This is one of Britain’s most HATED high-speed trains! 

The super voyagers are not the ones that people complain about, they are actually not bad. Its the normal voyagers that cross country run that are terrible.

I'm not sure about AWC but Cross Country don't have enough capacity and often run four or five cars on quite long and busy routes, because not only trains to London are busy you know

At least it was an Avanti Voyager. The Crosscountry ones are much worse as they're unrefurbished from the Virgin era

7:22 > In France, there's a town of 4000 inhabitants named "Capdenac - Gare" [literally "Capdenac - train station"]. The original city of Capdenac, which still exists today by the way, is located on the left bank of a river while the train station was built on the right bank. When the station oppened, the residents decided to create a second Capdenac city on the right bank and they just named their new city "Capdenac - Station".

The Voyagers are not bad trains.......its where they are deployed,that is the problem. Holyhead to London on board a nice refurbished one doesn't sound too bad. I think the bad reputation is all down to CrossCountry's use of them. Edinburgh to Plymouth on one would be absolute torture.

These trains have a lot of potential. If they had better capacity they wouldn't be so hated.

Now try X-C, with a suitcase, on a busy day & see how you get on. Not sure a review of a trip on an empty train is getting to the heart of why they are 'hated'...!

I find the Voyager a comfortable train but what lets it down is capacity. Especially with XCountry who never seem to have enough carriages at peek times on Bristol to Birmingham and back.

As a train, I don't think the Voyagers are as bad as they can sometimes be made out to be. There were broadly two complaints. One was that being multiple units they had engine noise that loco hauled carriages did not, though personally it doesn't bother me too much and they're not as bad as some other units on the network. The other and more critical complaint was overcrowding. Even though this can be a general theme on many a rail service in the UK, it does feel like the Voyagers needed to be longer from the outset and there has always been a desire for more carriages. In terms of ambience though, I feel they are quite decent. Interestingly, regarding some of the "new train" complaints they attracted when introduced about seat-to-window alignment and the comfort of seats, arguably because some newer trains have got much worse in this regard it now makes the Voyagers look better.

The philosophy introduced by Virgin of short, frequent services gummed up the network and led to persistent late services with overcrowded trains.

9:38 Let’s not forget that it was British Rail’s APT technology that created the Pendolino. There were passive tilt systems in some fairly obscure rolling stock around the world but the APT brought the active tilt principles. The APT also debuted the step that extends from the side of the train before the doors open too, which is also featured on the Pendolino. Also the APT seats are dramatically more comfortable to sit on than the Pendolino, and APT seats are lined up with the windows.

Quiet interesting to see the units you travelled still had the EX Virgin Trains livery

There's the town of Entroncamento in Portugal. The name means 'junction', because it grew around a junction of two railway lines. Then in Finland there are places where a railway line did not go through the centre of a parish/municipality. They are not "towns" themselves, strictly speaking, but villages or some conglomerations of population. The places where passenger trains still stop (and I can think of) are "Hankasalmen asema" (between Jyväskylä and Pieksämäki, in Hankasalmi), "Asemankylä" or "Iin asemankylä" (between Oulu and Kemi, in Ii), "Asemanseutu" or "Alavuden asemanseutu" (between Haapamäki and Seinäjoki, in Alavus). Edited later: There's also "Oriveden asema" in Orivesi, between Jyväskylä and Tampere.

I remember thinking that the Voyagers were quite nice when they were introduced. That said, I was used to Southern region slam-doors at the time so anything was an upgrade by comparison!

The GWR 800 series are crap as well and the most uncomfortable seats for a lengthy journey and rubbish catering , otherwise fine .

I always enjoy your informative commentary.

couldnt agree more about the fact they are really nice trains to ride on when not overcrowded etc, Ive never had the toilet issue either, granted the only thing is that they are just a little too small for the routes that they do, other than that though they are comfortable, relatively quiet for diesel trains and can get you from A to B very quickly with their good acceleration.

What is now called 'Waterloo' in London was known as 'Lambeth Marsh' before the arrival of the station, which was named after the village in Belgium near to where the eponymous 'Battle of Waterloo' took place.

