Great Western Coffee Shop

I saw Nottingham and Bristol used for a regional comparison on the TV the other week, and as I was up in Nottingham and aware of the overcrowding and fare issues of Bristol Commuters (!!) , I thought you might be interested in a very quick comparison ...

Train from Nottingham to Beeston, 1.80 for 4.5 miles. So that's 20 pence per mile (contrast 30ppm Bath-Bristol, and about 56ppm Chippenham to London). 2 coach train, fairly full seating wise, but a couple of us standing.  More modern unit than anything I have seen on comparable services in our part of the world. Services on offer - 5 or 6 an hour; mine was a Crosscountry to Cardiff

I like Nottingham station; for sure there's reconstruction work going on there and it's a bit of a rabbit warren as a result, but the platforms are wide and access is direct off both main bridges and there are none of those barriers that make me feel like I'm being criminalised in the South West these days. And noting the fare level, it seems they haven't had to put the fares up so that the rest of us pay for fare dodgers.

Return this evening - 4 coach train (East Midland Franchise this one) and again more modern that the ones I'm familiar with.  Space to sit down even in the peak hour. Fast little journey. And train on time.

Looking around Nottingham station, I spotted a 158 waiting to head out to the East ... in Wessex Trains colours ... and resisted the temptation to jump on and suggest it had been stolen. It certainly didn't look to be anything like as busy as it would have been setting our from Bristol in the evening peak hour.

that was a 170 turbostar you were on grahame, that was going to cardiff, probably The best modern unit running around today bit of modern sort of 158

Much quieter and nicer than a 158. You feel like you're on a modern train as opposed to a 20 year old one. Which coincidentally you are.

Your experiences remind me of my trip to Edinburgh last Autumn, you look at all the modern trains around you, and wonder why we can't have a few of the same. And I also saw a clapped out ex Wessex unit too reinforcing just how poor a deal we get with rolling stock allocation.