After a traditional meal we walked the 45 minutes or so to Batumi Central railway station, even though it’s not really very central.
I had high hopes for this train, it’s a double-decker that’s relatively new to Georgian Railways.
Georgian Railways, operating since 1872, with their first passenger service operating between Poti to Tbilisi.
The train was already at the platform, so I had a little look at the front (or back, I can’t remember) whilst waiting for the doors to open. One illogicality of the train was that although we had a compulsory seat reservation, they hadn’t marked what carriage was which from the outside.
Oooh, Stadler, like the Greater Anglia trains I’m now so used to. With that, it was time to board and there were document checks when boarding on, with the staff member pointing us where to go. He seemed cheerful and helpful, as did all the staff on board the train.
This interior is, broadly appalling and was something of a disappointment. Five seats across really don’t fit here, so there’s no comfort available when the train is full. They’ve also crammed so many seats in that passengers will have their knees hitting each other, with no table seats. There are power points but they’re in an odd recessed location, although the wifi worked well. And why have they decided to have planes on the seats of a train?
The internal signage was good, but I wonder why they’ve had Stadler build trains to a high build quality and then demanded from them a cramped interior? Ironically, the older trains looked like they were falling apart, but they were more spacious. But, the train was clean and tidy throughout, with even the toilets being in reasonable condition.
However, the train wasn’t very busy and so we had more than enough space and I was able to enjoy the rather beautiful view as the train went by the Black Sea at the beginning of its journey.
There are videos of this, and much else, to come….
There’s no buffet car, but there’s an affordable vending machine which was a more than suitable replacement.
I haven’t done a proper Jet Lag Snack Zone (a YouTube channel that I think is inspirational!) element yet, that’s something else that’s coming up, but these beef flavoured crisps from the vending machine were a bit chunky but provided a solid snack. 7/10.
Back to interior photos, here’s the upstairs of the train.
I’m pleased to note, that unlike the train in Turkey that was delayed for 12 hours, we arrived into Tbilisi on time. I very much enjoyed this rail journey and it was reasonably priced, but we were fortunate that it wasn’t busy. It’s a shame that they’ve packed so many seats in here, the train is a beautiful thing and the internal decor is bright and cheery.