I could hear the confusion, were struggling to work out which of the five coaches was which. There is an electronic display on the side of each carriage, but it’s hard to read and I have no idea why Cross Country don’t just have a clear sheet of paper at least in each carriage. This incompetence moderately annoys me, is it not beyond the wit of any Cross Country manager to change this situation, rather than have tens of people standing confused at the platform? This was the second Cross Country service of the day where I had experienced this problem, so I can’t imagine it’s an isolated incident.

    Fortunately my seat was waiting for me, with no-one in it most importantly, and was the table seat that I had requested. There was a power point at the table which worked fine and although a staff member did come through collecting rubbish, the carriage could have been cleaner. But, the train was on time, the staff member was happy and helpful with everything so I wasn’t displeased with the experience. Especially since it had cost around £5.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street (New Trains)

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street (New Trains)

    This is the first time that I’ve had chance to go on the new train between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, I seem to have caught the older rolling stock over the last couple of months. The train was the 11:30 from Norwich, which seemed relatively quiet, even though it was taking passengers from the 12:00 service which had been cancelled. The new train has twelve carriages, and they’ve been made by Stadler in Switzerland.

    A screen showing customers where everything is on the train.

    It’s possible to see all the way down the train, but there are closeable see-through doors along the carriages. The design of the seats is clunky and rushed, the heater unit on the side is in the way of customers, as is the table’s central support which is just where knees might otherwise go. There is now just one power point between two people (unless one has a USB) and for reasons that I cannot comprehend, plugs don’t fit into many of the power sockets as the base of the seat is in the way. I was able to plug my laptop into the power sockets under the seats on the other side of the table, but only because there was no-one sitting there. It’s an unfortunate bodged job from Greater Anglia, arguably unacceptable given the price increases that they’ve introduced which should have meant they had more than enough money to do this properly.

    This slightly irritated me, some idiot putting their feet on what are nearly new seats. Fortunately, it also irritated the guard who politely, but firmly, told the passenger to stop this behaviour when he saw her.

    And safely into London Liverpool Street, all on time.

    The old rolling stock on the left and the new rolling stock on the right.

    Taking everything into account, I prefer the older train. It’s more comfortable, it’s better designed and I think it’s more functional. However, there are two caveats with that, the older train isn’t easy for those with disabilities and it also doesn’t hold as many people as the new train, so these are two big advantages with the upgrade. It’s all very nice that money has been spent on new trains, but I’m hoping that they’re taken in for an interior refit soon to try and give the finish a slightly classier and more functional edge.

  • Norwich – Toiletgate

    Norwich – Toiletgate

    I’m delighted that these lovely new Stadler trains are doing so well. I’ve boarded the 10:33 (which is still on the platform at 10:43) at Norwich to go to Ely, and the train’s toilets are out of operation. There was a plan to get a staff member at Norwich railway station to fix the problem, but it has been discovered that there aren’t any. Which now means that the train is making extended stops at Thetford and Ely for customers on this four carriage train to traipse out and use the station facilities. How lovely.

  • London – London Liverpool Street (Overground)

    London – London Liverpool Street (Overground)

    Heading to Cheshunt, I realised two things, that firstly there was a direct Overground service there and, also, that it departed from London Liverpool Street railway station. Network Rail, with their usual quality of customer service, didn’t seem to have much information on where I could catch this service from. Although, fortunately, it transpired to be much easier than I had expected as the Overground service uses the standard platforms.

    There is some Overground signage on the platforms, although it probably needs better signage around the concourse, with my train departing from Platform 1.

    The service got busier as we progressed towards Cheshunt, but not dramatically so. The carriages could probably do with an upgrade at some stage, but they’re clean and sufficiently comfortable given the short journey length.

    Disembarking at Cheshunt.

    And, here we are, the journey takes around 30 minutes and it ran perfectly to schedule. The journey is meant to cost £4 via London Overground, although it’s possible to go by train which is slightly quicker and also more expensive. I’m hoping that my Contactless card was charged the appropriate amount, with I assume the lower amount always being charged. Although, I’m unsure how that works exactly….

