Great Western Coffee Shop

This will please readytostart... I'm going to say something positive about CrossCountry :)

I took the 17:07 off Stoke-on-Trent to Birmingham New Street today and was shocked to see the train had WiFi. Curious as to why there was an unsecured wireless network called xcwifi, I had no choice but to join it... It would have been rude not to have done ;)

Even better... IT'S FREE AND IT ACTUALLY WORKED (But maybe that was a First Class thing ;) )!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

You have to register an account (Which took less than a minute) and it was reasonably quick for mobile internet.

Am curious as to which method it uses... Cellular 3G or Trackside Beacons... I suspect the former ;)

Well Done CrossCountry ;D

I will say though, I changed trains at Birmingham New Street onto the 18:12 Plymouth XC Service. This unit didn't WiFi and Catering from the trolley never once came into First Class and the train was practically empty! >:(

Looks like you managed to travel on one of just two (I believe) Voyagers that is currently trialling Wi-Fi!

CrossCountry are way way behind the roll out date for installing Wi-Fi on their fleet. The whole Voyager and HST fleet should have had it installed by 2009. A date that was a franchise commitment. They have already been fined once by the Dft for this failure.

After being fined, CrossCountry issued a statement saying they were having difficulties finding a system that would work effectively on the Voyagers, with signals being weakened by the high metallic content of the windows. Funny how Virgin were able to roll out Wi-Fi on their Voyagers with little problem.

guess that makes up for the percentage of plastic used on the rest of the units!

AFAIK it's just the one unit (220030) which has wi-fi fitted as part of a trial, when and if the cows come home rest of the fleet is fitted there'll be a cost in standard and free in first. Couldn't get my smartphone to connect when I was on the unit a few months back but I think that's more due to my phone's browser not bringing up the registration screen.
I could've checked the staffing of the 1812 if I'dve seen your post last night but was out for dinner, I know there were quite a few catering failures yesterday but have deleted that email from my BlackBerry already.

BlackBerry!!! :o Cough, Splutter... iPhone's are the way forward governer ;D

There was definately catering staff onboard the train, the chap did a rather enthusiastic announcement that he would pass through the train. The train was very lightly loaded and there were plenty of available seats, so it wasn't like it was really busy. But he didn't come into First Class once between BHM and BRI >:(

I didn't want to get up and go and find him, because the amount of times i've been told to go and sit back down and wait till the staff member gets there, I didn't want to walk all the way up the train, just to have to come all the way back again, tail between my legs, empty handed.

No disrespect to you at all RTS and it's hardly end of the world stuff. But if I go to the Buffet Car on an FGW service, yes I may have to queue up, but I will be served a cup of coffee and some biccys ;D

I have to say it's great that the WiFi is being fitted, and if they roll it out across the whole fleet, I will probably start to use XC again, but the catering and rubbish all over the trains really lets the whole service image down. It's a shame really. :(

The company don't seem to want to give us all iPhones so BB it is for now, comes in handy for finding out where your train is and how many coaches it's missing, I mean has! Also lets you know what crew you'll be working with so can put you in either a good or a bad mood! I do find that Bristol caterers can be a little reluctant to come through the train but then again it's usually the same ones that don't bother making an announcement. Having not worked the route (well not that far down the line) I couldn't say whether it was a one off or not.

Tweeted by Phil Haigh from RAIL magazine earlier on...

"CrossCountry has signed deal with Nomad to fit wifi to its HSTs and Voyagers by end 2012. Better late than never I suppose."

Three years late really is unacceptable. I wonder if the DfT will fine CrossCountry again?