Trains in the UK often get a bad reputation, whether for the terrible reliability,
or the extremely high fares. But today, I'm going to be taking a look INSIDE one of the
UK's most HATED trains - the Avanti West Coast 'Super Voyager' - to find out just
what makes this train so bad. Running from Holyhead on the sunny coast of North Wales,
we'll be travelling on this high-speed train down to the English capital, London. So join me for
this three hour trip, as we find out just what's wrong with one of the UK's most HATED trains!
Well good afternoon from the port town of Holyhead, in North Wales,
where it looks like I've been blessed with some typical weather.
Holyhead station is surprisingly large, when you consider this town has just
13,000 residents. However, this scale is all down to its history, which we'll get to soon.
The station has three platforms, with a fourth one previously being located next to platform 2 here.
Only two platforms are actually located here,
though, with the one my train will be departing from a few minutes walk away.
As for facilities, the station has a small shop, and little else to be honest.
However, the station building also serves as a ferry port, with frequent departures to Dublin.
Of course, before the advent of budget airlines,
this train and ferry combination was the only affordable way to reach Ireland.
Whilst those days are far behind us now,
some great value 'SailRail' fares between UK cities and Dublin still exist today.
Anyway, my train today will be the 13:58 service to London Euston, departing from platform 1.
So let's head back out of the station building for the long walk to platform 1.
This platform is easy to miss, and in fact,
I even had to ask other people to find out where the train actually departed from.
And here's my Class 221 'Super Voyager' train, operated by Avanti West Coast. These high-speed
tilting diesel units have earnt themselves quite the reputation over their 20 years of service.
Some of the most common complaints are the unpleasant smell,
and intense overcrowding due to their short length.
The units are just five carriages long, but thankfully my train is
formed of two units coupled together, resulting in a much nicer 10 carriages.
A fleet of 44 'Super Voyager' units was ordered by Virgin Trains in the late 1990s,
as part of a flashy modernisation of the West Coast and Cross Country routes.
Nowadays, some of these trains are operated by Avanti West Coast, while about half of them ended
up with CrossCountry, who run them on journeys of up to 13 hours between Scotland and the South
of England. Let me know in the comments if you want to see my try this BRUTAL journey!
Time to get on-board!
No seat reservation today, so I'll be taking any available seat.
Standard Class is in a 2+2 layout, with mostly airline-style seats,
though there are also a limited number of table seats available throughout the train.
My seat today will be Coach J, Seat 56, a forward facing window seat.
Today's route will see us heading along the scenic North Wales Coast to Crewe,
before running at full speed down the West Coast Mainline into London Euston. Journey time is
scheduled to be three hours and 34 mintues, covering 263 miles, or about 423 kilometres.
We end up departing Holyhead on-time, at 13:58.
If you look closely beyond all the raindrops on the window,
you can catch a glimpse of Holyhead signal box, dating back to 1938.
And just beyond this, some of the classic semaphore signals controlled by it.
So, let's have a look around the interior of Standard Class.
As I mentioned earlier, seating is in a 2+2 layout,
which can feel cramped at times thanks to the particularly narrow bodyshell of these trains.
Though I'll explain the reason for this narrow design a little bit later.
The seating looks really smart, having been refurbished just a few years ago.
There's a decent amount of padding, which actually made this seat really comfortable.
It also has good ergonomic support, and up top, a nicely curved headrest.
Between seats, there's a folding armrest. Though this was quite narrow, and unusually curved.
Legroom is pretty tight as far as long-distance trains go,
which leads to longer journeys feeling like a little bit of a squeeze.
The seat in front has a folding table. This was pretty small,
but did feature a groove to hold a drink.
And up here, there's an adjustable blind,
which could effectively block out the sun. However, there wasn't anything to block.
Lastly, there were some coathooks located here above the seats.
Looking outside, we're currently passing by the Royal Air Force base in Valley. This used
to serve the only domestic flight in Wales, with a daily commuter service to Cardiff.
And not long later, we pass through a town that
claims to have the longest name in Europe, displayed on screen now.
Though for the station's official name, this is shortened to just Llanfairpwll.
Our time on the Isle of Anglesey is coming to an end, as we begin to cross the Britannia Bridge.
This double-deck bridge carries a single rail track,
with a two-lane road on the upper level. It serves as a vital link from the Isle
of Anglesey to mainland Wales, and by extension, the rest of the UK.
Also be sure to look out for one of the four
lion statues at either end of the bridge, two on each side.
Our first station is Bangor, now on the mainland of Wales.
This is the busiest station in North Wales by passenger count,
with over half a million passengers using the station every year.
At this point, we meet the North Wales coastline,
which we will be running alongside for the next hour or so.
This part of the route provides some amazing views,
and as the sun has (surprisingly) come out, there's even a rainbow in the distance.
Though at Conwy, we briefly head inland,
affording an incredible view of Conwy Castle, which dates back to the mid-13th Century.
Nowadays, it serves as a major tourist attraction in the area,
and is even a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
To the left is the line from the seaside resort town of Llandudno,
visible as we arrive into one of the only places in the UK named after a train station.
Llandudno Junction is a village previously known as Tremarl,
though with the opening of the station and the now-closed maintenance depot,
the village's name was changed to match that of the station.
Let me know in the comments if you're aware of any other places named after stations!