    Personally, I’d rather that this service was returned to the rail network as I can’t quite see what benefit Transport for London are adding by operating this journey. It was run by Abellio Greater Anglia until 2015 and there appears to have been nearly no investment in the service since. If it had continued to be part of Greater Anglia, then perhaps it would have received new carriages with power and more comfortable service.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    I’ve taken this journey from Norwich railway station to London Liverpool Street railway station many tens of times before, but this is the first time that I’ve had a ticket on my phone to show, rather than a simple paper ticket. I was hoping that it might be as advanced as the ones used by Deutsche Bahn, albeit theirs was hardly reliable, but instead it’s just a QR code. Functional, but not exciting.

    I got 10% off this journey as part of a promotion offered by Greater Anglia, with first class being just a few pounds more than standard.

    Travelling at 11:30 in the morning has the advantage of meaning the carriage was relatively empty. The train is comprised of something like eight standard class carriages and two first class carriages. However, due to the forthcoming replacement of these carriages, they’ve been using first class carriages in standard class, but have declassified so anyone can use them. Fortunately the crew made an announcement that customers in declassified first carriages might want to move to actual first class carriages.

    The crew members were all polite and helpful, with the train being clean and tidy. Other than the windows that is, these needed cleaning so that customers could actually see out of them. The wi-fi was broken on the train, although I don’t use it, but the power points were functioning and this was more important to me.

    First class means free drinks and snacks from the buffet car, with the snacks being very lovely, although the coffee was not exactly packed with flavour. Well, it was packed with a bland and bitter flavour, but not much else. Greater Anglia also apparently don’t stock sparkling water any more, so it’s just still water which is available. Greater Anglia need to do more here, especially since they don’t give them out any more at weekends as apparently customers abused them. By abused them, I suspect they meant that they asked for them. I’m not sure how much Greater Anglia really lost on biscuits, but there we are….

    The train left on time and arrived into London around four minutes late, due to some congestion near to London Liverpool Street. The fare for this journey was around £18, which I thought was entirely reasonable given the free snacks and drinks. It won’t be long before the new carriages are being used on the mainline, at which point the journey might become even more comfortable.

  • Deutsche Bahn : Luxembourg to Bonn

    Deutsche Bahn : Luxembourg to Bonn

    At the moment there are some bus replacements operating on this service, so many journeys aren’t as complex as the one which we had to get from Luxembourg to Bonn.

    The train tickets were Sparpreis, cheaper advance saver tickets. The German pricing structure for rail tickets is complex and there are all manner of quirks, expensive prices and discounts available, but the Sparpreis tickets from Luxembourg to Bonn were under €40 each return.

    Our connections were:

    13:33 – 14:56 Luxembourg to Wittlich

    15:06 – 16:31 Wittlich to Koblenz

    17:13 – 17:44 Koblenz to Bonn

    This sounds relatively complex, although the journey back was worse, but more about that later on…..

    Some trains in Luxembourg railway station, I always like the look of these TGV trains. Not that we were getting them, they were a bit expensive compared to our complex routings with Deutsche Bahn….

    The first train was operated by CFL (the Luxembourg rail company) and the second and third trains by Deutsche Bahn.

    It was a double decker train (Dylan would have liked that….) and was sufficiently spacious and had power points, although no wi-fi. It was on this journey which crossed from Luxembourg into Germany that I discovered that for some reason my phone didn’t want to connect to Vodafone Deutschland.

    Nathan’s adapter, the clunky looking thing at the back, for his Nokia 3310 seemed to take up about two feet of space……

    The bus section of the trip was relatively eventful as there was some shouty man on board who seemed to want to cause a disturbance. A member of rail staff who was travelling with the coach did stand up and shout back at the man, which was all rather exciting. I like a bit of drama on my bus replacement services. Although I needed drama since I didn’t have any Internet connection, which was proving to be quite a challenge for me.

    Disembarking from the bus.

    It’s not very clear from the photo, but the police met the shouty man at Koblenz to ask him some questions….

    Koblenz railway station. The city is of relevance to Norwich, as the two are twinned. Not wishing to score cheap points, but Norwich’s railway station is significantly better in terms of facilities and staffing. Although it doesn’t have a McDonald’s, so I think I prefer Koblenz. Or at least I do until Norwich railway station gets a Greggs.

    After a quick trip to McDonald’s, it was time to get the last section of the trip from Koblenz to Bonn. Facilities at the railway were limited and the toilets were chargeable.

