Having arrived in Aberdeen the previous day at about 20:30, having taken the opportunity to tick off 4 new stations; Stonehaven, Inverurie, Dyce and Aberdeen itself, I checked into the Travelodge, visited the “Spoons” for my evening meal and a couple of beers and explored a little of the Granite City.
I was up early the next morning as I wanted to squeeze a cheeky visit to Kintore station. Departing 06:14, I was back by 06:47 giving me time for breakfast.
I’ve got to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by the exterior of Aberdeen Station, being a part of a shopping mall, whose name is now a distant memory. Luckily, when you get inside the station it’s far more impressive.
As I mentioned last week, I had booked a 1st class ticket, seat 26, coach A. I was under the illusion that I had booked an airline style single seat, but found I had an aisle seat on a table of four. Oh dear, I’m going to have to make small talk for 13 hours with complete strangers; at least it was an aisle seat giving me more leg room.
It took me awhile to unpack my stuff and arrange everything, and then I remembered that Reuben (ERT Deputy Editor) had asked me to post photos of my journey on social media so whilst I was working out how to do this we had already called at Stonehaven and Montrose, so I was already behind two stations behind.
Arriving at Arbroath, (09:12), I exited the train and met Tommy, a very enthusiastic Scot who lives in Inverkeithing, and worked at the station before retirement, his claim to fame was appearing in one of Geoff Marshall’s “All the Stations” videos. From that point onwards we met on the Platform at each stop, exchanged tales before returning to our seats. Tommy had travelled up the day before with his wife, Mrs Tommy, who was due to depart at Inverkeithing. I noticed that Tommy ended up in most of my photos!
On returning to my seat, I broke the ice with the lady sitting next to me. As she was knitting, I asked “Are you travelling all the way.” ‘Yes” she replied. “I expect you’ll have that finished by the end of the journey”, and that was it, the ice broken. Sue and Ian (who had done this journey in previously in 2018 and had also appeared in a Geoff Marshall video) had also come up the night before from Kempston Hardwick by plane from Luton. They both proved to be excellent company for the journey and what with the frequency of the stops and the jumping off and on the train, talking to Tommy the whole affair had the atmosphere of a holiday, and the journey certainly went very quickly.
The train was made up of five coaches, the 1st Class coach was full most of the journey only thinning out when we arrived at Plymouth. I walked through the entire length of the train shortly before arriving at Sheffield (14:55), whilst there were passengers in the vestibules and extended luggage area, there was generally enough seats remaining in standard class to accommodate these passengers. I would estimate that the train at this stage was at 98% of seating capacity. There were several people making the full trip, and I expect CrossCountry have benefitted from additional income from this source and will continue to do so until the last journey is made on May 16.
The train kept very good time, losing and regaining no more than 2 minutes all the way to Bristol Parkway where we arrived on time. The stretch on to Temple Meads saw us lose ten minutes but was absorbed by the in-built 14-minute dwell time. Having departed promptly, we got stuck behind a late running GWR Taunton bound train which saw the delay creep up again to 12 minutes as we left Taunton but was slowly clawed back by the time we arrived at Plymouth departing only 2 minutes late, which increased another minute thus arriving at Penzance at 21:34.
This was the first time I have travelled on a full-length Cross-Country service, generally I only use them for short trips, and I’ve found them dirty, worn-out, unloved, crowded and frankly uncomfortable, but this Voyager (221120) was in pretty good nick. In 1st Class the seats a slightly more comfortable, I also benefited from bringing my Fortem Office Chair Cushion (this was especially the case on my 7 hour trip from London to Aberdeen the previous day, where the seats on those Azuma’s are very uncomfortable with a metal bar running through the seat.
The train staff were friendly and efficient, ensuring passengers got off and on the train promptly, especially as those doing the whole trip who had a tendency to bundle off to take photos etc , and occasionally required a stern prompt from the despatcher to get back on!
The 1st class offering was pretty good with the steward /stewardess always checking if anybody needed a drink or a snack. Personally, I had a bacon roll on boarding, a tuna salad roll at lunch time and various, biscuits, crisps and cake washed down with cups of tea throughout the journey until Bristol Temple Meads when the catering service finished. There was also a catering trolley which turned up in 1st class for the sale of alcohol. The steward / stewardess and catering trolley staff were particularly friendly and jolly.
For me “the through the window highlights” where the Tay Bridge, the Forth Bridge, The Royal Border Bridge, the Northumberland coast line in particular the distant views of Lindisfarne, Alnmouth, crossing the Tyne, the Angel of the North, views of Durham, the countryside as we crossed Gloucestershire and Somerset and into Devon, the Exe estuary, the Dawlish coastline, and crossing the Royal Albert Bridge.
So, what about the fourth passenger on our table of four, he journeyed to Plymouth, never engaged in conversation with us, spending time on the phone or reading his book, although on leaving us he wished us luck and goodbye.
My fear of missing the Night Riveira Sleeper were ill-founded having plenty of time to make the transfer, which actually departed at 21:50. To finish the day off I visited the bar for a couple of beers, more cake and crisps and then retired to my cabin.
As for the toilets, they held up pretty well, especially as they were cleaned mid-way through the journey.
