The LNER Azuma experience

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) experience - Standard Class, Inverness to Kings Cross

Others could emulate:
* Seat does not feel so hard as others
* Delivery of catering to seat / promptly, ordered via App, when I wanted it
* Good use of QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code (2D bar code)) code to identify to individual seat
* I paid £49.35 which is just under 9p per mile
* Nice to see / have live train information
* Train WiFi good and consistent
* Train fast and on time
(fingers crossed on these last two - we are now on the York to London leg)

Could do better
* Seat sold as "window seat" is not - it's a bulkhead seat
* Train manager "can't do anything about it" even though plenty of empty seats
* Suggests I move from coach J to try my luck in unreserved coach C
* Too much data needed just to order breakfast.
* Hot "crusty" bacon roll was hot and clearly been hot for a long time
* Kept waiting in concourse at INV until 15 mins before we left ...
* ... even then kept waiting on platform - only allowed on 5 mins before we left
* Second ticket check S of EDI, even though overhead reservation says "from INV"
* Queue for loo with one out of use

And some network-wide comments
* Reservation - Red and orange helpful but you need to known geography if hunting better seat
* Reservations - reveal personal travel plans - "I see you are going to York" chat line ;-)
* Why do some people wear strong perfume to travel?
* "Tickets for TransPennine, CrossCounty and Lumo are not accepted on this service" why so complex still?

[Mark A]

Clean exterior. The LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) livery's unforgiving of grime. Pleasing that it's *crosses fingers for you* running to time.

Mark

[ChrisB]

* "Tickets for TransPennine, CrossCounty and Lumo are not accepted on this service" why so complex still?

Competition.

That's something you wanted a while ago?

[grahame]

* "Tickets for TransPennine, CrossCounty and Lumo are not accepted on this service" why so complex still?

Competition.

That's something you wanted a while ago?

Done right, yes.   But I was NEVER (for example) in favour of 2 buses and hour with 2 minutes and 58 minutes between them, racing to pick up people at stops and not accepting each others tickets at the tail end of the day when their timings were not so closely aligned.


Edit note: Two minor typos corrected, purely for clarity. CfN.

[grahame]

And furthering the experience, the Azuma^▸ (Brand name for Class 80x trains on LNER) was on time into King's Cross

My Plymouth bound IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) from Paddington - the 18:36 left of time, but ...

18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth due 22:10 is being delayed between London Paddington and Reading and is now expected to be 12 minutes late.

This is due to a fault on a train in front of this one.

Due into Westbury at 19:58, connection leaves for Melksham at 20:06 ...

[bobm]

Think you have had that - they have let the Newbury stopper out from Reading in front of it.   Was due to leave 19:10 (which it did) and the Plymouth two or three minutes behind.

[bobm]

..and now they have let an incoming stopper from Newbury cross in front of it.

[bobm]

The service from Newbury arrived two minutes early after crossing in front of the Plymouth.   Meanwhile the Newbury bound service in front of the Plymouth has been routed into Towney Loop near Aldermaston, but I fear that may be too late unless the Melksham is given a hold.  It should be cross platform at Westbury which also raises a glimmer of hope.

[grahame]

The service from Newbury arrived two minutes early after crossing in front of the Plymouth.   Meanwhile the Newbury bound service in front of the Plymouth has been routed into Towney Loop near Aldermaston, but I fear that may be too late unless the Melksham is given a hold.  It should be cross platform at Westbury which also raises a glimmer of hope.

Thanks for the updates ... the stopper explains why we nearly came to a stand around Aldermaston. Now 19 minutes down.   On past form, the are unlikely to hold the Melksham as there'a a Portsmouth - Cardiff that uses platform 3 a few minutes later.   That may be held a couple of minutes for Trowbridge passengers, but for Melksham passengers, tough luck.

[stop press] - we're only approaching Pewsey when we should be approaching Westbury

[bobm]

As feared, and predicted, the 20:06 from Westbury to Cheltenham Spa via Melksham left on time.

[grahame]

As feared, and predicted, the 20:06 from Westbury to Cheltenham Spa via Melksham left on time.

Real fun here - even the Cardiff at 20:13 left before the arrival at 20:16 from Paddington and the people for Trowbridge and B-o-A are waiting for the 20:45.

As I would be over an hour late I asked if they would arrange a taxi, but as I asked at 20:17 after the had despatch the train from London onwards toward Plymouth, and then he took a while to look up the next Swindon train, he was then able to tell me it was less than an hour to the next train and he couldn't make any alternative arrangements.  Perhaps I should have rudely barged in while he was despatching and I would be almost home by now 

Why on earth do GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) sell really good fares London to Melksham on the busy Plymouth train with the connection that fails as often as it work, rather than on the Frome train that's just ahead of it?  Not been on that one for a while but I suspect it is quieter, and the connections likely to work 90% not 60% of the time - save a fortune in delay/repay.   Personally I would much prefer to be home 70 minutes earlier that get a refund on an already well-priced ticket.

[Mark A]

That's a long day's travel. Sending props.

Mark

[grahame]

That's a long day's travel. Sending props.

Mark

Yes - though I had a break in London and took the opportunity to get some "fresh" air walking from Kings Cross to Paddington.  Pictures in the morning - Westbury Station is just about the slowest internet connection around to upload!

[grahame]

That's a long day's travel. Sending props.

Mark

Yes - though I had a break in London and took the opportunity to get some "fresh" air walking from Kings Cross to Paddington.  Pictures in the morning - Westbury Station is just about the slowest internet connection around to upload!

Bit better now ... here you go ... Regents Canal

[Mark A]

Thinking back to catching that Inverness train, having landed an advance first pair of tickets for about £130 each, through to Bath.

Not sure if I'm conflating two journeys - from Inverness, LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) hadn't been able to resource the catering crew: breakfast was porridge and a banana and a lovely view from the Findhorn viaduct. An hour or so later, the first bit of the descent from Drumochter sees the line running down one side of an unpleasant little gully below the road and the view through the window was well into 'Glad that's the other side of a piece of double glazing' territory.

On the catering front, things perked up at.. was it Edinburgh, where the second catering crew take over. The last leg of the journey, York to Kings Cross non-stop felt relentless. Drawing alongside a Thameslink train at one point, the interior seating on that looked particularly spartan.

The last leg involved the 17:00 from Paddington, where we had an entire 1st class carriage to ourselves plus one other passenger and a good but rather underemployed customer host who kindly plied us with tea and slices of that fruit cake for the entire journey to Bath.

Mark