Nightmare Journeys in The Twilight Zone (Virgin Trains)

Member Name: zusy

Product:	Virgin Trains
Date:	16/06/00 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: If you like standing around on freezing cold platforms for hours, this is the service for you!

Disadvantages: There is no other alternative for the journey I need to take. Richard Branson must be laughing all the way to the bank, though.

I have had the misfortune to travel on long distance journeys with Virgin trains on several occasions. I hope by writing this review it will serve as something of a cathartic exercise, as the memories still haunt me...

Here's a jolly thing to try at home - book a return journey from London to Manchester on the virgin website www.thetrainline.com If you're lucky, you too will see hilarious results like mine. The website informed that I could not have a return journey from London to Manchester on the dates I wanted to travel. It said I could travel from London to Manchester but not come back, or I could come from Manchester to London, but not travel up there in the first place. I felt I had landed in the Twilight zone!

When I eventually managed to book through the website, the ticket arrived but were in the smoking section, not non-smoking as I had requested.

I could have overlooked this error on their part but the trains themselves were a disgrace. Cattle should not be allowed to travel in such conditions! There weren't enough seats, although it is required that everyone reserves a seat. Litter, beer cans, overflowing ashtrays and half-eaten 'food' from the canteen was all over the place.

Each connection I got was delayed and I was relieved to arrive in more or less one piece in Manchester.

Travelling back was even worse. I couldn't see my train come up on the departure board and went to inquire at the desk. I was getting quite worried as I had two minutes before the train was supposed to leave.

The woman at the desk informed me my train had been cancelled. No mention of this on the board at all. I now had under a minute to lug my cases to another platform to await a train that would take two hours longer than the express one which was cancelled. This new train did not turn up for half an hour. It then broke down. By the time we had reached the next connecting station, the connection had go
ne and we had to wait on a freezing cold platform (with nothing open, so no warming coffee) for another two hours. The train that turned up was already full!

The crowd on the platform surged forwards and somehow everyone squeezed on, although nobody got a seat. I was absolutely furious - this was costing me over forty quid! I had paid for a seat and I was bloody well going to sit down, so myself and a number of like-minded passengers pushed our way through the jam-packed carriages until we got to first class. Lo and behold it was practically empty, although we were told we couldn't sit down unless we paid for an upgrade. I think I laughed somewhat hysterically for the man saying this became rather nervous and showed me to a gorgeously padded armchair-like seat with a private table and dinky little light. He also brought me over a magazine to read.

The moral of this story: Assume the look of someone on the edge of comitting manslaughter, and Virgin Trains may actually let you sit down for the duration of a journey you've paid far too much for.

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