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kevin_standlee) wrote2025-07-16 06:26 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2025-07-16 06:26 pm
Graduation Aftermath: A Tale of Two Trains
Part of the package that Exeter University offered Cheryl included first class train travel for her and me to and from Exeter. Cheryl collected me at Heathrow Airport last Saturday and we went into London Paddington on Heathrow Express, then on to Exeter on Great Western Railway, as I reported at the time. After the ceremony at the university on Monday, they had a hire car take us to Exeter St. David station, where we had enough time for me to get a coffee at Starbucks (Kayla's Starbucks app seems to work here in the UK) and catch our train.
Here's the view from the pedestrian overpass to the platform where we would catch our train. When I took this photo, two GWR trains were stopped in the station.
Our first train was this Cross Country service from Exeter to Bristol Parkway.
The first class seats are bigger and more comfortable than standard class, but that was the limit of extra perks on this train. There were no refreshments, not for us in first class and indeed not for anyone on this train, which was bound for Leeds. The train manager apologized that there was no on-board service.
We passed through Bristol Temple Meads, which is quite the building site these days.
At Bristol Parkway, we disembarked and made our way up and over to the platform from which our connecting trains was scheduled to arrive. This was to be a pair of 5-car GWR IEP train. The forward five cars would terminate at Swansea (our destination), while the rear five cars would separate and continue onward. The announcements said that there was a restaurant car on this train, but did not say in which half of the train it was. There is no connection between the two five-car sets.
After being "entertained" by a hysterically screaming young woman (we never did learn why; she and the older woman with whom she was traveling boarded a train on the next platform over), our train arrived, running a bit late. We boarded the front set. It turns out that the rear set had the restaurant. The only way we could have moved would have been to deboard at a station and run back to the other half of the train, which we elected not to do. Well, we weren't exactly famished.
GWR first class was a bit more comfortable than the Cross Country service had been. They did have complimentary coffee/tea/soda and light snacks from a cart.
We passed through Cardiff Central. The stop here would probably have been long enough to change halves of the train, but we didn't bother.
At Cardiff, the electrification ends, and the dual-mode train switched to diesel power.
Soon, we were approaching Swansea.
There was no need to rush, given that our half of the train was going to stand here at Swansea for a while, with the back half of the train separating and going onward from this stub-end platform.
I've been here before, and indeed, I think I may have been over all of today's route in the past.
It was a pretty good train trip, although we were more than 30 minutes late into Swansea due to a combination of issues. Cheryl will contact the person who arranged our travel in case they want to claim compensation.
Cheryl drove us to her home in Ammanford from Swansea and heated up a dinner she had made in advance of the trip for this sort of this sort of situation. I didn't realize until I tucked in to her mince over rice just how hungry I was.
We got to bed pretty late. I did not realize until the next morning that I was so tired that I hadn't put in my CPAP mask and anti-teeth-grinding mouth guard. I must have been asleep within a minute of turning off the light.
I was happy with our train trip, even with some of the delays and distractions. It turns out that I've been mostly traveling first class on these entire trip. That won't be the case going back to London on Friday, but that's okay. I can see how one could get spoiled by such things, though.
Here's the view from the pedestrian overpass to the platform where we would catch our train. When I took this photo, two GWR trains were stopped in the station.
Our first train was this Cross Country service from Exeter to Bristol Parkway.
The first class seats are bigger and more comfortable than standard class, but that was the limit of extra perks on this train. There were no refreshments, not for us in first class and indeed not for anyone on this train, which was bound for Leeds. The train manager apologized that there was no on-board service.
We passed through Bristol Temple Meads, which is quite the building site these days.
At Bristol Parkway, we disembarked and made our way up and over to the platform from which our connecting trains was scheduled to arrive. This was to be a pair of 5-car GWR IEP train. The forward five cars would terminate at Swansea (our destination), while the rear five cars would separate and continue onward. The announcements said that there was a restaurant car on this train, but did not say in which half of the train it was. There is no connection between the two five-car sets.
After being "entertained" by a hysterically screaming young woman (we never did learn why; she and the older woman with whom she was traveling boarded a train on the next platform over), our train arrived, running a bit late. We boarded the front set. It turns out that the rear set had the restaurant. The only way we could have moved would have been to deboard at a station and run back to the other half of the train, which we elected not to do. Well, we weren't exactly famished.
GWR first class was a bit more comfortable than the Cross Country service had been. They did have complimentary coffee/tea/soda and light snacks from a cart.
We passed through Cardiff Central. The stop here would probably have been long enough to change halves of the train, but we didn't bother.
At Cardiff, the electrification ends, and the dual-mode train switched to diesel power.
Soon, we were approaching Swansea.
There was no need to rush, given that our half of the train was going to stand here at Swansea for a while, with the back half of the train separating and going onward from this stub-end platform.
I've been here before, and indeed, I think I may have been over all of today's route in the past.
It was a pretty good train trip, although we were more than 30 minutes late into Swansea due to a combination of issues. Cheryl will contact the person who arranged our travel in case they want to claim compensation.
Cheryl drove us to her home in Ammanford from Swansea and heated up a dinner she had made in advance of the trip for this sort of this sort of situation. I didn't realize until I tucked in to her mince over rice just how hungry I was.
We got to bed pretty late. I did not realize until the next morning that I was so tired that I hadn't put in my CPAP mask and anti-teeth-grinding mouth guard. I must have been asleep within a minute of turning off the light.
I was happy with our train trip, even with some of the delays and distractions. It turns out that I've been mostly traveling first class on these entire trip. That won't be the case going back to London on Friday, but that's okay. I can see how one could get spoiled by such things, though.