Virgin Trains > Reviews > Virgin to Virgin Trains

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Excellent
Reliability of trains	Always on time
Comfort of trains	Slightly uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Good

Advantages:	more efficient, clean and cost effective
Disadvantages:	bit uncomfortable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I hate public transport, always try to avoid it as much as possible and to be honest I have only ever caught a train once in my life and that was many years ago. I always tend to drive if I am going away on business or pleasure however this week I needed to take a trip to Worthing, Sussex and driving from Stoke to Worthing is a little bit of a trek or should I say getting on for 6 or 7 hours if you get stuck on the M25.

I decided the easiest option would be to go by train which would reduce my travelling time by almost half. The journey on the train to Worthing is just under 4 hours, and that includes three changes so you get plenty of time to stop, stretch you legs and get something to eat.

As you can probably appreciate this actually turned into a little adventure for me as trains are a completely new things to me, especialy the London Underground, which I was actually dreading however battled my way and enjoyed every minute of it.

My Virgin train experience only covered half of my journey from Stoke on Trent station to London Euston. Not even knowing how long it would take on the train I was extremely amazed when I found out when I booked my tickets that it was a mere 1 hour and 35 minutes to actually get into London.

My train arrived on time at Stoke and on I got. At the time of day I was travelling, I hadn't reserved a seat but there were plenty available for me take advantage of. The train itself was very clean and on regular occasions people were coming around to take away any rubbish that people may have, which I thought was very efficient instead of leaving it when the train had done its dead for the day for some poor person to have to tidy it all up.

I travelled with a standard ticket and when looking at the seats they do look very comfortable, however I found after about half an hour my legs started to hurt and I was getting very niggling unlike when I would drive that never seems to bother me at all. AFter the journey I was extremely pleased just to get off the train to stretch my legs and rather pleased that I didn't have a direct train from Worthing, which I don't think is possible anyway.

The day I travelled there was an announcement that they were short staffed therefore they would not be coming through the cariage with the buffet cart so all beverages that I required I had t make my way several carriages away to get a drink. Stocked with lots of goodies, I found a huges variety of fresh sandwiches and cakes that were available. I wasn't really that hungry so I just opted for a coffee, unfortunately the coffee machine was broked so I ended up with a bottle of Buxton Water instead.

The staff on board were very pleasant, I can't imagine it being quite a nice job stuck on a train all day however each to their own. I found them much more pleasant that airline staff and not as false, just to down to earth.

My ticket cost me £70, which was an off peak ticket which I thought was good value as I knew which trains I was going to catch. It would have cost me far more in fuel if I had decided to take the trip in my car.

All in all I would receommend the use of trains to cut your journey travel time, however they aren't for me and I don't think I could cope having to comute to work every day on one as some people have to.