Keen apple grower dedicated to preserving old-fashioned English varieties of outstanding quality an...
Keen apple grower dedicated to preserving old-fashioned English varieties of outstanding quality and flavour. Enjoys walking long-distance footpaths and lunching at country pubs.
Member since:24.05.2008
Reviews:1
OLD TRAINS ARE OFTEN THE BEST!
* Arriving at Nottingham Station at 18.10 hours on Monday, 19th May, 2008, I find the 1830 hours East Midlands Trains ("EMT") service to London St. Pancras International already platformed - but not yet ready for boarding. According to the East Midlands Trains ("EMT") pocket timetable the train is a new Meridian unit - indicated by purple printing - but in fact it turns out to be a thirty- year old High Speed Train set, which pleases me no end. Recently refurbished to a high standard by Midland Mainline, the eight-coach trainset still displays the livery of the former Train Operating Company which set such high standards of customer service. There is no First Class Lounge at Nottingham, although it forms the hub of a rail network stretching from London in the South to Scarborough in the North, and from Norwich in the East to Liverpool in the West. I wonder if EMT plans to provide a First Class Lounge in future? Even if it did, my £14 deep-discount ticket would not guarantee admission - only full-price First Class tickets do that! (Question - Why, when the First Class lounges are empty away from peak travelling times? Shouldn't all First Class ticket holders be equal, rather than some being more equal than others?) Actually, my train has been standing in Nottingham since at least 17.50 hours, so why not unlock the doors and allow First Class passengers to use the train itself as a lounge, as Scotrail used to do with their Sleeper service from Glasgow to London? I seat myself in the Standard Class waiting room, which is warm and clean, and go through my papers until the train doors are unlocked at 1820 hours, whereupon I board and find my reserved seat in the second carriage. On an EMT High
Speed train there are eight carriages - five Standard-Class, two First Class and one carriage shared between First Class and the Buffet.
The toilet compartment in my carriage is small but scrupulously clean, with plenty of hot water, soap and tissue. I get out my washkit and scrub my face, neck and hands before drenching myself in Lynx deodorant - unless this is done once per rail journey, the collars and cuffs of my white shirts get very grubby.
All freshened up and squeaky-clean I return to my reserved seat, whose cushion measures twenty-one inches wide and eighteen inches deep, which both reclines and lines up perfectly with a (curtained) window.
When I continue my journey from London Victoria to the South Coast I will be travelling First Class on New Southern Railway - only thanks to my Gold Card, by the way, I'm just an impoverished Sports Administrator - on a much newer train. On this Electrostar unit my seat will measure just seventeen inches by fifteen inches, will not recline and will not align with a curtained window! That's progress for you - as people get bigger, train seats get smaller; and as global warming progresses the window curtains are removed!
Departure from Nottingham is dead on time and we're soon gliding past Nottingham Castle, where the future King Edward III caught his mother in bed with her murderous boyfriend, in the direction of Loughborough. Acceleration on HST's is nothing special, but because the engines are at the ends of the train, rather than under the floor, there is none of the noise and vibration associated with Meridian units. A cheerful stewardess, wearing her MML uniform with the insignia removed, wheels her refreshment trolley through and offers me complimentary coffee, biscuits and mineral water, which I accept. Gone are MML's stylish cups and saucers - I wonder who got them in the end - to be replaced by a plain, white mug. Gone, too, are MML's £3 bar vouchers, which gave you £4 worth of refreshments from the buffet. Used in combination with a MML Loyalty Card - also discontinued by East Midlands Trains - they gave a generous discount off the cost of breakfast!
Walking through the train, I find that there are just two other passengers in my carriage, which seats forty-eight people. In fact, just eight First Class ticket holders are competing for 120 seats - so on this service, legroom and elbow room are not major issues.
At Trent Junction we hang a sharp left turn and follow the valley of the River Soar due South towards Leicester. On our nearside the eight cooling towers of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station simmer gently in the evening sunshine. Commissioned in 1968, this giant 2000 MW coal-burning station keeps the lights blazing across most of the East Midlands. (Question - why doesn't EMT produce a Window Gazer's Guide to the sights along the route, in the same format as those available from Virgin Trains and GNER? Come to think of it, why don't I offer to write the booklet? Twelve minutes after leaving Nottingham the brakes come on for the stop at Loughborough. Because this station has short platforms (Question for EMT - why have they never been lengthened? Are breezeblocks and concrete too expensive these days?) the lower orders walk through from Steerage in order to alight from the front few coaches. On HST's the droplights in the doors have to be lowered to reach the outside handle, and most passengers neglect to raise them afterwards. As we pull away from our first stop I walk through the train closing the open windows - it reduces the load on the air conditioning and prevents a 100 mph gale from howling through the passenger saloons. (Question - Why doesn't EMT weld the windows shut and replace the catches on the inside of the doors?)
