The UK's LONGEST TRAIN JOURNEY! Aberdeen to Penzance DIRECT on CrossCountry's HATED Voyager Trains! 

Epic trip, quite a journey. Deserves many likes and comments, just for spending 13 and a half hours on a Voyager!! Fantastic work, well done, great channel 🚂😊

You deserve a knighthood for doing this. 13 hours on a voyager with those seats. 👏🏽 👏🏽

The cool thing about his route is you get the ECML, MML, a sprinkle of the WCML and the GWR, all in one trip.

Great trip report! I wouldn’t fancy 13.5 hours with that seating. I traveled 14 hours on Amtrak but they have big seats and you could kick your legs out and not touch the seat in front!

Wow, that was indeed an epic trip. Thanks for the video. I'm in the US, and wish we had more and better passenger train service here. I've traveled around the UK with a BritRail pass, and want to do that again. My longest UK train journey was from York to Penzance - in first class, about six years ago. It was comfortable - and memorable thanks to the guy across the aisle who drank too many bottles of wine along the way, and kept getting more impaired with each one. Fortunately for him he was traveling with his very well-behaved dog. I enjoyed interacting with the dog. 😂

Fascinating, and well done for enduring such a long trip on a Voyager! My first trip on this Cross Country journey was back in 1989 when, at that point in its history, it ran only between Penzance and Edinburgh. I did the reverse to your trip. Getting to Penzance was a feat in itself from the Lincolnshire Coast, meant I set out the previous evening via Grantham and the ECML, and a hair raising ride in a black cab from King's Cross to Paddington. Here I took the Night Riviera, although in seated accomodation, to Penzance. "The Cornishman", as it was then called, was ex Penzance at 0923. I was lucky as this was an HST set at this time. Even so, very busy throughout. A few fun and games as a passenger beside me had something in the luggage rack leaking vinegar which proceeded to drip on the table until I managed to get a member of staff to sort it. Also got diverted at Newcastle via Carlisle. Outskirts of Edinburgh, one of the local Ned's in the outskirts decided to take pot shots with an air rifle, shattering the window where I had recently moved from. Very late into Edinburgh and a sprint up the stairs to get to St Andrew Sq bus station just managing to get the last coach to Perth! Years later I would also do the longest National Express route 336 from Edinburgh to Penzance, an epic overnight trip that didn't reach Penzance until teatime the following day. Think even a Voyager would be better 🤣 Did you stop at the Station Hotel in Aberdeen? I did this on another trip years later. Although it had bad reviews, I really enjoyed it, even though some of the furnishings in the room looked almost antiques!

I used to take a previous incarnation of this route back in the early 90s. In my teens the family lived in Aberdeenshire. Parents still do. They have a holiday cottage in SW Cornwall, and I took the train rather than the back of the car crammed full of luggage, dog and sister. It was an HST running to Edinburgh, then across to the west coast line through Carlisle and on to Birmingham where it was much the same to Penzance. Not to expensive with a young person's railcard, and ridiculously cheap once you claimed your refund for the inevitable delays.

What an outstanding video and a great commentary! Getting all those facts and information in at the right places must have been no easy undertaking and I really appreciate the effort. I aspire to take this trip one day in 2023. Thank you and safe travels!🚅

So scenic and interesting...Many Thanks... I look forward to other Video's.

That was epic! Bravo great trip.

An excellent, well-presented video. That was quite a journey!

You absolute madman. You did the whole thing!

An outstanding video and informative commentary, so thank you! I have been on CrossRail from Derby to Truro, and the 4-coach train was overcrowded for most of the journey. Still the best way to get to Devon and Cornwall!

I am so glad i have youtube premium or i be watching so many adverts, great video and you are a natural travel guide, you know your stuff.

The only thing I like about the voyagers is that they are finally reaching the end of their service life.

Interesting! I had no idea you've grown up in Sheffield, I live in there for nearly 8 years, great city and very important for the UK railway network! nice video and thank you for going into a 13+ hrs train for us! cheers!