During the December 2022 timetable change, the North Wales/Chester services don't call at Milton Keynes Central anymore, they now stop at Stafford and then fast to London Euston. But CrossCountry will be getting 12 Class 221 Super Voyagers from Avanti instead of the seven as planned, great video

I (along with most of Britain) love those trains! They’re brilliantly laid out and the decor is so good standard class feels like first, comfortable, sound great, the route is gorgeous, and there’s often nine or even eleven carriages so there’s plenty of room. The four car versions Cross Country runs packed with enough seats to make Ryanair blush on sometimes THIRTEEN HOUR JOURNEYS through Birmingham and Manchester, the country’s second busiest corridor, to pack to the literal brim with suffocating levels of desperate commuters- not so much.

CrossCountry is always packed. For example the machester picadilly and bournemouth route, my sister couldn’t get out because of the crowd. I think they need to always do 9 or 10 car CrossCountrys because 4 or 5 aint enough especially with how active and busy it gets

Well presented. Thanks.

I've used these trains a lot in the past when Cross Country used them. Prior to Cross Country there was one train a day in each direction between Edinburgh and Wakefield so visiting my mother before I lived down here was a pain in the bum. When Virgin Cross Country arrived the service eventually went to one per hour, which it still is and the Voyagers were a big improvement but yes, over crowding was the one major issue. Once we hit Newcastle the train filled quickly and by the time it got to York and then Leeds it was standing room only, not good for poor passengers travelling all the way to Cornwall on the route.

Awesome video as always super albs

Your comments are interspersed with subtle comedy , that makes your videos more enjoyable, even if the trains are the most hated ones. :))

TOCs using Crewe are: TFW, Avanti, Cross Country, Mersey Rail, London Midland, West Midland Trains, Northern, Caledonian Sleeper and TransPennine Express.

I made the opposite journey last week from London, leaving my accommodation there at 7.00am. I had no problem with the train and enjoyed the trip. The total cost was €75 including the ferry to Dublin, booked about 2 days in advance. It was a 12 hour trip door to door. Local train from Homerton to Central London and ferry to Dublin. The bus that meets the ferry in Dublin costs €3 to Dublin city centre.

A years back 2022 i flew into Manchester airport ,i caught a train to Piccadilly from the airport then on to York then finally Northallerton i was impressed by how many railway staff were able to help with questions ,the last train was high speed and all seats were taken i had to kneel on the floor between the carriage join ,but it was August school had been out a week ,i saw great views from the train that you would not see in a car ,nice vid thanks .

I spent a whole year commuting on Voyagers (both 220 and 221 variants) and I absolutely loved them. Quiet, smooth and comfy. I was even able to sleep on the floor of one when it was packed full. And here’s a little hack to Voyagers if you’re getting tired of all the seats getting reserved; there’s a row (either 2 seats or 4) in carriage B, if I remember they tend to be in front of a baggage storage, where the seats don’t have the display screens for reservation so these seats cannot be reserved. As long as you’re quick, you’re guaranteed a seat.

The town of Nelson in Lancashire started out as Great Marsden and Little Marsden. There was already a Marsden station in Yorkshire, so the L&Y named the station after the nearby pub, the Nelson Inn. Eventually the town took the name of its railway station.

Noisy and cramped after the loco (HST) hauled Mk3 carriages they replaced, nowhere for luggage, and those toilet smells. Not the toilets themselves, but the area around, and often into the carriages. They're also usually standing room only through the West Midlands core. I look forward to seeing if the Class 800 derivatives are any better.

The village of Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire was also named for a station, though the station itself met the Beeching axe in the 1960’s. Unlike Llandudno Junction there was no village before the station, the village arose around and because of it. The station was only created (and named after the local landowner) because it was where three lines intersected (one of which was the once furthest ever extent of the Metropolitan Line of the London Underground, despite the station being twice as far out from London as that line goes today and in the middle of absolutely nowhere).

love your vids!

