Get the inside track on new South Wales to London trains

GREAT Western Railway must have broken the record for the most staff on one train on Monday, the first day of public service for GWR’s sparkling new InterCity Express Trains.

There were two staff for the refreshment trolley, two collecting litter and numerous others to walk through the train smiling and looking proud.

And that was just in the rear half of the train, which was made up of two fivecoach sets with no walking route between the pair.

In their excitement, none of the staff remembered the mundane task of checking tickets west of Newport, so they were unaware that several of us in the last three coaches needed to alight at Neath.

After we’d left Port Talbot, the information screens at the end of the eighth coach warned that the rear door of this coach wouldn’t open at Neath.

There was a small delay at the station while a couple of surprised pensioners were directed to the open door, then a longer pause as another pensioner was helped from the rear coach to the door, about 60 metres from her seat.

The train had been a few minutes late all the way from Newport.

Each station stop seemed quite prolonged, perhaps because passengers weren’t expecting two sections of First Class.

That will improve with familiarity, but my return service – the same new train coming back from Swansea – was six minutes late by Neath. It seemed slow east of Bridgend, although it wasn’t stopping at the local stations, and was eight minutes late leaving Cardiff.

The steeply-graded tracks east of Port Talbot were to have been electrified, but more recently the UK Government has said the trains will be just as fast on diesel power as on electric (they can use either source).

It also tells us passengers that we won’t notice the difference, but hopefully the level of comfort inside the coaches will be much better when the trains can use electricity from Cardiff to London from the end of next year.

When the diesel engines are thundering away beneath the floor, there are constant vibrations inside, even at station stops. On the move, there’s often a medium-pitch whine. Sometimes there’s a fit of juddering, as if different engines are trying to go at different speeds.

For regular passengers on the London Paddington line, this might feel a retrograde step after the smoothness and quietness of InterCity 125 coaches, introduced 41 years ago.

The seats are surprisingly hard, especially the backs, which are also almost vertical.

Legroom is better than in the InterCity 125s since GWR packed in more seats about a decade ago, but no better than in the Coradia trains, the newest in Arriva Trains Wales’ fleet.

Those ATW seats lean back much more – better if you want a snooze, but perhaps the new GWR seats are more ergonomic for working at a laptop.

Talking of which, the new trains’ foldout tables incorporate a neat bar to slide forward to keep your laptop level. Every seat has a power socket. The luggage rack above the seats is deep enough to take small suitcases, although passengers of more than average height might need to mind their heads as they stand.

The grab handles to steady yourself as you walk along the aisle aren’t on the tops of the seats, as usual, but down at hip height. Their vertical design would make you twist your forearm 180 degrees to get a full purchase.

The electronic seat reservation signs weren’t working yesterday, but fortunately there are slots in the seat tops for traditional paper notices.

Armrests are just 33mm wide, which is 10mm narrower than in the Coradia trains.

Visually, the interiors are a treat, with strips of even, indirect white lighting along the length of the ceiling. The information displays have large, clear letters, but GWR is too verbose with what should be short and simple messages about gaps to platforms or doors which won’t open at Neath.

The toilet has a big and obvious lever to lock the door beside the “close” button, to avoid those embarrassments caused by inconspicuous “lock” buttons in train toilets.

Cyclists should have fun stowing their bikes vertically in the bike cupboard and working out how a “fold down protector” arm can keep two bikes from knocking against each other.