Really enjoyed this video. thanks!

Cracking video, the short ride from St Erth to St Ives is a beautiful line

brilliant video I really enjoyed the trip 😀 Thanks

I’m a member at the Starcross Yacht Club you pass at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1882">31:22</a>, one of the great joys of being out on the water is when the steam train thunders down the same track. If you’re very lucky you can sometimes also have the twin seat Spitfire taking passengers out and around in the area.

Lovey little nod to Chesterfield, thank you. I'm Chesterfield born but now live in Dumfries so I always appreciate a glimpse of home and that good old spire

Thoroughly enjoyable, great video

Very interesting and informative, Well done!

Great video, Cadburys at Bournville is actually an operational factory, they make dairy milk and some of the other ‘block’ type chocolate there. As you walk round the factory you can smell the molten chocolate in production, sometimes depending on the wind you can smell it from the station. Cadbury world is on the back of the factory and part of the ‘tour’ goes through some of the production facility.

It is SUCH A HUGE SHAME that the UK railways are SO INSANELY EXPENSIVE to use - any class anywhere. My entire family just loves trains, but we are only using buses OR OUR OWN CARS! Such a shame. 😒 But thank you for the excellent video! 😃 Really appreciated. 🙂🙂🙂 I so wish our family could one day use trains in the UK as we always used in Finland, my country of origin, where the train ticket prices are a tiny fraction of the UK ones. Thanks again for the great video about what our family would like to use but can never afford. 😒

Great video mate. Plenty seen on the long journey which was good. Looks like you enjoyed yourself.

I've always wondered where the crew changes take place so your commentary is really helpful. Thanks for this. Epic train journey. Also, very interesting facts along the way, thanks. I'll be crossing this line in a few places on a bike ride tomorrow 😊 PS as a very small child on the annual summer holiday journey from Leeds to my grandparents at Weston-Super-Mare, and then back again, I have vague memories of the bankers on the Lickey pushing our steam hauled train up the incline - my train-mad dad used to love it!!!

Crossing the Forth you see my old (and favourite) ship. A lot of good friends would still have been there. Brings back happy memories.

thanks for posting,really enjoyed it.

On a recent trip from Inverness to Aberdeen I was delighted to find an HST rostered for the journey. Quite an improvement on the 158s.

Great video, very informative

Just found and subscribed. Nice video. Full of little tidbits of info. I await more from your channel.

I go on this line all the time but not all the way from Scotland to Penzance just from Birmingham to Nottingham it’s amazing we can see it all through your channel

I travelled by train around most of the UK back in 1986 / 87 & 1991, i believe back then i was travelling on British Rail., and i was on the Intercity125. Before leaving my homeland of New Zealand, i purchased from my travel agent what was known as a Britrail pass., for a month's use on any British Rail Train. I enjoyedf watching this video you made, you've done a awesome job in presenting this video., and this video brought back a lot of memories for me!.

And the best thing is we can see this journey multiple time

Good one... Enjoyed watching the ride

Enjoy the ride.

That would be an amazing route for sleeper trains

I’ve seen one going to Aberdeen from Penzance before when I went down to Dawlish I saw it pass the start of this month so I think there is one both ways but still great video and very brave 😂 but looked like a lovely journey

Nicely done. Thanks. I hope you get more subscribers so you can travel in first class. That makes a more enjoyable trip for the viewers. Eating and drinking on the train is always interesting.

Wonderful Trip.. Love to take this Train ride.

Love to travel by train; we used the Cross Country services twice last summer, from Penzance to Birmingham. Such good memories.

I loved your commentary❤️

I remember that was a daily service when I studying in Aberdeen over 10 yrs ago....time flies...

Good grief! An hour and a half to Manchester on a voyager is bad enough. Awful trains. Will be glad to eventually see the back of them!

