First Great Western- A first and great service to London! (First Great Western)

Member Name: dan 2000

Product:	First Great Western
Date:	09/03/03 (986 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Adelante Trains-Being Phased In, Majority of Staff pleasant and friendly, Frequent Services

Disadvantages: Old trains although being phased out

When my parents and I go to London we go by train as we don't want to be stuck in traffic. We always take the Cardiff-London and London-Cardiff route with First Great Western. I am writing about my journey in October 2002 for my Birthday. I love London and we stayed there for 4 nights. First Great Western are also phasing out their old trains for state-of-the art Adelante trains(as they call them)

Outbound

Staff
Now train staff are not seen as much as plane staff so I can't go into much detail. On First they are usually quite pleasant. Buffet staff good and pleasant.

The train
The train was a new Adelante train which was quiter, smother and boasted more comfort than their old high speedtrains. I was in standard class which had comfy seats. Don't worry, just because you are in Standard Class doesn't mean you don't have a pleasant journey. The seats were purple and blue and as there were three of us we had a 4 seat area. The 4 seats were facing each other. 2 on one side and 2 going backward. There was a table in the middle of the 4 seats. It was like this(S stands for seat, TA stands for table
SS
TA
SS
The seats which were just for two people were like this:
SS
They had fold down tray tables like on planes and the seats infact were like plane seats but in First Great Western Style.
All seats had airline legroom and their were 5 carriages on the Adelante trains compared to about 9, 10 or 11. I don't know.

Buffet
The buffet on Adelante trains are better it was located on the next carriage to me! Convinent. They are not like the others situated between standard and First. They were just in the standard area of the train. They offered a great choice of snacks and they give kids a "carriage crew" bag full of goodies like crayons, a colouring book, a build your own cardboard train, notepad and puzzle sheets as well as more. The buffet staff were friendly.


Inbound
The train
Dissapointed to find it was a old style train. This was alright but had more carriages but seats were green although in the same configurations ie 4 facing or 2 airline style seats. The train was a bit louder too. There was delay by Bristol because of the rail tracks development but this was not due to First.

The staff
The staff were pleasant and not seen much as on trains. The buffet staff were again friendly.

Buffet
This buffet was similar to Adelante one but no as modern. It still had a good Choice though. The staff were kind and fiendly again at the buffet.

Altogether my journeys have always been good. Some not brill and wow but good. First Great Western is the only good rail company to operate the Cardiff-London and London-Cardiff route. To be honest I don't know if it is the only one. It is good as their trains have good facilities like First Class. Also, when I was looking in the timetable the other day, it has a A above the route details which means that it is sheduled to be an Adelante. This can not be guaranteed. No I don't work for them as I am a teenager I know that some of the info sounds like I am advertising but honestly I am not advertising.
Please if possible, could you leave a cooment and rate this review. If you have no time then don't worry.
Thanks and bye.
PS: Virgin Trains have new trains called Voyagers or Pendolinos-similar to Adelante trains. I go to London for my Birthday and I will probably either Update this or write a new review. I will probably update.

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