I’ve grown to HATE Birmingham New Street station. It’s a total maze to find your way around. The last time I was there I ended up bursting into tears because I got lost between platforms and my train was about to leave, and then one of the entry gates ate my ticket! Thankfully a kind train guard helped me out.
I agree - I was used to the old 'One Station' complex with the full walkway across all platforms but now get confused when changing trains and end up walking for seemingly miles around the concourse to find an entry back into the platforms. I'm sure the designers were on bad chemicals when they came up with the layout for access plan!
This isn't related to your topic, but the worst train station for cancellations/ is most likely Leeds or something. For delays.. ehhhh. *Newcastle* North East + Yorkshire logic
Head to the front four, awesome move! No one wants to travel on a Class 350/2 from London to Birmingham. They sometimes do this on the London to Crewe service as well sometimes mix a unit up with a Class 350/2 sometimes it can be a eight coach train formed of two 350/2s. They used to have a trolley service on their trains but the reason they stopped this was that people were buying more from the stations than on the trolley. Great review
350408 is one of the ex-TransPennine Express units, hence the longer-distance seating layout. If memory serves, the ten 350/4s were originally used on Manchester to Glasgow services.
As a person who commutes between London and Birmingham, I am very impressed by this video, turning such a mundane route with boring trains into a route people should actually try out! Good job!
With all those bags blocking the already narrow aisles, surely it would be less of a hit to capacity if they just replaced a couple of seats with luggage racks. Good price though!
They have done on the newest refurbs, and removed the guards 'office' to make space for luggage, but those are few and far between (this class is due for replacement next year anyway), and essentially they just reupholstered the grey/blue seats of London Midland's upgraded coaches (seen in this video) with green. They did put some info screens in, but their use, and accuracy, are patchy, at best. It used to be very rare to see the high density ironing board seats on the express services, but then I guess they just stopped giving a shit about rolling stock planning. You get what you pay for though.
It’s wayyy worse on the Crosscountry and Avanti carriers, it’s always blocked by the connections of the carriages. I would say it’s relatively better on this brand.
Another excellent review. LNWR are a good reliable operator and do offer good competition to Avanti on services from Liverpool and the Midlands to London. The 350s I think are excellent comfortable trains I've always been a fan of them. Notice you sat on 1 of the former Trans Pennine units
I disagree. I do this route fairly regularly, and the LNWR trains are often late, cancelled or terminate at earlier stations. The Avanti or even the Chiltern service albeit from Marylebone is better.
@@gemmarie7683 You will definitely rethink on Avanti if you try on their services these days. Because of blaming their staff as unofficial strike which is actually refusing to work overtime on rest days, Avanti drastically reduces their timetable and the remaining services are still unreliable.
Excellent. Thanks for posting this. Given Avanti's 'scheduling' problems lately we were wondering how we could get to Crewe (and then onto Holyhead) when we're in the UK next month. So nice to see there's an alternative.
Well done Dylan, well done! I hope watching your videos on the local, British railroads will prep me for my trip. I'll be in the U.K. soon, from the 27th of September till October 22. I'll be in London a few days, then head up to Oxford for a day and then up to St. Bees on the Irish Sea, where I will begin the C2C on the old Wainwright trail to Robin Hood's Bay. Can't wait! Take care dude!
Britain has been in the U.S. news a lot with the current heat waves. It looked hot as you entered Euston Station. When you entered your car and no one was there, I thought people still weren't travelling, But soon enough it turned into one of the most crowded trains I've seen you on lately.
So, it's really informative video as I never used the " London midland" line to go to Birmingham. I think this is the cheaper option to use the train bound to Birmingham. I subscribed your channel and I do hope that it really helps me to find low budget options visiting places outside London. Keep up your good work. Cheers!
Excellent video! Thoroughly enjoyed the tour of Euston, which is actually nicer than I would expect for a '60's brutalist design. At the very least it's not depressing, which is an accomplishment for that style. This trip is a bargain for as little as you paid. Thanks for the report!
If you ever find Michael Palin’s 1980 video “Confessions of a train spotter” the interior look at that time was more of a public bathroom than what was shown today
Spent a couple of hours at Euston Station waiting for a train to Manchester in late 2019. Perfectly comfortable, good toilets and easily visible information systems.
Great video. If Euston station does get refurbishment in the future they should keep the stainless steel sign Euston and departures on the inside. Other than that it's good to hear london to birmingham is so cheap despite the distance and the country we live in
I travelled this route last year and found these to be quite decent trains. Infinitely better than any of the Hitachi class 800 rubbish that so many of us are forced to endure on other routes.
