It’s worth noting that advance tickets are available for this journey, and you can get the price down to around £8.25 with a railcard, which is a lot more reasonable.
9:40 Eurostars stopped running through Tonbridge in 2003, when CTRL 1 (as it was called back then) opened between the Channel Tunnel and Fawkham Junction. After this the Eurostars only used the Chatham mainline and the South Western between Waterloo and near Clapham, where a spur was built
Price was probably high since you travelled in rush hour. You must've travelled on a weekday as it is rare for a Hastings and Tunbridge Wells service on a Weekend. Great trip report though 😃, I did this route back in October and it was really good - a lot of trees though especially after Tonbridge. I've been on the GX 387s whilst they've been running on the East Coastway. COVID has had a great impact on the East Coastway as you've got GX carriages between Brighton and Hastings/Ore, 4 carriages on the Ashford International services instead of 2 to maintain social distancing which may become permanent now and 8 carriages between London Victoria and Eastbourne instead of 4 (which was going ti happen anyway).
A very good review superalbs if I am honest I prefer the southern class 377. They have more comfortable seats and are a fraction of the price of these units. they may take longer but the class 377 is better. Also there is no difference between first class and standard class apart from the bibs so I would save money and not use the first class.
Southeasterns have 377s which run from Victoria and sometimes Charing Cross/Cannon Street. They still have the old Thameslink/Southern interiors with the blue livery and are very comfortable! The Victoria routes are also faster due to lower Suburban traffic
Interesting how views on ticket prices have changed over the years. The "Cheap Day Return" on the old Southern region of BR was the way to get to London and back in a day (or anywhere else) and was priced about the same as a single. But the price was fairly comparable to now, adjusted for inflation. In those days you normally couldn't get cheap long-distance tickets on other routes though. I was asked for £86 for a Milton Keynes to Manchester return - in 1986!! By waiting 20 minutes and going via Northampton I got it down to £48. Advance fares have totally revolutionised what one expects to pay for a train journey in the UK. For a fair time you couldn't get them south of London because it was considered still to be relatively cheap, but they have now been introduced.
Nice video! Happy to see trains of the southeast. I remember riding in a few of those when I 1st visited England in 1978. Slammy doors and slidey windows (but not nice ones like the Class 43’s)😊
A small comment about airline seat legroom, the priority seats are very spacious, as a 6ft2 large chap I automatically head for a priority seat, if you try a normal airline seat you'll struggle to rotate your knees behind the seat.
Nice one! I do agree it's not worth the price, not go mention how the other variants of 375s (and Southern 377s) have metro style seating on longer services, which can be annoying.
Despite the somewhat convenient location, I've never liked Charing Cross station. It doesn't have many platforms for a Central London Terminus, and it's always felt a bit like a claustrophobic, dingy pit because the offices of PWHC were built on top of it. As for the Hastings Route, it's conveniently fast if you want to go to Tunbridge Wells or Hastings, but before COVID, the route had a reputation for being very incompatible with any connecting journeys in Kent during peak hours unless you were going directly via London. It's now my local route too.
Great video, I was searching for Southeastern trains because I want to take a trip to Folkestone soon and was curious about the trains seating arrangement during the pandemic. I also just subscribed as well.
The 375 is generally a good train, the /9 with the 3+2 configuration is ridiculous The /6 are comfortable but slightly legroom limited if tall, but to be honest far better than a lot of newer trains
Really nice lookig trains - the change to blue livery a good one. Agree that price seems a lot - it makes a Rail Pass look like great value if coming from overseas.
As a regular SE traveller who has spent many hundred hours on 375s, I'll just say a few words: FC is not worth it for the price as there's no difference except more chance of a seat and a pointless piece of paper. Quick note: London Bridge has 3 operators, not 2 (also how dare you not show how superior sevenoaks station is) jk Good video!
34€ for 62 miles lmao, in france you can take an high speed train from Paris to nice which cover 931 km for 10€. Not to mention you’ll travel at 180mph. England need to wake up, Rhodes prices are unnacceptable !
Hello there, the Bombardier Class 375/8 Electrostar EMU trains were built 2003-04 and there are thirty of them in the fleet. For your information, Southeastern trains also have the following: * 10 Adtranz three car Class 375/3 Electrostar EMU trains built 2001-02 * 30 Adranz/Bombardier four car Class 375/6 Electrostar EMU trains built 1999-2001 * 15 Bombardier four car Class 375/7 Electrostar EMU trains built 2001-02 * 27 Bombardier four car Class 375/9 Electrostar EMU trains built 2003-04 HIGH DENSITY 2+3 SEATING LAYOUT * 36 Bombardier five car Class 376 Electrostar EMU trains built 2004-05 The seat design aboard Classes 375/3, 375/6, 375/7 and 375/8 are Compin Sirius type, with those seats in First Class featuring a deeper, larger seat base. Best wishes and take care. Kind regards, Peter Skuce. St Albans. Hertfordshire.
