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The author of this post seemed to have struck gold with the trains he went on. This entire summer, my train trips have been troubled with constant delays and ca
by GOATS- 4y ago
The author of this post seemed to have struck gold with the trains he went on. This entire summer, my train trips have been troubled with constant delays and cancellations either because of heat or the constant rail strikes.
Travelling to-and-fro Stansted by train was awful compared to taking the National Express up to the airport. The CrossCountry trains were small and crammed to the brim, I had even less leg space in the train than I did with my budget airline flight. Even sitting up completely straight, I still felt my knees rub up against the metal of the seat in front of me. The train stations and trains themselves were filthy with trash lying around. One thing that always bothers me while travelling in the UK, is how there's essentially no cell service along the whole route. You're lucky if you even get to pull up HN reliably.
I suppose it helps travelling first class - but that is not at all realistic for most people living in the UK.
- benbristow 4y ago> You're lucky if you even get to pull up HN reliably Funny how you say that, HN seems to be one of those sites that works well even on a really terrible WiFi (i.e. UK train WiFi - LNER/Avanti, looking at you)/data connection - mainly due to how basic it is. Shame it's only a link aggregator so the actual 'content' (other than comments) is hit/miss.
- deergomoo 4y ago> One thing that always bothers me while travelling in the UK, is how there's essentially no cell service along the whole route And because the onboard Wi-Fi is primarily 4G/5G driven, it’s equally unreliable. I recently flew from Manchester to Toronto and the in-flight Wi-Fi was rock solid almost the entire way. Meanwhile a few weeks ago I took the train from Manchester to Euston for work and the Wi-Fi wasn’t reliable enough to get anything done. > The CrossCountry trains were small and crammed to the brim If it was a Voyager/Super Voyager those things are my second least favourite trains on the network*. They were built with a tilting mechanism like the Pendolinos, requiring they be vertically tapered. This makes them feel oppressive and cramped, and stops you standing up without hitting your head. The worst part is, the tilt was disabled to improve reliability, so it’s all for nought. *My first least favourite train is the Pacer. Cursed 80s bus on rails.
- Doctor_Fegg 4y agoCrossCountry are the pits. It’s probably not that there’s no mobile reception, it’s that their trains have a coating on the windows which effectively blocks the signals. CrossCountry are run by Deutsche Bahn.