The 2x3 arrangement is supposed to be high density bit in my experience it fails because no one wants to sit on the middle seat so real 'seated loadings' are the same as for a 2x2 layout. Only when it's really busy will people get the courage to ask those who plonked their bags on the middle seat to move them🤣🤣
@@PeteS_1994 In my view no point in high density 2+3 seating, it's in the minds of the DfT that they must provide more seats, irrespective of comfort and use, so that voters don't whinge to MP's about never getting a seat. The fact that the middle seats spend most of their life 'seating' peoples bags is immaterial. "We have new trains Minister, they have one fifth more seats for the same length Ministry,o ur voters will be able to get a seat now Minister"
Yeah, I live near the chiltern mainline and after many, many journeys, I have never had an issue. Not one late train in over 5 years. Chiltern are the best franchise in the UK imo.
I'd agree if you want a lower cost journey. That Chiltern route into Marylebone is far preferable to the LM service into Euston. But if you are willing to pay a bit extra I find the Avanti Pendelinos into Euston a lot nicer than either of them.
I thought I'd lost you for a while. Glad you're back. I enjoy your little trips around the UK. Since the UK is so rail connected, I appreciate these looks around. Hope the heat is over & you weren't affected by London's recent flood. Do UK trains have heat & air con? I take these for granted in the US. Just wondering. Hope to see you next Friday.
Journeyed from New Street to Crewe on 1 of their evening services in 1st back in May. Found them to be relatively quick-steppers capable of the basic service I sought that day...
The 350s originally where going to south west trains, but they where made dual voltage and south west trains didn’t want them so that’s why the 450s came third rail only. They also only had a top speed of 100 mph but then increased to 110 mph when they came to the WCML
Always a big fan of Desiros 👍🏻 I believe that LNWR are replacing the 350/2s (the ones with 3+2 seating) with new 5-car Aventras that have 2+2 seating soon, so 3+2 on the London trains should soon be a thing of the past. I get what you're saying about catering, but given that people who want a higher quality service can pay the extra to travel with Avanti (when they're running 😳) I don't see it as a big deal, certainly not as much of an issue as GWR not offering any catering on their much longer regional services!
2/3 of the LNWR Aventra order is planned to have 3+2 seating. Considering all the trains they are replacing have 3+2, that’s still more 2+2 capacity. I did read one rumor somewhere that someone thought they were changing the order to all 2+2, but it was a rumor on the internet and probably just wishful thinking.
So the 350/2s were sposed to be kept on local journies south of northampton with a top speed of 100 mph , following covid they were upgraded to 110 to improve capacity ( most service going to 8 cars ) ...so 3 plus 2 seating was perfect for commuting ...
I do this journey every weekend and without fail I will avoid LNWR. It might be cheap but it is always busy on a Sunday and always takes forever. I will always use Avanti for this journey
When | go to London from North Wales I use London Northwestern a lot as with Split ticketing they come out cheaper. I prefer the class 350 over the Penderlino as they are more like an aircraft with their small windows. Also the guards are very good at giving information. Birmingham new Street is part sixties at platform level and more recent redevelopment at concourse level.
Always go for the 350 with the blue/black seats (as you did Dylan) as the 2+2 at least has tray tables, none of that on the 3+2 up front. I often get LNWR from Euston to Crewe and then TfW from Crewe to Manchester, meaning I can do Super Off Peak Return between Euston and Manchester for £36.30 (or £46.70 for OffPeak Return) and well worthwhile alternative considering the situation with Avanti Worst Coast at the moment.
The cheapest ever train ticket I've had is £3 from Glasgow Central to Preston. This was in 2015 when Stagecoach trains was a thing, travelling on Virgin Trains.
Being a regular traveller from London to Brum, I have tried Avanti, LNW and Chiltern. Avanti is fastest followed by Chiltern. The Chiltern trains are superbly comfortable whether being the excellent refurbished mk 3 stock or the DMU's, and their fares are broadly comparable to LNW. The Desiros are OK but in my view Chiltern has the edge in terms of comfort.
Chilterns don't often have luggage racks, as they argue the Euston to Birmingham route is a commuter service, which is bonkers. I prefer the Avanti, due to it being much faster and having luggage racks.
@@gemmarie7683 no one has mentioned Hs2 ..if this service is so good...then why do we need an expensive line to save 20 minutes? Fares wont be cheap on Hs2 for sure..
Hi Dylan, I use the TfW and LNW Off Peak ticket from Manchester to Euston once a month. Leave at 0730 arriving in London at 1030. Excellent trains for £30.80 with a railcard. Return within a month..
If I may offer a constructive criticism, I would like to have seen in through the window of the driver's cab (at about 7m 40s) perhaps a few seconds to look at the driver's instrument panel which can be seen easily as you walk between the two units. On the whole nice video. Like it.
