stevebrass wrote:clarkeysntfc wrote:Having read the discussion above, I find it very difficult to agree with the positive comments on First Great Western. Their rolling stock is ancient, and the leg room in standard is pretty tight, plus other than new seats they don't appear to have invested anything in the Franchise at all.
Compared to the WCML with the modern new London Midland trains, and Virgin's Pendolinos it really is no contest. Virgin are also introducting 11 coach Pendolinos, and lengthening some of the existing 9 coach trains to 11. This will give them 2 more coaches of Standard seating over the 9 coach fleet.
I think the existing rolling stock will be used by who ever the succesful train operating company is.
Virgin didn't inherit the Pendelinos, they brought them into service, along with the Super Voyagers. I never really understood why everyone else still uses the ancient trains, apart from being cheap and not really caring about replacing them (how comes Virgin did, they inherited the crap old ones?).
My memory of that old rolling stock on the West Coast Mainline before it was privatised, was the air conditioning being broken because people used to leave the windows opening, thus sweltering journeys which became ok when the train got going, but were almost inhuman when sat in stations for more than a minute...
