right guys glasgow central railway station this afternoon and i am taking the direct train service
down to manchester piccadilly with transpennine express now there are several coach companies
that run a service from glasgow to manchester national express megabus flixbus but if you want
to get there two hours quicker you've got to take the train haven't you i know it costs a little
bit more but let's go and see how it compares and i will catch you on board cheers for now
glasgow central is the northern terminus of the west coast mainline which will take
you all the way down to london and it's predominantly used by avanti west coast
now as you would expect there are also extensive local services covering the surrounding area
all of which are operated by scotrail opened way back in
1879 it has 17 platforms two of which are on the subterranean lower level concourse
it's the 12th busiest station in britain and when you look around all the restored features
of the main concourse it won't surprise you to know that it is a category a listed building
and i think you'll agree it is so much better than its counterpart at the other end london euston
anyway we wouldn't be going that far today displayed on the main departures board is
our train the 1508 transpennine express direct service to manchester piccadilly
or manchester airport if you want to be precise it was on time and at platform so
yeah let's go and check it out and we'll see what we get for our money shall we
and here she is a class 397 nova 2 an electric multiple unit built by
the spanish manufacturer caf to run between glasgow and either manchester or liverpool
it's capable of 125 miles per hour these five car units consist of four standard class carriages
and one first-class carriage at the rear now i've been on one of these trains before but
for a much shorter journey so i was interested to see how comfortable it would prove to be on
a far longer trip this one was timetabled to take three hours and 19 minutes in total
first impressions upon boarding were yeah i still love the colour scheme of the transpennine
interiors and i think it makes the whole carriage look bright and spacious and you'll notice
here that's almost all the seats in this 2-2 standard carriage configuration are table seats
the coach letter is clearly displayed on the tv display here in case you missed it on the exterior
and there's also ample luggage space at both ends of the carriage and above the seats
leg room beneath the table looks a bit tight which i do tend to find with these layouts
let me know what you think are the best and worst trains for legroom in your experience
now the seats have a kind of integrated antimacassar if that's the right terminology here
they're a bit firmer than i remember and yeah some of them are starting to look a bit grubby where
the stains have appeared yeah to be honest um they could probably do with a clean transpennine
we've got conventional power and usb sockets between the seats
and a digital reservation display above the window note there are no blinds on the windows which is
a bit of a downside if the sun ever did decide to make an appearance in this country of course
right let's get going on this very quiet train day
to manchester enjoy some of the sights of the west coast mainline as we head
south and i'll speak to you again once we've crossed over the border into england
okay so we left carlisle and it was around about this point that transpennine checked
everybody's tickets now i'm not going to do an extensive review of the loo this time around but
i will link to my previous transpennine video if you're interested in that suffice to say there
were no issues everything was fully stocked and functioning as you would expect note that
whilst most of the toilets on this train are quite small there is an accessible toilet in coach e
now right at the front of coach a where i was you'll find room for four bicycles
you need to reserve these prior to boarding which can be done up to 15 minutes before travel
and then you get a little red reserved lignt same as a seat really now transporting bikes must be
much easier on the train than on the coach have you ever taken a bicycle on the coach
or is it even possible if you have then please let me know how you do it in the comments below
one other part of the carriage i thought i'd show you is the airline style
priority seating now this is located nearest to the doors which is what you'd expect really
isn't it and it has pretty good leg room which is again what you need really the drop down
table was robust and of an ample size with this handy extender here it was nice and clean too
and as you can see the priority seating areas have their own call assistance button and emergency
alarm wi-fi well it connected but it wasn't able to display things such as social media images
so to be honest it probably wasn't worth the hassle provided you've got a decent data package
the trolley service is back on transpennine took a while to get down the train but
they had plenty of snacks and hot and cold drinks available note they seem to
have a larger selection of alcoholic beverages than anything else on the menu i had a coffee
leaving penrith we've been making good progress doing about 170 kilometres an hour at this point
the weather outside wasn't up to much to be honest typical lake district weather maybe staring out
the window at the grey clouds reminded me a bit of my dreary trip up to glasgow with megabus the
night before and believe me the less i thought about that the better however i do need to talk
to you about the transport choices available if you want to travel this route yourself
now there are several coach companies that will take you from glasgow down to manchester direct
namely national express the aforementioned megabus and also flixbus now they all take around five
hours to make the trip according to their websites compared to the three hours and 19 minutes on the
train i looked at comparative pricing for the day i took this journey at round about a time
reasonably close to when i was traveling megabus were the cheapest at £6.99 plus their £1 booking
fee flixbus were second at £8.99 but then they also had a £1 booking fee and national
express came in at exactly £10 and you can avoid their £1 booking fee by registering with them
i paid £29.70 for this train journey that included a £2 discount voucher on the train pal
website which is considerably more isn't it now obviously the train is nearly two hours quicker
it's more spacious and more comfortable in my opinion but at the end of the day if you're not
pushed for time you can do a lot with the £20 you've saved by going on the coach can't you
now thinking back to my overnight experience on the coach i think it's a whole different ball game
compared to doing the same journey in the day and when you don't really feel the need
to try and get some sleep and with a company like flixbus for example you can pay a little bit more
to just reserve the seat next to you if you want to i guess it depends on how much value
you place on your time and comfort to an extent because don't forget you can get up
and stretch your legs on the train well these are my thoughts anyway i would love to hear
yours so um yeah please as always guys let me know what you think in the comments below
anyway we soon reached lancaster where there was another transpennine express
class 397 waiting on the other platform this one was heading up to edinburgh
which is the other option there when travelling north up to scotland
and then after lancaster it's about 20 minutes to preston which is one of my favorite stations
on the west coast main line and then it's straight down to manchester really oxford
road first and then my final destination which would be manchester piccadilly
all right guys that was glasgow central to manchester piccadilly on the transpennine express
class 397 397002
bang on time another great service by transpennine express i really enjoy their trains actually
it's clean there's a trolley service on board just um no issues whatsoever i'm off now to
catch my final train uh which is a transport for wales manchester piccadilly down to shrewsbury
and then go and get some rest i think thank you very much for watching
i'll see you on another adventure soon and as always guys cheers for now