GWR Class 800s are not a patch on the old Mk 4s

Barry Doe is too polite about the new Great Western Railway IEP Class 800 now being introduced ( RAIL 845).

On the third day of service I travelled Standard Class from Worcester to Oxford. As well as being a bland interior, the seats were really hard and the ride was bouncy with several sharp jerks.

I inspected Barry’s favourite First Class (only four passengers - what a waste of space) and it looks no different from Standard Class, and the seat I sampled was just as hard.

Fortunately, I am only a casual user of this route. No doubt the already low usage will drop substantially when the regular London travellers decide to drive to Oxford Parkway and use the comfortable Chiltern service from there.

Finally, a five-coach unit has far too excessive space when a Turbo Class 165 is more than adequate. D A Pearson, Bewdley

I echo Barry Doe’s comments about his first experience on an IEP ( RAIL 845).

They are what you might expect for an outer-suburban train for journeys of up to 90 minutes, but not for journeys to the west of England - quite apart from their inadequate performance.

I read Barry’s column over breakfast en route from London to Leeds in a Mk 4 - the best First Class coach in Europe (in recent years I have travelled on almost every European system) - and the thought that IEP is to replace these next year is horrifying.

The Mk 4 stock has many years of useful life left, and would be ideal for CrossCountry trains if equipped with new diesel locomotives - particularly if, as contemplated, most Scottish trains are in future to terminate at Newcastle.

Barry referred only obliquely to an earlier disaster: the Voyager, which is wholly inadequate for longer journeys. After reseating, the Voyagers could be used on secondary trains - for example, Liverpool to Norwich or Birmingham to Stansted. They would not be able to exploit their 125mph capability, but then they only achieve that on electrified stretches of line.