Excellent

You certainly could do with a polarising filter in front of the lens to minimise window reflections. Most enjoyable video all the same, thank you! 🥰

Great video . Very interesting goes near me in Sheffield 👍

Worked as a driver for British Rail back in the early 90s and I'm pretty sure it was this service that used to run up through Manchester/Bolton/Preston at the time and I ran this train a number of times(as memory serves from Stockport to Preston)... it was crazy how many times it was re crewed en-route(I was based out of Manchester Victoria and the train didn't even go there!).

Good job with the video, that's some trip. I've lived at both ends of that journey. Btw upon leaving Plymouth, it's pronounced "Tay-mar" for the River and Bridge 😉

Some beautiful things to see, some not so beautiful. But that's life. The commentary had a slightly laconic tone at times, bu that's perfectly understandable given the 13+ hours it took. You are quite the hero! There was a time when I would have welcomed such a challenge, but as I am now 20 (x4) years old I'll pass on this. Being a foreigner I had no idea how beautiful southwestern England is. Some of the branch lines in this area must be more beautiful still. any chance you could explore them? I still think of Flanders' & Swan's son about them. It's quite wistful. Well done and thanks!

Nice video midland London

Some 48 years ago I used to catch what I think was a similar service, the 1240 from Plymouth to Aberdeen, on a Friday, But only as far as Exeter St Davids, it was always standing room only.

Very good video

Awesome video buddy from Alan Shelley in Lowestoft

Thank you allowed us to see the country with you

I do a generous stretch of that journey a couple of times a year between Taunton and Darlington or sometimes York and back - ultimately to Middlesbrough! Teign the river and Teignmouth are pronounced Tin and Tinmuth and the Tamar bridge - which some Cornish folk believe links Cornwall to England - is pronounced Taymar!

That’s some journey. Might use this as it did stop at kirkcaudy the nearest major station in my old town to go to my new home in Sheffield.

Great video because i've been there and i can say i realy miss these trains. I don't understand why people hate these trains.

Jeez mate, you're a braver man than me to do that trip!

Madness these days to do ANY InterCity journey in a suburban train like this - even for 20 miles. For Penzance - Aberdeen I would demand NOTHING LESS than the comfort and charisma of 10 Mk1s, including a Restaurant Car with full Kitchen. Privatised railway is taking us ALL for a scam ride with these crap "trains". On this journey in these units, I would have got piles by the time I arrived at Bristol Parkway.

Great video

The rumbling the train makes sounds like my washing machine!

Great Video As a photographer may I suggest you try a polarising filter as this will remove most of the window reflections when shooting from inside the carriage.

The structure you see across the River Plym is an 18th century grotto carved into rock above the Saltram Amphitheatre, in the grounds of Saltram House, which is a National Trust property. I think there are worries about the safety of the surrounding rock, so am not sure how close you can get to it these days.

Lol, he was very lucky to have nice weather in Scotland.

Great video mate! I'm doing this end of this month however It's 35 stops for me

Cool! I noticed that you mentioned the fact about Stonehaven signal box. I edited Wikipedia to say that after I visited the box for real!

I really like the trains x

I've done the Bristol to Newton Abbot stage of this journey sat on the floor of a ram packed train, overcrowding was a big problem

Great video. Thanks for making such a long journey so short for us viewers. Have traveled from Paddington to Liskard, then on to Looe many years ago.

I am usually very quiet on social networks because of some reactions from some surfers and the quality of the content of the videos but this one certainly makes me come out of my reserve. Thanks for perseverance, especially when you think of the perfectible sound insulation and the intrusive growling of the Cummins engines underneath the cars. Great Job! So edifying!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1964">32:44</a> That's just an old archway located on the walk that goes around the grounds of Saltram (one of the many old estates run by the National Trust).

Worth mentioning that the white ship at Penzance is the ferry to the Isles of Scilly MV Scillonian.

Maybe a comment worth making is that Avanti class 221s tilt, but XC ones don't - the tilt mechanism was removed to save maintenance costs

Great video In 2019 what for Exeter to Aberdeen and only 15 minutes late in Aberdeen because of a signal just south of Aberdeen

Over 13 hours of torture! Before the Voyager trains were introduced I enjoyed train travel from Bristol to the north, but now I always fly to Scotland (it's usually cheaper!). Even when Virgin operated Cross Country one of their managers admitted to me that many of their long distance passengers had been lost to planes.

