Comparison of 1st-class rail travel operators

[Pogle]

I use Virgin first class London-Manchester on a Friday evening (it's nearly half the price of standard class on that train ) and they don't let you alone the whole journey - drinks trolley, hot meal, dessert, coffee, drinks trolley again. It's well over the top really, but a nice way to end the week.

+ 1
and if you do the early morning journey from Manchester to London, you get a cooked breakfast, I used to really enjoy the smoked salmon & scrambled eggs

[Platypus]

I could be wrong....... but I don't think so!

You're spot on correct.

[d000hg]

The old GNER rolling stock has been "re-branded".. well at least 1/2 the trains had the red/orange stripe overpainted with white for Nat Express.... Don't think they did anything for ECM.....
And most of the staff still wear their GNER branded clothes/uniform.......

<Humble mode>but I don't travel on it much nowadays....... so I could be wrong....... </Humble mode> but I don't think so!

It might have happened now, but they were still GNER when I stopped being a permie December 2007, I used to commute on them some days.

So hardly 'last century', I think we're both right/wrong here

[d000hg]

Is all this food/booze on Virgin included in the cost, or do you pay for the 'right' to buy proper food? Is it proper food, or (economy) plane-style ready-meals?

[Mich the Tester]

The last time I took a train in Switzerland from Zurich to Lugano, there was a restaurant on board serving rather good Italian light meals and excellent Swiss wines. I went to the loo and found a well equipped room which provided a range of Nivea handcreams and soaps and a soft fluffy towels, had a good dump on the impeccably clean throne and then returned to the restaurant car and ordered another bottle of a rather good Ticino DOC Sauvignon Blanc.

This, by the way, is for real. Trains can be this good, if the people running them actually care about doing things well; the Swiss tend to be quite good at that.

[teclo]

Wow another train thread!

If you want to travel in style you should take Scot Rail's sleeper service to Fort William. They tried scrapping it a few years back but there was a public outcry.

Oh if anyone takes that, wave at me when you go through Dumbarton East, it runs behind my flat.. *waves*

[Wilmslow]

Is all this food/booze on Virgin included in the cost, or do you pay for the 'right' to buy proper food? Is it proper food, or (economy) plane-style ready-meals?

Really nice proper food and good wine, all for no extra money.

The cheese board is sublime.

The best First class travel there is in the UK, also less than 2 hours from Wilmslow to London direct stopping only at Crewe.

Quicker and actually nicer than flying these days.

Mind you, my work funded Standard class open return fleeced the firm £248!!!

[Churchill]

The last time I took a train in Switzerland from Zurich to Lugano, there was a restaurant on board serving rather good Italian light meals and excellent Swiss wines. I went to the loo and found a well equipped room which provided a range of Nivea handcreams and soaps and a soft fluffy towels, had a good dump on the impeccably clean throne and then returned to the restaurant car and ordered another bottle of a rather good Ticino DOC Sauvignon Blanc.

This, by the way, is for real. Trains can be this good, if the people running them actually care about doing things well; the Swiss tend to be quite good at that.

Pauper! The trains I catch they wipe your arse for you!

Sasguru...

[Mich the Tester]

We took the ‘trenotel’ sleeper from Paris to Madrid a couple of years ago, with a 2 bed room and meals in the restaurant wagon. It’s not really a classic old train and it’s a bit wobbly as the carriages are very short and adapt to the different gauges; it’s basically a popular commuter train for weekly travellers. However it’s a very worthwhile journey. Food in the restaurant car is simple but good especially if washed down with the excellent ribera del duero. Breakfast is a simple fry up, served just as the sun rises, winding down through hills toward Madrid with views of old Spanish hill towns.

Sleep can be difficult on a rocking train, but the rather attractive hostess from Bilbao provided us with some peculiar Basque liqueur which knocked us flat without giving us a hangover.

You arrive fresh, showered, fed and ready in the centre of Madrid. Beats air travel hands down for me.

Real civilized travel, where the journey matters as much as the destination.

[rsingh]

I go between Macclesfield and Euston Monday morning abnd Friday evening. A first class return works out cheaper than the standard class return. The refreshments are good and I get plenty of space.

Plus I now have enough tickets so that this journey will be free for the next 12 months which is a big bonus. I haven't requested booze on the Monday morning leg though - I don't want to blow my cover...