I use these trains instead of Avanti when traveling from Manchester to Euston. ATW to Crewe and LNW to Euston arriving at 1030. Return anytime up to one month later, all for £30.80 with a railcard discount. The 2x2 seats are usually at the northern end of the train. these are the ex Trans Pennine units.
Big thumbs up from me. That ticket price is amazing! One way with a discount card for just over £10! I usually end up using a fare splitting site to get cheap tickets. And out of interest, which exit is that out of Birmingham NS at 12:41?
I see you were in one of the former Transpennine Express units, which appears to have been refurbished, no idea why as they certainly didn't ned it. Also when with TPE the 1st class was in a 2+1 layout but now altered to "=2 which is a pity.
Hey Dylan. Statens Järnvägar (SJ) has started a new sleeper route from Hamburg-Altona to Stockholm C. 21.55 - 9.55 . It's EuroNight 496/497. It would be very interesting if you did a report on it! :) All the best from Sweden!
We live in Derby but on the opposite side to the station, we have decent access to the A38 which heads towards Brum past Lichfield. Lichfield has two stations, Lichfield City and Lichfield Trent Valley. One line runs to central Brum from Trent Valley and City. The lower level platform at Trent Valley is on the West Coast main line. We go to London from Trent Valley using the same company as the report highlights, it is far cheaper than travelling from Derby, there is plentiful parking and the it only takes five minutes or so longer getting tp the station than using Derby. The trains are not as swish but the price difference is substantial.
I have used this operator from Euston to Crewe and it does offer much more affordable ticket prices but the trade off is it goes the long way round stopping at quite a few stations.
Wow, the class 350 looks like they just took a commuter train (it looks pretty much like the electrostars that are so ubiquitous in commuter service around the London area) and decided to run inter-city trips with it. Can't complain about the price though.
I see from many comments I'm not alone in split ticketing and using the LNWR service from Crewe to Euston. I travel from Liverpool so get Liv to Crewe, Crewe to Euston. The price is so much more affordable, plus on the LNWR ticket you can get a TfL Z1-6 Travel card added to the ticket for only a couple of pounds extra if you book online and go through the ticket options. Just hope a single 5-car 730 doesn't replace an 8-car 350 formation. As for the seats, I hate 3+2. In 2+2 there's usually an infill piece between the seats, when it's 3+2 the seats are closer together, cushion to cushion. People rarely sit three abreast on them, the centre seat is usually just a place people put their bags. You couldn't get 3 x Geoff Marshall's side by side on those seats.
The main shortcoming of Desiros is the ride quality, they do tend to sway from side to side, particularly if you're sitting at the ends of the coach, though it's probably more noticeable on the longer Class 444s. The standard toilets are very narrow, and the manual sliding door is rather flimsy. At least the ex Transpennine Express 350/4s have better seats than a 450 or other varieties of 350. Are they an advance on a 321 though? Debatable.
My partner and I semi-frequently travel to London and the past couple of trips it’s worked out cheapest to get a direct Avanti down, and London Northwestern to Crewe and Avanti to Preston back. LNW are far more reliable than Avanti have been recently.
Please remember to make CC ( closed caption) available to those of us that are hearing impaired. Lately several of your videos have not had it enabled. I am unable to listen to your terrific videos without CC. Thank you in advance for doing so.
Automatic CC is enabled if you press the button. Though admittedly it's not as good as manually typed CC. UA-cam did have a way for users to contribute to the CCs but they removed that feature.
Hope you enjoyed your week off, or was it finishing off the house move? Are you still resident in God's Wonderful County? Some more UK trip reports coming up? The Northampton diversion and semi-fast stopping pattern after Coventry don't make this particularly desirable unless you're not in a hurry.
..even better..I travelled from Ledbury - +1hr - to Euston, via Birmingham, and return for £12.50, advance booking..great value but as suggested you must sit in the front unit from London as people seem incapable of walking a few paces to get a decent seat - very strange!..
Great price indeed for a slower service. Prices are completely ludicrous now with Avanti for such a short journey. What about Birmingham Station and surroundings? I found them totally unsafe when I stopped there a few years ago. Never again
With the ongoing mess at Avanti, I would definitely use Chiltern or LNWR on this route and if travelling from London to Edinburgh would use LNER or Lumo but not Avanti because of the timetabling mess with Avanti
@Sleeper Train Fan the sleeper is a lovely service, usually very convenient for me. However, LNER also run about 20 direct trains per day from King's Cross to Edinburgh - it only takes 4 and a half hours, give or take. Lumo run a few services - I'm considering trying them next time I go that way.
LNWR seems really cheap for some reason. London to St Albans is less than 50p from half price if you go via Watford Junction, compared to thameslink (from Euston/St Pancras). Also, some LNWR services to Birmingham New Street don't call at amy stations between London and Leighton Buzzard
London Northwestern Railway have ordered the Class 730 5-Car Aventra units that is replacing the Class 350/2 Desiro and Class 319 that is expected to enter service from next year. Same with West Midlands Railway who also have ordered the 3-Car Class 730/0 Aventra to replace the Class 323 and Class 196 Civity.
Coventry is my UK base (I live in Brazil but visit sometimes) and so I often make this trip in the Coventry-New Street section. My last time was in 2014 with the old Midland trains. I would like to see the local stations between Coventry and Northampton reopen, particularly Brandon and also Kilsby & Crick which would be an excellent local station due to being close to the main M6 motorway. On the main line, I would also like to see the reopening of the local stations like Roade and Castlethorpe. And open the Great Central and S&MJ for better service in an area badly in need of passenger rail links.
Reopening the Great Central would have made more sense than HS2. From Woodford Halse, the SMJR could have been reopened to Stratford upon Avon and then by the existing route. The approach to Birmingham could be improved by restoring four tracks through the suburbs. Incidentally, this was the Great Central's plan to gain access to Birmingham, a distance of 115 miles. The Great Western refused to give the Great Central running powers over its network, and understandably so. The Great Western line from London to Birmingham was 129 miles. (Via Reading and Oxford.) The two companies then became allies with the joint line from Northolt to Ashendon, just beyond Princes Risborough. This line brought the Paddington - Birmingham mileage to 110, and the Great Central had a faster exit from London, avoiding the congestion on the Metropolitan Line.
Reopen the Grand Central? Quite a lot of that has been built on, especially in city centers. Rebuilding it would require plowing through all that. HS2 in fact reuses part of the GCR’s route on the southern section.
There's multiple sets of extra legroom seats in each carriage (not including bays), usually 2 rows at each end of the carriage. Unless I get on just as it's about to leave, it's incredibly rare I have to endure the standard seat.
I’ve grown to HATE Birmingham New Street station. It’s a total maze to find your way around. The last time I was there I ended up bursting into tears because I got lost between platforms and my train was about to leave, and then one of the entry gates ate my ticket! Thankfully a kind train guard helped me out.
I agree - I was used to the old 'One Station' complex with the full walkway across all platforms but now get confused when changing trains and end up walking for seemingly miles around the concourse to find an entry back into the platforms. I'm sure the designers were on bad chemicals when they came up with the layout for access plan!
Yep, it's certainly the worst station in the UK
This isn't related to your topic, but the worst train station for cancellations/ is most likely Leeds or something. For delays.. ehhhh. *Newcastle*
North East + Yorkshire logic
First world inconvenience making you cry? How pathetic.
I see what u mean but I personally don't mind it as I have used it so much
I absolutely adore these trains and your content! UK TRIP REPORTS ARE BACK!!!!
Head to the front four, awesome move! No one wants to travel on a Class 350/2 from London to Birmingham. They sometimes do this on the London to Crewe service as well sometimes mix a unit up with a Class 350/2 sometimes it can be a eight coach train formed of two 350/2s. They used to have a trolley service on their trains but the reason they stopped this was that people were buying more from the stations than on the trolley. Great review
350408 is one of the ex-TransPennine Express units, hence the longer-distance seating layout. If memory serves, the ten 350/4s were originally used on Manchester to Glasgow services.
Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow and Liverpool to Edinburgh and Glasgow
As a person who commutes between London and Birmingham, I am very impressed by this video, turning such a mundane route with boring trains into a route people should actually try out! Good job!
Hw often do you commute
@@s125ish Who cares?
With all those bags blocking the already narrow aisles, surely it would be less of a hit to capacity if they just replaced a couple of seats with luggage racks. Good price though!
They have done on the newest refurbs, and removed the guards 'office' to make space for luggage, but those are few and far between (this class is due for replacement next year anyway), and essentially they just reupholstered the grey/blue seats of London Midland's upgraded coaches (seen in this video) with green. They did put some info screens in, but their use, and accuracy, are patchy, at best. It used to be very rare to see the high density ironing board seats on the express services, but then I guess they just stopped giving a shit about rolling stock planning. You get what you pay for though.
It’s wayyy worse on the Crosscountry and Avanti carriers, it’s always blocked by the connections of the carriages. I would say it’s relatively better on this brand.
Another excellent review. LNWR are a good reliable operator and do offer good competition to Avanti on services from Liverpool and the Midlands to London.
The 350s I think are excellent comfortable trains I've always been a fan of them. Notice you sat on 1 of the former Trans Pennine units
I disagree. I do this route fairly regularly, and the LNWR trains are often late, cancelled or terminate at earlier stations. The Avanti or even the Chiltern service albeit from Marylebone is better.
