Taking the long way round - one of the pleasures of retirement...

Four months into retirement and several journeys to London under my belt on the Covid-lite railway, what better way to restart my blog than a journey over the route from Birmingham New Street to London Paddington via Reading... Readers of the Blog since its inception in February 2010 will know that I have always had a soft spot for this CrossCountry / First Great Western route. The current Covid-lite CrossCountry timetable has only an hourly service from New Street to Reading departing at xx.04 starting at 06.04 and runing through to 22.04. Monday to Friday ticket restrictions remain in place on fares to London meaning that the first 'Off-Peak' service is the 10.04 (and you can't return from Paddington between 16.00 and 18.30). Voyagers continue to be the rolling stock - one gain from the Covid-lite timetable is that many services are now two sets running together which would ease overcrowding on this route if passenger levels were normal (they're not). Walk-on Off-Peak return fare is now £59.80 standard class and £174.40 First Class - these are Any Permitted (set by Avanti West Coast) and allow journeys by any 'reasonable' route between Birmingham and London and are of course valid for a month. Naturally, there are ways to reduce the cost which I will cover in later blogs; for now, I want to highlight one of the recent innovations which make life more pleasant: Seatfrog. Seatfrog is an App for Android and iOS phones which allows you to 'bid' for a First Class upgrade prior to travel. Between Birmingham and London, Avanti West Coast services and those on the CrossCountry / First Great Western route are available. CrossCountry in particular have embraced the concept to provide very reasonably priced upgrades whilst First Great Western and Avanti West Coast have not been so generous (though no doubt will argue that their upgrade prices reflect the superior First Class offering on their services). So for my journey south on the 10.04 CrossCountry to Reading and the 20.15 return I was successful in bidding £5 each way. First Great Western would have allowed me to bid £10 for the onward connection to Paddington on the 11.48 and again for the 19.32 return but for a 24 min journey I have my doubts on how worthwhile this is. Also, should you miss the connection, the upgrade isn't transferable and the refund is from the Train Operator not through the App (see the FAQs). Travelling First Class on a Voyager is a 'no-brainer' for £5... Coach 'A' tends to be quiet; the seats are more spacious and compfortable (and aligned with the windows); the First Class hosts are attentive; and the complimentary snacks enjoyable. On both services, the promised Bacon Rolls out and Sandwiches back were available (see the menu). Note that refreshments are not available on the 21.04 and 22.04 from Birmingham and on the 21.15 from Reading. Overall journey times are 128 mins out and up to 134 mins back (including the connection time at Reading).... Why not go along for the ride?