Friday saw more lunch / evening engagements in London so another chance to check out Virgin's Pendolino service from Birmingham New Street to London Euston and return.
Success this time in making the 10.10 train. This service starts at Wolverhampton so was fairly busy on arrival in Birmingham. Plenty of seats to be had however, even though it is the first 'off-peak' service of the day. I had a reserved seat in Coach A but it wasn't a table as I had requested... fortunately, a pair of fellow passengers who were seated at a table took pity on me and moved. Memo to Virgin - if the power point option is NOT checked on the reservation system, please do not allocate table seats when they are not needed!
Departure on time, this time without the complete litany of announcements that make Virgin journeys so annoying - still bad enough with just the automated ones however. Shop announcement made upon departure and cappuccino and flapjack secured once again.
The socket at the table was working BUT the WiFi wasn't (third time unlucky in my case). A tweet to @virgintrains gained the standard response of the 0845 number. When I asked for the landline number, it couldn't be provided (reminder, it is 0207 0966966 and choose Option 3) but then a response came that the service was down altogether. So at least the Twitter approach is worth pursuing.
Arrival into London Euston was on time BUT yet again no ticket check at any point on the journey. Revenue protection isn't one of Virgin's strong points...
However... on the way back, the barrier at Euston's platform 5 was actually manned and my ticket for the 20.23 properly checked. Amazing!
For what seemed to be a busy train, Coach E was surprisingly empty and I could have got a table seat if I had tried hard enough (was using Coach E as the reservation system claimed that I couldn't reserve a seat on this service - was it full or do Virgin not do reservations on Friday night services?). Even better, WiFi was working though it did take some coaxing into life. Of course, it cost me £4 for an hour but at least the download speed was good. Interestingly, I could only connect one device at a time - something that isn't the case on the equivalent free service on Chiltern.
Coach E sits next to First Class coach G in the Pendolino formation. Stretching my legs, I was surprised to find a completely empty Coach G. Clearly Virgin are not doing a particularly good job at selling off First Class seats. Alas, I am old enough to remember BR's experiment with 'Silver Standard' and wonder if Virgin aren't missing a trick here. Why not sell off the Coach G seats on the train to walk-on fare passengers as at the weekend on the basis of availability (using the reservation system to fill Coaches J-H)? I would happily have paid £10 extra for the use of a table and some light refreshments served at my seat...
Arrival into New Street on time, so another 'as it should happen' Virgin journey. I just wish they would do more to make the experience enjoyable but then the Company is very successful as it is so why bother, I suppose...
Finally, for both of my recent return trips, I have been using the web-based walk-on fares which allow mix and match between off-peak (out after 10am) and super off-peak (return after 8pm) fares, meaning have done both journeys for £34.40 each time. Alas, it is likely that Virgin will withdraw the super off-peak fare from the 9th October, so be quick if you want to take advantage of this saving.
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I think that Virgin always leaves coach E of Pendolinos unreserved. My experience (admittedly only on Liverpool trains) is that the conductor on busy trains often advises those without reservations to make their way to coach E as there are no reserved seats there.
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