What rail company (British Rail)

Member Name: D.J.Rossco

Product:	British Rail
Date:	15/06/00 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Each company has its own ups and downs, but most are fast and reasonabley reliable (apart from Virgin!)

Disadvantages: Prone to hold ups and not always particulary cheap, I reccomend getting some form of rail card.

As you probably know there is not one single entitiy known as British rail any longer, but a number of companies responsible for different trains. The two of these which you are most likely to travel on when on long distances are GNER and Virgin trains.
The latter have been subject to a lot of bad press...and far be it from me to stick up for them. I am a sympathiser with Richard Branson but his trains drive me up the wall. I rarely travel on them but sometimes have to, they are old, bought by Virgin from their previous owners, and arent paticularly well done up. Carriages are not paticularly comfortable, but there is alot of room. Trains tend to be unreliable, and if you book your ticket via their online 'Trainline service' you may find it more trouble than its worth, with tickets not coming until the morning of your departure, by which time you will have phoned up their help line who can't help and probably booked other tickets. The doors are manual and you have to hang out of the window to open the buggers. However, they're not too bad and the buffet cars are usually well stocked, but, as with all buffet cars, a rip off - take your own sandwiches!
The former, GNER, are a more luxurious outfit with new trains such as the Scottish Pullman and the Highland Chieftan, boasting to take the route of the Flying Scotsman. The carraiges are pleasant and the trains decor is very grand. The buffet car provides excellent food, as do the resteraunt cars, and a real effort has obviously been made, they live up to they're promise of being innovative, fresh and delicious with such delights as wild mushroom soup and roasted pepper baguettes as well as the more usual fair, still a bit pricey though.
You only really have a choice of these two when travelling to destinations between Cornwall and Inverness unless you keep changing from local service to local service, which is not reccomended as these are all very old, uncomfortable and ugly tra
ins apart from those belonging to Scotrail, a company who really do make an effort and don't have to as they have a monopoly in Scotland even over the larger companies such as GNER.
My main tip for rail travel is to buy a railcard relevant to you, students, you can get a third of ticket prices, an adult can get 20% off and pay only £2 per child with a family rail card and pensioners can get up to 50%, most railcards pay for themselves after only one journey. Booking in advance can also get you cheaper tickets.

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