@@gemmarie7683 You will definitely rethink on Avanti if you try on their services these days. Because of blaming their staff as unofficial strike which is actually refusing to work overtime on rest days, Avanti drastically reduces their timetable and the remaining services are still unreliable.
@@charleslee2002 I have used Avanti as recently as a few weeks ago. I stand by my word, it is generally better than the alternatives.
I once did this exact journey for £3.50. My thrifty self has never been happier!
That's even better than the coach, and they're still faster too!
Excellent. Thanks for posting this. Given Avanti's 'scheduling' problems lately we were wondering how we could get to Crewe (and then onto Holyhead) when we're in the UK next month. So nice to see there's an alternative.
I used to work the Trolley Service on these trains for London Midland and your Video brought up some fond memories. Thank you..
You seem so happy and upbeat in this video, great to see 😁
Well done Dylan, well done! I hope watching your videos on the local, British railroads will prep me for my trip. I'll be in the U.K. soon, from the 27th of September till October 22. I'll be in London a few days, then head up to Oxford for a day and then up to St. Bees on the Irish Sea, where I will begin the C2C on the old Wainwright trail to Robin Hood's Bay. Can't wait! Take care dude!
Nice review Dylan. 👍 Now we've got InterCity operating a temporary service so plenty of competition. 😃
I’m glad you did this because you did say you liked this on your 100k celeb. Great work!!
Great vid glad yiur back doing vids in the UK ive really missed them
Britain has been in the U.S. news a lot with the current heat waves. It looked hot as you entered Euston Station. When you entered your car and no one was there, I thought people still weren't travelling, But soon enough it turned into one of the most crowded trains I've seen you on lately.
So, it's really informative video as I never used the " London midland" line to go to Birmingham. I think this is the cheaper option to use the train bound to Birmingham. I subscribed your channel and I do hope that it really helps me to find low budget options visiting places outside London. Keep up your good work. Cheers!
I agree with you, Dylan. Seems an exceptional value for the money. Thanks for the video!
Excellent video! Thoroughly enjoyed the tour of Euston, which is actually nicer than I would expect for a '60's brutalist design. At the very least it's not depressing, which is an accomplishment for that style. This trip is a bargain for as little as you paid. Thanks for the report!
euston station is not a brutalist design
If you ever find Michael Palin’s 1980 video “Confessions of a train spotter” the interior look at that time was more of a public bathroom than what was shown today
Spent a couple of hours at Euston Station waiting for a train to Manchester in late 2019. Perfectly comfortable, good toilets and easily visible information systems.
Great video Dylan. LNWR 730s will replace the 350/2s and 319s but and WMR 730 and 196s will replace 323s and 170s
Great video. If Euston station does get refurbishment in the future they should keep the stainless steel sign Euston and departures on the inside. Other than that it's good to hear london to birmingham is so cheap despite the distance and the country we live in
Very thorough examination of the service beforehand.
I travelled this route last year and found these to be quite decent trains. Infinitely better than any of the Hitachi class 800 rubbish that so many of us are forced to endure on other routes.
I quite like the class 800
@@heidirabenau511 IETs are the worst intercity train
Nice video Dylan, that one you travelled on 350408 was an ex Trans Pennine unit
That 2x3 arrangement looks like it should be illegal because of health and safety standards. That aisle is NARROW.
The 2x3 arrangement is supposed to be high density bit in my experience it fails because no one wants to sit on the middle seat so real 'seated loadings' are the same as for a 2x2 layout. Only when it's really busy will people get the courage to ask those who plonked their bags on the middle seat to move them🤣🤣
@@barrieshepherd7694 What is the point of high density if we can fit more people when there is more standing space?
@@PeteS_1994 In my view no point in high density 2+3 seating, it's in the minds of the DfT that they must provide more seats, irrespective of comfort and use, so that voters don't whinge to MP's about never getting a seat. The fact that the middle seats spend most of their life 'seating' peoples bags is immaterial. "We have new trains Minister, they have one fifth more seats for the same length Ministry,o ur voters will be able to get a seat now Minister"
They should do 1 carriage as a 2x3, in case the train becomes very busy. But I agree with you, that aisle is NARROW
Best route from London to Birmingham is with Chiltern Railways and the superb MKIII coaches, so much nicer.
Yeah, I live near the chiltern mainline and after many, many journeys, I have never had an issue. Not one late train in over 5 years.
Chiltern are the best franchise in the UK imo.
I'd agree if you want a lower cost journey. That Chiltern route into Marylebone is far preferable to the LM service into Euston. But if you are willing to pay a bit extra I find the Avanti Pendelinos into Euston a lot nicer than either of them.
Great review. Not too long but you made plenty of good points. It’s a good service for those on a budget or not in a hurry!
I thought I'd lost you for a while. Glad you're back. I enjoy your little trips around the UK. Since the UK is so rail connected, I appreciate these looks around. Hope the heat is over & you weren't affected by London's recent flood. Do UK trains have heat & air con? I take these for granted in the US. Just wondering. Hope to see you next Friday.
Cool video Dylan. I’ll be doing a trip from Philadelphia to Omaha in October on Amtrak.
Journeyed from New Street to Crewe on 1 of their evening services in 1st back in May. Found them to be relatively quick-steppers capable of the basic service I sought that day...
Great video Dylan!
The 350s originally where going to south west trains, but they where made dual voltage and south west trains didn’t want them so that’s why the 450s came third rail only. They also only had a top speed of 100 mph but then increased to 110 mph when they came to the WCML
Always a big fan of Desiros 👍🏻
I believe that LNWR are replacing the 350/2s (the ones with 3+2 seating) with new 5-car Aventras that have 2+2 seating soon, so 3+2 on the London trains should soon be a thing of the past.
I get what you're saying about catering, but given that people who want a higher quality service can pay the extra to travel with Avanti (when they're running 😳) I don't see it as a big deal, certainly not as much of an issue as GWR not offering any catering on their much longer regional services!
2/3 of the LNWR Aventra order is planned to have 3+2 seating. Considering all the trains they are replacing have 3+2, that’s still more 2+2 capacity.
I did read one rumor somewhere that someone thought they were changing the order to all 2+2, but it was a rumor on the internet and probably just wishful thinking.
@@andrewreynolds4949 3+2 seating is very cramped
@@maimadha I never said it was or wasn't
dylan this is great stuff, keep it up lad
Good God, that rear unit just looks like the dictionary definition of cattle class! 😬😂
So the 350/2s were sposed to be kept on local journies south of northampton with a top speed of 100 mph , following covid they were upgraded to 110 to improve capacity ( most service going to 8 cars ) ...so 3 plus 2 seating was perfect for commuting ...
Nice video Dylan!
I do this journey every weekend and without fail I will avoid LNWR. It might be cheap but it is always busy on a Sunday and always takes forever. I will always use Avanti for this journey
Great trip report
nice video . nice price , we have been thinking of a cheap way to get to Eurostar from Birmingham would consider this😀
Great video thanks 😊 👍
great trip report dylan mate the 350 is cool but i bet the 730 will be ace
When | go to London from North Wales I use London Northwestern a lot as with Split ticketing they come out cheaper. I prefer the class 350 over the Penderlino as they are more like an aircraft with their small windows. Also the guards are very good at giving information. Birmingham new Street is part sixties at platform level and more recent redevelopment at concourse level.
Always go for the 350 with the blue/black seats (as you did Dylan) as the 2+2 at least has tray tables, none of that on the 3+2 up front.
I often get LNWR from Euston to Crewe and then TfW from Crewe to Manchester, meaning I can do Super Off Peak Return between Euston and Manchester for £36.30 (or £46.70 for OffPeak Return) and well worthwhile alternative considering the situation with Avanti Worst Coast at the moment.
That's actually a good shout, might try that out sometime! Is that with or without a railcard?
Avanti - Always Variable And Not Terribly Interested. Good thing there is an alternative.
Great video!
Good vid! Would you ever try Intercitys Friday only service from Crewe- Euston or return from Euston- Manchester? It’s a brilliant service!
@Nate Talks A Lot it does exist again now. Ran by locomotive services. Its a Friday only service from Euston to Manchester
It’s been briefly revived by an open access operator while Avanti WC has left free train paths
Be curious to see the passenger numbers for Euston after HS2 has been running for a few years.
The cheapest ever train ticket I've had is £3 from Glasgow Central to Preston. This was in 2015 when Stagecoach trains was a thing, travelling on Virgin Trains.
3 quid - blimey!
The golden days - Virgin Trains
Being a regular traveller from London to Brum, I have tried Avanti, LNW and Chiltern. Avanti is fastest followed by Chiltern. The Chiltern trains are superbly comfortable whether being the excellent refurbished mk 3 stock or the DMU's, and their fares are broadly comparable to LNW. The Desiros are OK but in my view Chiltern has the edge in terms of comfort.
Chilterns don't often have luggage racks, as they argue the Euston to Birmingham route is a commuter service, which is bonkers. I prefer the Avanti, due to it being much faster and having luggage racks.
@@gemmarie7683 chiltern doesnt run to euston. it runs from moore street to marylebone
@@lh8474 Yes I know that.
@@gemmarie7683 well done
@@gemmarie7683 no one has mentioned Hs2 ..if this service is so good...then why do we need an expensive line to save 20 minutes? Fares wont be cheap on Hs2 for sure..
Hi Dylan, I use the TfW and LNW Off Peak ticket from Manchester to Euston once a month. Leave at 0730 arriving in London at 1030. Excellent trains for £30.80 with a railcard. Return within a month..