    The delights of Koblenz railway station platforms.

    These boards were of limited use, as our train details fell off the screen after its expected departure time had passed. There was information in the app, but it was total nonsense, at one stage telling us to change to platform 5, and then a few minutes later stating it was platform 3. Deutsche Bahn, if I’m being honest, have a shocking lack of customer service staff and it’s noticeable from being used to UK stations how poorly they handle customer issues. There was no-one to ask, but to cut a long story short, our train came in around 45 minutes late.

    On the bright side, and as can be seen from the above photo, all the freight trains that came rushing by didn’t seem to have been impeded. And, it was extra excitement for waiting passengers who thought that the arriving train might actually be a passenger train to get them to their destination.

    Eventually our train to Bonn arrived and it was relatively quiet, so it was easy to get a seat. Certainly Deutsche Bahn need to work on the cleanliness of their trains as well.

    And safely into Bonn ready for our one-day adventure there….. It’s a shame that the app was of limited use during the disruption, as it would have been enormously useful to have information about what to do. Rolling delays are the most frustrating, as it’s not possible to sit somewhere in the warm until the train arrives, it just involves standing on the platform to see what rolls up.

  • Greater Anglia – Stadler Trains

    ** And an update on the below, a few months on and many more journeys into using these trains. I must admit that I like seeing them on the network, primarily as it means that there’s more space on them so I can get a seat. I also like their multi-level structure, it adds some character. I’m still not sure I like the single power point between two seats though, and the heater on the floor is a minor obstruction and can be quite hot. Having seen the Azuma trains operated by LNER, they seem to be better designed in terms of at-seat customer comfort, something I’d hoped that these trains would be as well. So, I’m growing to like these trains, but I’m still not entirely sold on them. But I keep doing my best to like Greater Anglia as so often they can be brilliant. And at other times, perhaps they’re not quite as good as I’d like. If it was a choice of reversing the huge price rises on Anglia Plus Rover tickets and having the old trains, or paying the extra and having these new trains, I’d rather return to how things were.

    I hadn’t expected a Stadler train to appear at Wymondham railway station, hence my not very impressive photo. Anyway, this is my first time on board one of Greater Anglia’s Stadler trains, running from Norwich to Cambridge.

    And, I declare a slight bias that Greater Anglia were one of my favourite companies. But this train is nothing like what was promised to me a few years ago by staff. There were going to be no price rises, there was going to be excellent wi-fi, plugs at every seat and more tables.

    On the plugs at every seat, there’s one wi-fi and one normal plug socket. That’s not ideal and isn’t what I’ve seen on other trains across the European Union.

    I got a table, but there don’t seem to be any more on board than before. I suppose technically there will on average be more carriages, so by default more tables, but it’s not quite what I was led to believe.

    The seat heads are cheap and have already become stained.

    I do like this though, very clear.

    The seats are worse than the previous ones, the armrest has been shrunk in size and there’s a plug socket behind my knee on one side and a large air conditioning / heating block by my other knee. It seems a really clunky design, a beautiful train technically let down by some really cheap interior fitting quality.

    I will though credit Greater Anglia with the investment, as technically these seem to be decent units and so punctuality will improve. That is an appealing thought, as the delays were becoming too frequent across the Greater Anglia network.

    The train at the station. I will also say that I think disabled access has been hugely improved, which is a big advantage for many people. The current trains were quite difficult to manoeuvre around, so the accessibility improvements are notable.

    Technically, the train’s wi-fi isn’t functional and I can’t see any improvement in phone signal, which the meshed window is meant to deliver. I do though note that the tickets I buy have gone up 24% in price since last year and I’m unsure what extra benefit I’m getting from that. I’m a little disappointed in Jamie Burles if I’m being honest about a whole host of things about Greater Anglia, a company which seems in decline from my experience as a passenger.

  • HS1……

    I’m off to Sittingbourne today and I can’t help but wonder whether the average visitor to this country (or resident of this country) is going to find the information:

    “On specified AGA trains only plus HS1”

    really useful? I assume AGA is Abellio Greater Anglia, which isn’t a name they use now on trains, it’s just Greater Anglia. And I assume HS1 is the section of track between London and Kent which connects to the Channel Tunnel, but it does seem a little confusing to me…….