This is Rhyl, a very popular tourist destination here in North Wales.
In the peak summer season, these platforms would be swarming with passengers,
both beginning and ending their holidays in the area, but in winter it's a bit less lively.
For a train serving a route with a lot of seasonal leisure traffic,
you might expect these trains to be well appointed for carrying luggage.
But instead, there were just one or two fairly small luggage stacks per carriage.
And the overhead luggage racks were tiny compared to most other trains.
Though luckily, the seats were specially designed to allow for storing luggage beneath them. There's
even an airline-style bar to prevent the bags from sliding away on take-off...I mean on departure!
One of the last things we see in Wales is the TSS Duke of Lancaster,
a passenger ship built for British Rail in 1955, which was often used between the UK and Ireland.
This beached ship was used as a tourist attraction for children for many years,
however since 2004 this has ceased, and its future is unknown.
After crossing the border into England, we call at the major interchange station in Chester.
This beautiful station sees a frequent service
from Northern and Transport for Wales, offering regional services.
There are also electric commuter trains operated by Merseyrail,
which run into Liverpool every fifteen minutes.
As the engines gently purr away under the floor, we begin the short ride from here over to Crewe,
on the West Coast Mainline, which we will be running on for the remainder of the trip.
On the way, we also pass another Avanti West Coast service running to Chester.
Crewe is home to the Crewe Heritage Centre, where a collection of older
diesel and electric locomotives are parked up in preservation.
We can even catch a glimpse of the Advanced Passenger Train,
the British-built tilting high-speed unit that unfortunately never made it into full service.
Crewe is by far one of the largest interchanges on the UK railway network, with an incredible
seven train companies serving the station - let me know in the comments if you can name them all.
On the opposite platform is a Pendolino, the other train in Avanti West Coast's
fleet. These tilting electric trains run the majority of long-distance trains on the route,
with the diesel Voyagers only serving routes that aren't fully electrified.
For a few years, these Pendolino units were dragged to Holyhead by a diesel loco,
though this practice did not last very long.
From Crewe, we now run non-stop for the hour long ride to Milton Keynes Central.
As well as the seven train companies that serve the station, it's common to
see those of other operators parked up in the sheds to the south for testing.
The West Coast Mainline is one of the UK's most prestigious mainlines,
and as such we can run at up to 125mph (200km/h) for much of the remaining journey.
The fleet of Super Voyager units is also capable of tilting, which allows
them to take curves at a higher speed than usual, as you can sort of see here. Though
this does mean the carriages are narrower than average, to cater for this feature.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. These trains are fitted with free WiFi,
which was easy to connect to.
This offered reasonable speeds for surfing the internet and sending messages.
There is also a three-pin socket provided for each pair of seats.
And above the seat, there's a pair of very bright individual reading lights...necessary,
as these trains have a dim and relaxed atmosphere.
Here, we pass through the station of Rugby,
which is supposedly where the sport of the same name was invented.
It's also a major junction, with the busy line
from Birmingham joining up to the West Coast Mainline here.
Now let's go and have a look around the rest of the train.
One of the other Standard Class carriages features a special seating area,
with all seats situated around a large table.
This used to be sold as First Class during times of high demand,
but nowadays you can sit here with a Standard Class ticket.
Actual First Class features a 2+1 seating layout, with comfortable reclining leather seats.
There's also a buffet counter located in one carriage,
however this was closed on the service I took.
Four toilets are provided on this train, and strangely they are all wheelchair access toilets,
despite some carriages not even having wheelchair spaces.
A lot of people complain about these toilets, saying they always smell really bad,
but that's not the case on this train, or indeed most of my other experiences on Voyagers either.
This modern and clean vacuum toilet was in very good condition.
The soap was working fine...as was the water.
Though frustratingly, I couldn't get the hand dryer to work.
Our last stop before London is Milton Keynes Central,
a relatively new city, being founded in 1967.
This is where the train gets busy, with the rush
of commuters travelling back down to London. After all, it's just gone 5pm.
As we're now on the last dash down the capital, let's talk about how much this journey costs.
For a flexible one-way ticket, with my 16-25 Railcard discount of a third, it costs £55.80.
This price is not valid for the early morning peak services, but can be used on any other trains
along the route, which I think is actually fairly reasonable for the level of comfort and speed.
Though of course, most people won't be able to take advantage
of this discount, so will pay £88.70 one-way...which is quite expensive.
As for the future of these trains? Well, they are being replaced by Avanti West Coast imminently,
with a large fleet of Hitachi Class 805 bi-mode
units currently being tested. These can run on electricity as well as diesel,
which will help to reduce the amount of diesel trains running on electrified tracks.
The next operator is not yet known, with some having already gone to Grand Central,
and numerous operators reportedly taking an interest in the fleet...
As we draw closer to London, you can see the London Overground commuter
trains. A clear sign this journey is nearly over.
And sure enough, just five minutes later we're gliding into London Euston, one of London's
many terminal stations. Arrival is about three minutes late, at 17:40, which isn't too bad.
Overall, I enjoyed my ride on the Voyager. When not overcrowded, I find these trains really
pleasant to travel on, with a comfortable seat and a smooth ride. But as always,
let me know what you think of the Voyagers in the comments, and for a look at an even more
hated train in the UK, then click up here now to watch my video on the old Northern Rail Pacer!