Trip Report: LNER Train, Central London to Edinburgh
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)
I was traveling from London to Edinburgh and this trip can be made either via plane, bus, or train. I usually enjoy train travel in Europe - it is usually so much more convenient and connected than in America - so I decided to take the train one way and a plane on my return (I traveled British Airways on the return and you can check out that review here). LNER - London North Eastern Railway - is apparently the only operator of the train between Central London and Edinburgh. Online it was very to see the various timings of the trains, select the one that fit my schedule, book the ticket, preselect my seat, and manage my reservation. You could preselect your seat online and the train had a variety of seats - either 4 around a table or two individually. Since we were three in the group, we decided to book 3 of the 4 group seats.
The train that I had booked departed London's King Cross at 3:30pm and would arrive into
Edinburgh at 8:13; considering it was going to take about 5 hours, I assumed that the train would make multiple stops throughout the journey. Even though I was able to print out my ticket online, as well as have a mobile ticket, I still arrived at the train station about an hour prior to my departure to give myself enough time. Unfortunately, the car dropped us off at St. Pancreas and we had to go to King's Cross but eventually we made it to King's Cross and looked at the timetable only to be informed that they do not provide the track number until 15 minutes prior to boarding. This means there is a long waiting period, a lot of staring at the screens, and then all passengers rushing towards the track as soon as the track number is announced; it is not fun.
We made it onto the train, loaded our luggage onto the luggage compartments, and proceeded to our seat. As I said, we had booked 3 of the 4 seats that are around a table. My previous experience traveling on trains in Europe has been in Switzerland, and again we book 3 of the 4 group seats and the seats were nice, comfortable, spacious, and the 4th seat remained empty no matter how many stops we made. On this trip, the 4th seat had been occupied by another passenger (even though there were plenty of empty seats available), the seats were tight in terms of both width and seat pitch, and after 5+ hours they were a bit uncomfortable. The table in the middle was also very close to the seats and it made getting in and out of the seat very difficult. One positive aspect of the seat was the on top, on a small screen, was each individual's stop; it helped to know when the other passenger was getting off but it was bit of invasion of privacy. The train made many stops throughout the journey, and the announcements were not very clear especially for the smaller stops. In terms of services for the passengers, there was a dining car available as well as restrooms - there were no usb or charging ports and while wifi was technically available, it was spotty and almost never worked.
As I said, my previous experience in European train travel as been in both Switzerland and Belgium so that was my base of comparison. Also, on this route the train competes with the airlines - ryanair, easyjet, and BA - all of whom have the same or lower fares and can make the journey in a faster time. Taking into account all these factors, as well as the narrow seat pitch, it was a disappointing rail journey. The seats were a bit uncomfortable, especially towards the end, the wifi was spotty, no charging ports, and generally it felt like I paid for a general economy seat - which is fine but then I paid the same price for my return airfare with BA (check out that review here) and that took less time so what is the incentive to ride the train?
No comments:
Post a Comment