In germany the town of "Porta Westfalica" was named after its station. The town is a result of the merge of 15 villages (several each several hundret to 5000 inhabitants) to a new town. The name was chosen as the station in the largest village, Hausberge, had the name "Porta Westfalica", as Hausberge did refuse to fund the station as the railway line was built, so the railway company didn't name it after the village.

I used to live in "Widdrington Station" in Northumberland. There is a smaller village called "Widdrington" nearby . . . but "Widdrington Station" is much larger and separate community. The station still operates.

Halwill Junction in Cornwall got its name as it was a junction in the middle of nowhere. It was on the Southern "Whithered Arm" route to Bude. From Halwill Junction, branch lines left southward to Wadebridge and Padstow and northward to Torrington and Barnstaple. No railways left in the area now, all closed many years ago, the name Halwill Junction remains.

Halwill Junction on the Withered Arm from Oakhampton to Holsworthy was named after the railway originated there.

I commute on Avanti Voyagers, can't wait for the 805s to enter service.

The town of Crewe (originally built to house workers on the railway and at the railway works in the 1830s and 1840s) was named after the train station that it was originally adjacent to, and the train station was named after the civil parish it was then part of until the mid 20th century. The civil parish was "Crewe" but it changed its name to "Crewe Green" to avoid confusion with the town of Crewe in the 1970s, the town by then having become a municipal borough. The town of Crewe was at first adjacent to the train station, but was actually in the civil parish of Monks Coppenhall. This led to a riddle that was once popular: "That which is Crewe is not Crewe, and that which is not Crewe is Crewe."

Not technically named after a station, but Clapham Junction practically is. The station (and surrounding shops/housing estates) are part of Battersea. When the LSWR built the line in Victorian times, Battersea was a slum, with horrific levels of crime. They were concerned that their middle-class target customers wouldn't want to use the line or change trains if it was called Battersea Junction, so they looked for somewhere posh nearby after which to name the station - enter Clapham, which is about 1.5 miles from Clapham Junction, across the other side of Clapham Common. Back then, Clapham was mainly large, suburban detached houses on huge plots, built for the newly wealthy London merchant class.

A friend told me she gets good plane deals flying into Ireland from the US and then taking the ferry. She said it's a nice trip overall without having to deal with London or Heathrow.

Lived beside the mainline in Rhyl and used to count the carriages on their way and back from Holyhead just like counting sheep, 11, 13 carriages in the 1970,s, travelled that route countless times, glad I didn’t have to travel on this particular train , nice post

What lots of people forget, or never knew, was that these trains revolutionised cross-country travel. Speed and frequency on many routes increased greatly. They then became victims of their own success. Virgin made one huge mistake; they planned for 3 classes (First, Business, Standard) and were told they had to provide disabled toilets for each class, each costing 12-16 seats compared to a normal toilet and worsening the overcrowding. A pity that the investment wasn't there for a larger fleet.

Down here in Kent we have the village of Meopham Station, just down the road from the village of Meopham. The station was some way from the original village, so a separate village grew up around the station and took the name of the station. Marion

The town of Bearsden to the north of Glasgow seems to have had several names in the past. It was generally known as New Kilpatrick when the railways arrived in the 1860s. The station was called Bearsden to avoid confusion with other stations with Kilpatrick in their name and the town seemed to have adopted the name at some point soon after.

i traveled on these in Train Sim world 4, the DLC is more affordable than a single ticket lol. i said in another video that UK's rail was terrible on a another video and people said i was being rude.

Another instance of a village named after its station would be Cemmaes Road in Powys, on the Welsh Coast line.

