I'll be traveling in the UK from 19 May through 5 June. When I was there last, around New Year's, the Virgin Voyager trainsets were quite overcrowded at times. Has the overcrowding on Virgin trains eased? I'll be using an 8-day BritRail flexipass with travel planned between London and Manchester, Manchester and Edinburgh, Edinburgh and Fort William, Fort William and Manchester, and Manchester and London. Most travel will probably be on Virgin, ScotRail, and GNER. Are there any current service problems with any of these providers? Possible side trips include Fort William to Mallaig and the route along the Cumbria coast from Lancaster to Carlisle.
Greg
Posted by Geoff Mayo (Member # 153) on :
A new timetable comes into effect tomorrow. As far as I know Virgin have attempted to alleviate most of the problems, which was basically caused by the newer trains being shorter than the older with no real increase in frequency. Best to travel off-peak if possible. You should also be able to get seat reservations on long distance trains (£1 fee per seat usually). http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ shows current state of the railways, including planned engineering work (service alterations page).