Tyneside Mail Centre has a rail platform and a spur, that will explain the RM train stabled in the sidings.

Always doing the section from York to Birmingham going to and from uni and it's always packed with nowhere to put luggage especially if boarding at Birmingham, normally a bit less busy at York but that changes at Leeds or Sheffield normally.

I live in Aberdeen and I use to take the train to see my sister in Ilfracombe I would take the train to London change at London to go to St. David's Exeter then on to Barnstaple where her husband would pick me up on to Ilfracombe it would take me all day to get there but I loved it taking the train.

Thank you good too see whole route I full leaving here aberdeen great narrative in videos (very useful) informative thanks

Lol, I remember Aberdeen being the greyest place ever when I visited... well, memory serves.. so much grey! Can't always help the clouds I guess though.

I like the Class 220 and 221. Apart from the seats but on a short journey like to Taunton they alright.

My local main station Aberdeen. I have to pull you up on when you were leaving Dundee! It is the Tay bridge for dundee. We have the dee and the don. And on the other side of the train leaving dundee before you go over the tay bridge, you can see Dundee airport. On the dundee-glasgow line you pass dundee airport.

Berwick Newcastle Durham and Darlington are all my north east bread next time I’ll be travelling to York will be a few weeks time in order to commence my trip to Hull

I used to drive across the Tamar bridge, and it was quite difficult to not stare at the rail bridge whilst driving!

cheltenham spa is where a train broke down coming home from holiday down in devon it was raining and the windsheild was broken so we all waited for a train to go paddington and took like 30 mins - 1 hour

Did this in 2019, when it ran on weekdays. Took an advance first class ticket, still wasn't cheap.

I have done Aberdeen to Plymouth/Truro, and back more times than I can remember.

Can’t believe you left Wakefield out.☹️☹️

Manyyears ago now I did London up to I Ithink Inverness when moving house. My car travlled in style! There was a couple l who do this trip often just for the trip. A bar on the train etc. I booked s eleeper which helped.

I'd like to try this journey.😊

9 minutes late on a Voyager is not bad when you consider the mileage covered. I took a trip from Bristol to Doncaster on one of these and we ended up running on just one power car and we were 98 minutes late. Crappy 158 Super Sprinter from Weymouth to Bristol arriving 3 minutes early at Temple Meads then it all went to pot on Cross Country. Worst trains other than the Pacers up north. Thanks for the trip though. Really enjoyed the scenery.

Going from Wakefield to Tiverton on one of these was just chaos. The trains are very short and then they decide to slice it in half at Birmingham??? Had to cram into the carriages with all seats taken and just managed to nab one at Cheltenham (still 40+ minutes stood up). Absolutely dreadful, much prefer an LNER or TransPennine to these.

I regularly end up using this service for travelling between Bristol and Cornwall, and only once has it not been a stressful, cramped, overcrowded experience. If I can use GWR, I will always opt for them instead, even if it sometimes means an extra hour on the train! After looking through the comments, I am glad to see that I am not the only one with the same opinion of Cross Country trains. 😅

Bloody hell. ABZ station has changed a bit from when I was last there in the late 1980s/1990's. Did the run from ABZ to Plymouth and back once to join a ship at Devonport in 1987, which was a Class 47/Mk2 rake; and then came back from Culdrose, breaking the journey from Redruth to Bristol, then to Newcastle, Edinburgh and back to Aberdeen. A bloody long way. Not sure I'd have made it on one of those rattly voyagers....

I’ve done this trip many times because I live in Penzance and my family live in Aberdeen

Did quite a few journeys on Voyagers between 2003 and 2010. Fond memories. Never really had any comfort complaints... They are a little noisy, but that's what you get for a D(E)MU.

Cool.

I like voyagers. I've been on voyagers from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads and I've also been on voyagers from Bristol Temple Meads to Paignton