Night Riviera - merged posts, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[alan_508]

The past few times I have travelled on this It has come to my attention that there are no phone chargers in the carriages unlike the hst sets anyone know why ??

[devon_metro]

Less money was spent on the refurb.

[Mookiemoo]

Less money was spent on the refurb.

nice

since an overnight train is surely the one most definitely likely to need chargers of some sort

[JayMac]

I have successfully used the shaver point in the berths to power my laptop! You of course need a 3 pin to 2 pin adaptor.

[Chris from Nailsea]

 

[Tim]

There are power sockets in the lounge car.

If you don't want your phoen to go flat whilst you are asleep turn it off.  A phone in a moving vehicle will run down much faster than one left at home.  Everytime it moves from one "cell" to another, it starts sending out quite high power tranmissions to try an attract the attention of another cell and this kills the battery life/. 

[willc]

Don't think this has been posted elsewhere, so apologies if it has. Demand for sleeper berths is so strong that  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is adding a fourth sleeper coach to the train every night with a fifth coach on the Friday train to Penzance and the Sunday night return working, which probably means there's not much left by way of spare sleeper coaches in FGW's fleet. Time for a raid on Long Marston?

FGW news item:

Train operator First Great Western has increased the number of beds on its Night Riviera Sleeper trains, which operate between London Paddington and Penzance, by popular demand.
Business along the route is now doing so well that the number of sleeping cars has been increased from three to four every night, meaning a train can now sleep up to 60 customers in either direction, seeing the service likened to a mobile hotel. Key weekend trains on Friday night from London and Sunday night from Cornwall have even more beds, sleeping up to 75 customers.

The Night Riviera operates every Sunday to Friday, with one train running in either direction and customers are offered a hot breakfast to set them up for the day. With on-demand televisions in all single berths, First Great Western^s Regional Manager for the West of England, Julian Crow, thinks that train really is the best way to travel.

Julian added: ^We^re pleased with the continuing increase in popularity of our Night Riviera Sleeper trains and happy to announce these extra beds each night to meet the growing demand.

^This growing popularity shows how effective the sleeper service really is for travel between Cornwall and London, enabli

ng customers to sleep away the miles and arrive at their destinations refreshed and ready to face the day. ^

[eightf48544]

Are there any sleepers in Long Marston?

[willc]

I think there were about half-a-dozen stored there last year. If anyone wants a look round Long Marston, there will be an open day on September 12. For more info, see the Diary section.

[JayMac]

Are there any sleepers in Long Marston?

I should think so. Wooden ones, concrete ones, metal ones. Maybe even some of those new-fangled ones made from recycled plastic!! 

[inspector_blakey]

Can't remember if there are any sleepers stored at Long Marston off hand, but there should certainly be plenty of mk 3 sleepers spare somewhere. BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) built a fairly large number just before lots of sleeper services were permanently withdrawn, so there should still be plenty around that have barely turned a wheel in service. That's if they haven't all been snapped up yet by heritage railways for use as dormitory accommodation, which many of them have.

It's great to know that demand is so strong for the Night Riviera though, especially "in this economy" (hate that phrase!). Hopefully this bodes well for its future. Makes the threats to remove it when the franchise was renewed in 2006 look rather silly now.

[LiskeardRich]

this is good news considering a couple of years ago there was large mention of the service being scrapped,

[Mookiemoo]

Probably more to do with the cost of petrol and the cost of flights

[Cornish Traveller]

  ......... and people finding out it exists !!! 

[willc]

Can't remember if there are any sleepers stored at Long Marston off hand, but there should certainly be plenty of mk 3 sleepers spare somewhere.

Beyond the ones in traffic with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and ScotRail, they're really aren't that many left that haven't been disposed of to preserved railways, which is why I mentioned Long Marston and there are a number still listed in store there by the ABRail database http://abrail.co.uk/lhcspassdetail.htm and The Junction http://www.thejunction.org.uk/flist_lhs_3.html

This one was photographed at the June 2009 Long Marston open day http://www.rollingstock.fotopic.net/p58806839.html

The ones listed at Moreton-in-Marsh have probably been bashed about rather a lot by firefighters by now so I doubt they will turn a wheel again.