Interestingly, the drinks trolley doesn't pass through First Class again after we leave Loughborough .... whereas on (most) Great Western inter-city services it appears after every station stop. Obviously no First Class passengers got on at Loughborough - just impecunious University students. As we pass the huge British Gypsum mine at Sileby, from which most of the UK's plasterboard ultimately derives, I feel the lack of a Route Guide more keenly than ever.
Arrival into Leicester at 18.56 is slightly early. There is no need to repel hostile boarders - on departure my carriage still contains forty-five empty seats! From here we are allowed 71 minutes to cover the 100 miles to London, with no intermediate stops but plenty of severe curves and a sawtooth gradient profile!
The refreshment trolley appears again and I'm offered - and accept - a glass of white wine and a refill of coffee.. The former is served in a tumbler, not the elegant stemmed glass which characterised MML, whilst the latter has to be whitened with milk from a horrible sachet which has to be squeezed like a cow's udder to extract the contents.
From Leicester the railway, running North/South, crosses the valleys of the rivers Nene, Welland and Ouse, running West/East towards The Fens and the North Sea. Consequently the power cars of our HST have much work to do as we face the three big hills of Kibworth, Desborough and Sharnbrook
A gentleman traveller in the next seating bay decides to try EMT's new, at-seat menu, and soon the delectable scent of Beef in Ale Casserole fills the carriage. Actually, with Soup, a Main Course and Fruit Salad all available you can just about construct a proper, three course meal if you so wish. Not quite the same as One Anglia's restaurant car service from London to Norwich - which sets standards in terms of quality and price which other tOC's can only aspire to - but better than nothing at all. As it happens I ate well - and drank even better - at a Wetherspoon's pub in Nottingham, so hunger is not my main concern. (Question - Why doesn't EMT offer an all-day breakfast for £10 in the Restaurant Car on every train which has one? Try it, advertise it properly, and see what the demand is like!)
The bubbles in my two calibrated spirit levels, placed at right angles on the spacious table in front of me, jerk back and forth as the 1960's suspension system beneath my carriage is tested to the limit - and even a bit beyond! Stopwatch in one hand and calculator in the other, I'm concentrating so hard on timing our passage between consecutive quarter-mile posts that I miss seeing Sir Thomas Tresham's seditious Triangular Lodge at Rushton. This hymn in stone to the Old Faith, built by a devout Roman Catholic at a time of religious persecution, must have puzzled Queen Elizabeth I's ubiquitous informers. As a traditionalist Anglican, in a time of religious apathy, I can only sympathise.... Next item of interest is the huge Weetabix factory at Burton Latimer, followed eventually by the massive airship sheds at Cardington. The rolling hills of Northamptonshire, torn apart in living memory for the precious Ironstone which fed the insatiable blast furnaces of Corby, look so tranquil now in our post-industrial economy. After Bedford - exactly fifty miles from London - the engines open up again for the interminable climb out of the Ouse Valley at a continuous 1:200 gradient to Harlington, from whence it is pretty much downhill all the way to London.
The stewardess returns to collect my used mug and tumbler, and relay the table, before we arrive into London St. Pancras, on time, at 20.11hours. I hurry off to pay £4 for my single, Standard-Class Zone One ticket to Victoria on the Underground.
I've just paid £14 to East Midlands Trains for 126 miles of First-Class rail travel in air-conditioned luxury on a clean, comfortable and uncrowded train. I've had had two cups of coffee, a bottle of water, a packet of biscuits and a glass of wine served to me at seat by a friendly stewardess. I've watched the beautiful English countryside glide past my picture window and also arrived at my destination in one piece and on time.
On the negative side, I believe there should be a First Class Lounge at Nottingham open to all First Class ticket holders - because passengers with discounted tickets can only travel off-peak, when it is very quiet anyway. Also the lack of power sockets for laptopcomputers and mobiletelephones on the older HST trains needs to be looked at when they are next refurbished. Wi-Fi access should be available throughout the train but free in First Class and paid-for in Standard.
Finally, full marks to EMT for retaining the Buffet Car on their HST trains - rather than removing it to save weight. Now, how about the £10 all-day breakfast available to all classes of passenger, seven days a week?
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Welcome to Ciao. One tip you may find useful is If you leave a blank space between your paragraphs it easier for others to read and it also gives a nice overall look to the review. You can edit your review at any time to change it or to add new information at any time by clicking on the edit link which is top centre of the page as you read your review. Fionaxx
lml888v 25.05.2008 12:23
Very helpful review. Thanks.
headcase44 25.05.2008 01:11
A very good review....Try putting spaces between your paragraphs for ease of reading...Thanks. J.
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