SWT use the 3 plus 2 on the Pompey to London route much to commuter's annoyance.
Great video.
Can you do this again when the 730 starts running please?
If I may offer a constructive criticism, I would like to have seen in through the window of the driver's cab (at about 7m 40s) perhaps a few seconds to look at the driver's instrument panel which can be seen easily as you walk between the two units. On the whole nice video. Like it.
I use these trains instead of Avanti when traveling from Manchester to Euston. ATW to Crewe and LNW to Euston arriving at 1030. Return anytime up to one month later, all for £30.80 with a railcard discount. The 2x2 seats are usually at the northern end of the train. these are the ex Trans Pennine units.
Big thumbs up from me. That ticket price is amazing! One way with a discount card for just over £10! I usually end up using a fare splitting site to get cheap tickets. And out of interest, which exit is that out of Birmingham NS at 12:41?
I see you were in one of the former Transpennine Express units, which appears to have been refurbished, no idea why as they certainly didn't ned it. Also when with TPE the 1st class was in a 2+1 layout but now altered to "=2 which is a pity.
Great review and certainly looks to be good vaue for money.
Hey Dylan. Statens Järnvägar (SJ) has started a new sleeper route from Hamburg-Altona to Stockholm C. 21.55 - 9.55 . It's EuroNight 496/497. It would be very interesting if you did a report on it! :) All the best from Sweden!
Great video, but I wouldn't have any room their, I'm 6 foot !
We live in Derby but on the opposite side to the station, we have decent access to the A38 which heads towards Brum past Lichfield. Lichfield has two stations, Lichfield City and Lichfield Trent Valley. One line runs to central Brum from Trent Valley and City. The lower level platform at Trent Valley is on the West Coast main line. We go to London from Trent Valley using the same company as the report highlights, it is far cheaper than travelling from Derby, there is plentiful parking and the it only takes five minutes or so longer getting tp the station than using Derby. The trains are not as swish but the price difference is substantial.
Agree good service and great value ; deffo need some plug sockets in this day and age
I have used this operator from Euston to Crewe and it does offer much more affordable ticket prices but the trade off is it goes the long way round stopping at quite a few stations.
I’d be interested in seeing how the 730s compare when they enter service
Wow, the class 350 looks like they just took a commuter train (it looks pretty much like the electrostars that are so ubiquitous in commuter service around the London area) and decided to run inter-city trips with it. Can't complain about the price though.
I see from many comments I'm not alone in split ticketing and using the LNWR service from Crewe to Euston. I travel from Liverpool so get Liv to Crewe, Crewe to Euston. The price is so much more affordable, plus on the LNWR ticket you can get a TfL Z1-6 Travel card added to the ticket for only a couple of pounds extra if you book online and go through the ticket options. Just hope a single 5-car 730 doesn't replace an 8-car 350 formation.
As for the seats, I hate 3+2. In 2+2 there's usually an infill piece between the seats, when it's 3+2 the seats are closer together, cushion to cushion. People rarely sit three abreast on them, the centre seat is usually just a place people put their bags. You couldn't get 3 x Geoff Marshall's side by side on those seats.
The main shortcoming of Desiros is the ride quality, they do tend to sway from side to side, particularly if you're sitting at the ends of the coach, though it's probably more noticeable on the longer Class 444s. The standard toilets are very narrow, and the manual sliding door is rather flimsy. At least the ex Transpennine Express 350/4s have better seats than a 450 or other varieties of 350. Are they an advance on a 321 though? Debatable.
may I suggest trying the services in Kent? Like the Southeastern's Javelin (which is dual current, overhead and 3rd rail)
My partner and I semi-frequently travel to London and the past couple of trips it’s worked out cheapest to get a direct Avanti down, and London Northwestern to Crewe and Avanti to Preston back. LNW are far more reliable than Avanti have been recently.
Please remember to make CC ( closed caption)
available to those of us that are hearing impaired.
Lately several of your videos have not had it
enabled. I am unable to listen to your terrific videos
without CC. Thank you in advance for doing so.
Automatic CC is enabled if you press the button. Though admittedly it's not as good as manually typed CC.
UA-cam did have a way for users to contribute to the CCs but they removed that feature.
Awesome 👌
The game rugby was invented at Rugby school a private school in rugby.
Hope you enjoyed your week off, or was it finishing off the house move? Are you still resident in God's Wonderful County? Some more UK trip reports coming up? The Northampton diversion and semi-fast stopping pattern after Coventry don't make this particularly desirable unless you're not in a hurry.
thank you
Great video, you should try and get the 319 before the go from this company
Are the 3+2 seaters normally on London-Brum services? I don’t wanna be stuck on one, only barely survived a trip on one from Stafford to New Street
as a resident on this route, I'm glad its not just me has an issue with the legroom on the 350s
The class 350 seats are also the same as the ScotRail Class 380
Both classes are from the Desiro design
..even better..I travelled from Ledbury - +1hr - to Euston, via Birmingham, and return for £12.50, advance booking..great value but as suggested you must sit in the front unit from London as people seem incapable of walking a few paces to get a decent seat - very strange!..