My last trips of this line were 2019, super cheap sail rail return from Dublin to Liverpool, change at Chester. Also that year a one way to Crewe to pick up a car and return same day. Two sail rails in 2015 for the rugby world cup, Dublin to Milton, change to Wembley for 4.pm kick off. Watch the match, quick shuttle to Euston after and back to Holyhead for the overnight ferry (with a cabin) back to Dublin next morning. Similar for the Cardiff match, but needed to overnight in Hereford as Saturday service too late for a 24hr epic journey. I first travelled this line at age 7 in 1963, to holiday in London with my Aunt. Long overnight mailboat and rattley Cravens cars I think, No parents with me, chaperoned by a returning emigrant neighbour. Side aisle and 8 seater booths, you could stretch out and sleep to Euston. You can still see the now inaccessible harbour next to platform 2 I think, where you'd walk down the gangplank straight into the waiting train. Nowadays you have to be shuttled by bus from the Ferry pier to the station, after all the cars have exited, and it is easy to miss the matching train which in theory serves the Ferry foot passengers, but in practice leaves before you can get there due to the horrible delay in disembarking. There are no foot passenger ramps, and the shuttle bus has to enter the ferry bowels, but only after all the cars have gone. The extra hour delay for the next train was usefully used to stock up in McDonald's right beside the station. Very nostalgic for me, that trip in '63 was my first major train journey.

I have ridden Bangor too London but tbh it was during when services were cancelled due to weather so had my service cancelled but eventually got to London. Hope when I go again soon it will be smooth sailing

There's the village of Micheldever Station, named after the station in Hampshire, and 2.5 miles from the village with the name of plain Micheldever

I am growing to enjoy our narrator's sarcasm. Rush down to london at 5PM, huh! Yup.

Possibly the area around Clapham Junction was named after the railway station .. But the correct name is still "Battersea" (or officially in postal addresses "London SW11"), right?

Yeah, they look like tilting trains. You should check out the HŽ class 7123. It's a tilting train running between Zagreb and Split.

Waterloo area named after the station (previously the area was known as Lambeth Marshes)

I go from Manchester to Bangor a couple of times a year and recently did Manchester to Totnes , almost entirely on class 221s. I must carry i much prefer both the Intercity Express and Pendolinos over the Super Voyagers, but they're both rarely used on those routes. I should also note that leaving at midday on a Monday my 5+ hour journey to Totnes was standing room only with 2 changes, with the first two legs being on Cross-country Super Voyagers and the last being on a GWR Intercity express which i found to be much more pleasant

The Dublin-Holyhead ferry can still be quite cheap compared to my flights, my family was regularly driving to Holyhead and getting the ferry instead of flying until about 2020. It used to be better when they had the fast ferries, but I spent most of my summer holidays as a kid staring at that train station from the car - it's good to finally see what it looks like inside!

I definitely think you should go on holiday to Rhyl, I’ve heard lovely things about the town :) :)

I loved these trains, brand new, clean, quiet and hi-tech, and fast, compared to others I was on, but that was 20 years ago (2005 trip to London with Virgin), I've not been on one since as they've aged.

The North Wales Main Line, the unelectrified track between Crewe and Holyhead plans to be electrified, so maybe dual modes won’t be necessary for this service in the future.

Used to use the Virgin then Cross Country voyagers to commute for many years. Did the trick for shortish journeys but for some reason the toilets smell were awful in the Summer

As soon as the video started i thought the wrong voyager is being reviewed. Everything on crosscountry is worse. To get the full overcrowding effect, catch a late afternoon departure from Birmingham New Street in any direction. The problem even spoils the 170s which are pretty good trains in the right hands. The other annoynce with crosscountry is that the are the only operator on some pretty key routes (Birmingham to Derby or Cheltenham for example). The only way to avoid a xc voyager on those routes is to drive.

I live in the midlands of Ireland, and sometimes visit family near London. I've often used this service. But (probably thanks to cheap flights) the service is not as good as it was. In Feb 2023 my wife & I took the evening boat to Holyhead and then slept in the station, taking the 1st train, 04:50 to Euston. We brought our self-inflating mattresses & down sleeping bags! We had hoped to do the same in Feb '24 but the train service to London was not so good, the early trains didn't even go to London and involved a few changes, and I knew we'd probably be dozing. The only proper connecting boats leave Dublin too early for us to get a connecting train from our home. But from London to Ireland the service connects fine. btw if you ever use the train & then ferry to Ireland do make sure to buy a sail & rail ticket, it's often cheaper than just going to Holyhead!

For Crewe its AWC Cal Sleeper XC EMR WMR/LNWR Northern and TFW.

Amazing! That distance would be covered here in Romania in about 5 working days.