Even by us 🇺🇸 standards the price was outlandish. I live 75 miles east of New York City. I can take a train from Metro North to NYC for about $30 RETURN
75 miles east of New York City in Long Island is Riverhead or Patchogue via Babylon then Central Branch to Hicksville where these Patchogue trains follow a Port Jefferson service from Huntington to Penn Station or Jamaica Sutphin Boulevard JFK Airport Station.
I like the Class 375 and Class 377/5 with the Southeastern blue livery as they are so nice. And some of the Class 375s are quite filthy compare to the Class 377/5 which is much cleaner since they were built for First Capital Connect (now Thameslink) and replaced by the Class 700 Desiro City. And it’s nice to see the remains of Network Southeast at London Victoria including the NSE clock.
i remember going to Hastings, it took forever at tunbridge wells, I was so confused when it said Hastings and tunbridge wells, At first I Thought it meant “this train will carry on to Hastings” But I asked my mum, she said that the last 4 coaches would be took off and stay at tunbridge wells. Royal Tunbridge Wells, The route was so long coming back, Qith more stops, Frankfurt was added, also it was beautiful. When we was going home there was a trespasser on the traps at St Leonard’s warrior square, So we wouldn’t move for about 10 minutes, Then we carried on, Ofcourse we got in at Orpington, So it took almost a year or smth, Hastings looks beautiful doesn’t it, Including the Sainsbury’s and the beach, But there was sewage in the sea, Before u go here is a song, ONE THING ABOUT ME IM THE- I’m not sining da whole song, u can tell I’m not old, OLd men, Anyways, check my YT and subscribe if u wanna see my other trips like to Stonehenge, Margate, rams gate, Hastings again or maybe Broadstairs! CYAAA
Might I mention, an Anytime day return permits travel at any time of the day, and since its a return, it includes the journey to and from hastings. So what you should really do is half the ticket cost and find the pence per mile, or double the distance and get the pence per mile
My local route, you should also try the faster and more scenic route from Victoria! The Southeastern Mainline from Cannon Street and Charing Cross is slower because of traffic and more suburban trains
The Electrostars are basically a commuter train within a 2hr radius of London, but they are still far superior to the hateful Hitachi 800's which are supposed to be for long distance travel. GWR, if you're reading this, Southern seem to be able to provide ambient lighting and still video everyone!
There under the same umbrella in a way if im not mistaken lol GWR SWR and SOUTHEASTERN and SOUTHERN are all related to GOVIA. I could be a lil off target tho
I wouldn't ever travel first class on a Southeastern - not only have they somehow managed to make the seat more uncomfortable than standard class (there is a difference, they have a poorly designed lumbar support), on this network first class is usually the choice of the ticketless asbo - who always are ignored by conductors who want a quiet life.
I agree, the seats are harder, and actually worse. I sampled it for a minute once, not sure why they make it worse, though that is common on UK commuter trains (see also, Class 350).
@@SuperalbsTravels yeah I guess that’s true but if you wait for July there’s a one a day service what runs from Cannon Street to Margate and it’s always run by a 465 or sometimes there’s long distance 465/9 running into Kent from London but it’s very hard to find them doing it
Tis the same seats but thou charge extra for a bib so there is no point but to remove or upgrade the first class... Actully upgrading the first class with seats from another electrostar say 379 could make the 375/8 a master class of the south east.
Surely London Bridge is served by 3 companies - South Eastern, Southern & Thameslink or did you mean 2 other? I'm old enough to remember those Thumpers when Hastings expresses ran fast from Waterloo East to High Brooms. They'd divide at Tunbridge Wells with half the train semi-fast to Hastings and the rest stopping at all stations.. The tunnels were constructed at normal width but soon found to be likely to collapse so extra lining was constructed, narrowing the tunnels. This indirectly led to the construction of the Catford Loop as the Chairman of the LCDR was scared the tunnel under Crystal Palace would collapse so wanted an alternative route to Victoria.
@@SuperalbsTravels All the thumpers had deep comfortable seats. Noisy if you were in the diesel coach but the others were fine. Never saw them with their buffet cars, alas..
I expected to see 2+1 seating in First Class, ghe same as Scotrail's Class 170 Turbostars (which use the same bodyshell), so to see 2+2 seating in First is rather disappointing.
I know the route to hastings i will tell you now if you forgoten calling at london charing cross , london waterloo east , london bridge , sevenoaks , tonbridge , high brooms , tonbridge wells , frant , wadhurst , stonegate , etchingham , robertsbridge , battle , crowhurst , west st leonards , st leonards warrior square and hastings or on a southern railway calling at london victoria , clapham junction , east croydon , gatwick airport ,haywards heath , wivlesfield , plumpton , lewes , polegate , hampden park and eastbourne and then on a another southern western railway to ore calling at worthing ,west worthing , goring by sea , durrington on sea , angmering , littlehampton , barnham , chichester , havant , cosham , fareham , swanwick , southampton central , three bridges , gatwick airport , hampden park , eastbourne and ore
Cars are nice, but driving in London usually is not, for many reasons. The main reason I do it sometimes is to connect to the tube when the surface trains throw their typical aneurysm.