Great price indeed for a slower service. Prices are completely ludicrous now with Avanti for such a short journey. What about Birmingham Station and surroundings? I found them totally unsafe when I stopped there a few years ago. Never again
With the ongoing mess at Avanti, I would definitely use Chiltern or LNWR on this route and if travelling from London to Edinburgh would use LNER or Lumo but not Avanti because of the timetabling mess with Avanti
@Sleeper Train Fan the sleeper is a lovely service, usually very convenient for me. However, LNER also run about 20 direct trains per day from King's Cross to Edinburgh - it only takes 4 and a half hours, give or take. Lumo run a few services - I'm considering trying them next time I go that way.
When not busy (and only then!), I prefer the 3+2 - and the facing 3 seaters in particular. Plenty of room. Tho no table
LNWR seems really cheap for some reason. London to St Albans is less than 50p from half price if you go via Watford Junction, compared to thameslink (from Euston/St Pancras). Also, some LNWR services to Birmingham New Street don't call at amy stations between London and Leighton Buzzard
Have you tried the class 360 desiros? Operated by east Midlands railway.
I have been from Birmingham to London changing at Reading to Paddington that is nearer to Hyde Park and Oxford Street than Euston.
Amazing! I wish I can come to UK someday.
me too! I would love to trainspot at UK!
@@sojw5679 Maybe we'll meet someday. I just want to travel.
I know this might sound a bit if of a silly question, but can you get the same price if you travel from Birmingham to London. Great vlog. Thanks 👍
London Northwestern Railway have ordered the Class 730 5-Car Aventra units that is replacing the Class 350/2 Desiro and Class 319 that is expected to enter service from next year.
Same with West Midlands Railway who also have ordered the 3-Car Class 730/0 Aventra to replace the Class 323 and Class 196 Civity.
Yes. 701 is also supposed to enter service but who knows...
I’ve read rumors the 730/0s could be used in place of the 319s starting this year
Good video
I live in rugby and I regularly ride this route and the trains are good
Coventry is my UK base (I live in Brazil but visit sometimes) and so I often make this trip in the Coventry-New Street section. My last time was in 2014 with the old Midland trains. I would like to see the local stations between Coventry and Northampton reopen, particularly Brandon and also Kilsby & Crick which would be an excellent local station due to being close to the main M6 motorway. On the main line, I would also like to see the reopening of the local stations like Roade and Castlethorpe. And open the Great Central and S&MJ for better service in an area badly in need of passenger rail links.
Reopening the Great Central would have made more sense than HS2. From Woodford Halse, the SMJR could have been reopened to Stratford upon Avon and then by the existing route. The approach to Birmingham could be improved by restoring four tracks through the suburbs. Incidentally, this was the Great Central's plan to gain access to Birmingham, a distance of 115 miles. The Great Western refused to give the Great Central running powers over its network, and understandably so. The Great Western line from London to Birmingham was 129 miles. (Via Reading and Oxford.) The two companies then became allies with the joint line from Northolt to Ashendon, just beyond Princes Risborough. This line brought the Paddington - Birmingham mileage to 110, and the Great Central had a faster exit from London, avoiding the congestion on the Metropolitan Line.
Reopen the Grand Central? Quite a lot of that has been built on, especially in city centers. Rebuilding it would require plowing through all that. HS2 in fact reuses part of the GCR’s route on the southern section.
You forgot the famous concrete cows and American grid system in Milton Keynes
Don't You mean Roman Grid System?
All the roundabouts, too!
So would you prefer this or Avanti?
I think that is good value for money with LNWR and avanti west coast with a railcard
I would prefer if it was compulsory seat reservations so you knew you had a seat of your choice. it would be great if it had a buffet car on it.
speaking of bargain, this reminds me of the 9€ Ticket we currently have here in Germany. Maybe you should give it a try while it's still available.
Looks quite a long trip, but I guess that's why its so cheap! (For the UK).
Can't wait for HS2 to cut the journey time.
You're not expecting HS2 to be cheap are you? 😒
No way I would be able to fit there as there is not enough legroom for me
There's multiple sets of extra legroom seats in each carriage (not including bays), usually 2 rows at each end of the carriage. Unless I get on just as it's about to leave, it's incredibly rare I have to endure the standard seat.
Boa tarde Dylans lindo trem gostei
Is that what the door on the front of the train used for?