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God’s Wonderful Railway..


rockershovel

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Just been to Cardiff for a client visit. 

 

XC Plymouth to Bristol PW was its usual scruffy, short-formed disappointment (also grossly overcrowded past Taunton, XC being apparently oblivious or uncaring about Cheltenham Week). GWR produced a pleasing change of scene with a rather swish 800 class for the 45 minutes or so to Cardiff; the first time I recall travelling on one if these, and I was rather impressed. 

 

Return journey started with a new-looking DMU from GWR, quite comfy and with a nifty little half-width table on some of the airline seats, which seem to be just that bit more roomy than XC’s “Hommes 40, Chevaux 8” layout. However there aren’t any waiting rooms at Bristol TM, a pity because XC were in full “Air Congo” mode ... 34 minutes late.... not really the weather for that sort of nonsense.

 

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Re the Hitachi class 800, you'll soon be sick of 'em and did you notice the horrendous finger trap risk as the doors 'unplug' from their seals as the train slows to a stop?

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Can’t say I noticed the “finger trap risk” , nor did I venture into First Class, but I did notice that the seats were the same sort of “good for 2 hrs max” that a lot of modern train designs (and aircraft) seem to have. Certainly a quick trawl around the Internet reveals various criticisms. 

 

But the set was the full length, on time, and appeared to have been cleaned since entering service, so they were ahead of XC on all counts...

 

 

 

 

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Yup.

 

But being ahead of XC really doesn't take much effort at all.

 

I'm always amused when the traincrew 'Hope you have a pleasant journey with CrossCountry': in my experience, the two are mutually exclusive :D

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Err ! What do you mean their are no waiting rooms at Bristol T M ? There was one on every platform last week when I was their and it was the same ones as when I worked on the station for Royal Mail though our hiding hole of the chain bridge is gone thank god, drafty hole

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We have waiting rooms on platform 5 /7 & 13/ 15. A customer lounge until 21.30 hours on platform 3 . Only 9-12 suffer from no waiting room as this was utilised by the cafe. Back in the old B.R days it was still part cafe , part waiting room but that changed once it became separate franchises. 

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Well, one of the last two posts is incorrect... Network Rail does, indeed show waiting rooms on 5/7 and 13/15, no mention of anything on 3

https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Bristol-Temple-Meads-Station-Map.pdf

 

Both were already crowded at 18:00. Neither had information screens, neither was the platform I expected my late-running XC train to appear at. To add to the problem, the cafe on 5 closed about 18:30....

 

 

Edited by rockershovel
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