Do the Peterborough Shuffle (Central Trains)

Member Name: ermintrude

Product:	Central Trains
Date:	11/12/00 (307 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They run a train service where I want to go; usually reliable

Disadvantages: Poor standards of cleanliness; stupid ticket pricing system

I'm studying in Norwich, but "home" is Nottingham, so I make use of the Norwich-Liverpool route quite a bit. In my experience, Central trains are generally okay, but I think this review's main piece of info is a handly little trick which I'll tell you about at the end.

* Punctuality
I've only ever had problems during the recent speed restrictions. Otherwise, the occasional 10 minutes late is all I've experienced, so thumbs up for that. I've heard of others being stranded for a couple of hours out in the fens, but only once!

* Train quality
The new trains are very nice. All sleek and shiny, brightly painted... the seats are comfy and there's plenty of luggage room too. The toilets on some of them are *huge*, I guess to accommodate a wheelchair, while others are the usual smaller spaces. There's even a handy little display to tell you the upcoming stations. My only real complaint is the air conditioning is dodgy, and sometimes you freeze. But that's not much in the grand scheme of things, and I would rate these new trains among the best I've travelled on.

The older trains... well, they've really just had a lick of paint since the last owners. Some of the seat cushions have not stood up well to the rigours of thousands of bottoms, being loose or having little actual padding, which is not nice for 3 hours. The toilets on these older trains are usually horrible, covered in cigarette burns and with water (or worse) sloshing everywhere. They get you there, but it's not always in style. I would say the newer trains are more common, thankfully, so I would guess these are being phased out.

* Train cleanliness
This is often not Central's strong point. To be fair, the services I get are long-distance, and 5 hours' worth of passengers can make a fair mess. But why hasn't someone invented a plastic that can resist coffee stains? And why can't the cleaning sta
ff scrape off chewing gum? (Or why can't people refrain from sticking it on the tables?) The little airline-style seatback tables are almost always pretty grim. As for the toilets... well, see above and then imagine that they're not cleaned at the end of a trip. Basically, if you get a morning train, you'll fare better.

In wet weather, the windows are sometimes so grimy (on the outside) that you can hardly see what station you're pulling into. I accept that these are probably a function of the train's schedule (long trips, short stops), but other companies, such as Anglia, seem to cope.

* Catering
Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. There are no buffets, it's always a little trolley, and you know what to expect. Overpriced snacks and drinks, and unrefrigerated overpriced sandwiches. Not that this is limited to Central Trains of course. The coffee's not bad though, and the staff are usually friendly.

* Ermintrude's top tip
Not earth shattering, but it's nice to be able to get one over on the train companies. This is something I like to think of as the Peterborough Shuffle. If travelling via Peterborough, as I do to go home, then get 2 tickets (e.g. I get Norwich-Peterborough and Peterborough-Nottingham). This usually offers considerable savings - I just saved £7.30 on my Christmas ticket home. I wouldn't be surprised if this worked for other main stations, e.g. Birmingham, although I haven't tried it. Perhaps if you do try it, you could leave a comment.

This is totally legal, so don't let them tell you otherwise - the rules just state that you have to have a valid ticket for all portions of your journey, which you will. One ticket counter guy challenged my brother on this, and when asked for a reason as to why it wasn't allowed, could only splutter "well, it's *cheaper* isn't it?". Sums up the current state of the railways, really.

Summary: