Thames Trains > Reviews > the scenic route home.

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Good
Reliability of trains	Mostly on time
Comfort of trains	Comfortable
On-board facilities	Satisfactory

Advantages:	direct lines, frequent
Disadvantages:	trains that split, unhelpful staff, long journeys, pricier than some .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I don't drive, and I'm a student in London, so I use the train a LOT. Thames Trains are responsible for trains between London Paddington and Worcester / Leamington Spa (where?), which I use on a fairly regular basis to go 'home'. I also use Thames between London and Reading.

Firstly I should just note the alternatives to Thames on this specific route from London to the West Midlands. There's Silverlink, aka the trains of Satan, which go from Euston to Birmingham New Street. I try to avoid them like the plague - just look at the ciao ops on that company for more infomation on WHY. There's the overpriced Virgin trains, which run on the same line as Silverlink but at twice the speed and are always being cancelled. Then there's Chiltern trains from Marylebone to Birmingham and onto Stourbridge / Kidderminster. They would be great, but they only run twice a day and are really busy.

An open return from Paddington to Worcester costs £21.50 with a student railcard (30% discount). I call that pricey, they're the second most expensive after Virgin. The trains can vary. Usually they're stationed in some far-off corner of Paddington Station, and can be very busy. A lot are new trains; sleek little things with only a few carriages, a digital display that nobody reads and fairly small, if comfortable seats. I've never had a problem getting a seat, but I always get on at the first station. Some seats have tables, some don't. The toilets should be avoided if you can help it, generally they don't seem to flush. Usually there's a bored looking young lad selling overpriced coffee and chocolate and smashing into your knees with his trolley. There's nowhere to put a suitcase, really. These are no virgin trains - they're 'rural', after all. Small and compact, but they suit their purpose and they're not too noisy. They're also generally very clean.

As far as the route goes, it's actually quite 'nice'. At least you can watch countryside roll by as opposed to industry (like the London - Brum line). They stop at Slough, Reading and Oxford, and then the train with often split into two, one half going to Great Malvern, the other to Leamington Spa. This is where the problems start - working out which end of the train you're meant to be sat in can be hard, especially since the people at Paddington are about as helpful as my arse ("Is is the 'back 2 carriages' from where I'm standing, or regarding direction of travel on leaving Paddington?" "I dunno luv, ask someone on the train...").

Once you've panicked at Oxford trying to work out if you're in the right part of the train (don't expect the ticket inspector to help you too much. Though I make a POINT of asking him every time, just to piss him off), you can relax. I tend to fall asleep at this point, because the journey takes about 2 and a half hours, cutting across the country through loads of places nobody has ever heard of. It is a longer journey than the Birmingham line, but at least it's direct and less crowded.

Overall, compared to the competition, these trains are fairly good. I've had no delays / cancelled trains at any time using these (the same CAN'T be said for Silverlink). The timetable, even on a Sunday, is frequent and runs fairly early in the morning / late at night. The trains themselves are new, clean and comfy even though they're small. In my experience, the staff can seem a bit uninterested in being any kind of assistance (even answering a question is a bore...) but obviously that's a generalisation - I'm sure lots of Thames Trains staff are lovely. I just haven't met them yet.

And one final note - this is a very rural route. This means a lot of passengers seem to a) have bicycles b) have dogs (usually whippets, for some reason) and c) say 'Yah!' a lot. But that has lots of comedy value, so I'm not complaining.

BTW: people seem to think my rating is a bit high - maybe so but in comparison to the other routes on offer, this one is by far the best which is why it got what it did :)