I have travelled in it till Holyhead and took ferry to the Ireland 🇮🇪.. the diesel engine is mounted at the coach terrace .. and creates a lot of noise .. was amazed to see a diesel train running at 200 kmph …

Yes, you have to sample the CrossCounty units to really understand the hate. One thing, the CrossCountry units don't even tilt! About half were built without tilt (but with the tilt profile bodies), the rest had it deactivated. Interestingly, the bi-mode replacements on the WCML don’t tilt. It seems that tilt is falling out of favour in the UK.

7:10 There is another place named after a railway ststion I can think of. Its a little village in Belgium, in fact called Waterloo which is derived, obviously, from the London terminal station!

LOL… The last time I was travelling on train’s within the U.K was way back in 1991, I think it was back then known as British Rail., I purchased a Britrail pass for 30 day’s saving me a bundle but this pass was purchased outside of the UK. I like your review of this train service you travelled on, you’ve done a awesome review thanks👍

I live on this line. Avanti have had some deservedly bad press in recent years, but they've improved noticeably in the last year or so. And I never get tired of those views.

getting home from uni was always a hassle as its always overcrowded from the route my trains go on. even if you get a seat its a hassle as there was no space some of the passengers had to stand in the middle of the carriages ( meaning it was warm and smelly) so getting off the train was also fun

I am familiar with Voyagers, going from Cornwall to Bristol and the Midlands. They are quite comfortable. However the luggage space is woefully inadequate and they do get crowded.

CrossCountry have been allocated an additional 5 Super Voyager units by AWC on top of the already 7. So 12 new units which hopefully will help with capacity issues. It’s rare to have a comfortable journey with XC.

In Ireland, we have Limerick Junction, a town with the same theme name as the Station.

You see some of the replacements and then begin to realise how and why the InterCity 125s and 225s clinged to service as long as they did. Another industry saved by privatisation clearly

In the main, the complaint is that 4/ 5 car trains replaced HSTs, so most peoples experience is of having to stand. Cross country could alleviate one problem by having some trains that dont stop in Birmingham as a lot of passengers leave or join here. Separated Birmingham terminating trains would give long distance travellers more space for through journeys. (More stock would be needed). Bypassing Brum could also save time. I got so fed up with the XC crush that i now pay a bit more and travel ECML, then SW, or GWR to the west.

Nelson in Lancashire was originally Great Marsden and Little Marsden but so as not to be confused with Marsden in Yorkshire, the expanding industrial town was named after its station, which itself was named after a pub near to the station, the Lord Nelson Inn!

New video, yay!

Unfortunately the voyagers are usually over crowded which does indeed make long journeys uncomfortable.

"Extremerley"

They would be a massive improvement on our ancient fleet of trains in Inverness in the Highlands, we have largely run down class 158 fleet that are literally falling apart and a batch of 50 year old “new” Intercity class 43 trains which keep breaking down and not the safest..

7:22 Tring station (Between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston) is so far out of Tring that the small village that has been built around it is called "Tring Station".

Never had a problem with the voyagers, in my opinion people like to hate them because they replaced their beloved loco-hauled stock, the smell is an issue that was fixed over 20 years ago yet people still complain. With Virgin/Avanti they are almost always doubled up to 10 coaches which makes them longer than half the pendolinos, the capacity issue only comes from cross country's mismanagement of them.

That has to be the cleanest AWC train I have ever seen. Most of the trains are running 3G connectivity which easily gets overwhelmed when the train is half full

Good to see British Train first time. Keep it Albie

You flew threw Nuneaton and not a word, I was looking out for you.

Interesting question, can think of places that were created by the railways like effingham junction or Haywards Heath but the names sort of existed before the stations even if the towns/villages didn’t.

7:27 the village of Micheldever Station is named after Micheldever station as it developed after the stations arrival

I recently had my first ride on an LNER Azuma first class, the staff were great, friendly, helpful and you could tell they really enjoyed their job. The Azuma had a choppy ride, you could feel every minor bump in the rails, there was a wierd side to side movement which was worse in the carriage end (keeping on target in the loo was an issue) I put it down to the large overhang from the bogies at the end of the carriage, also the brakes vibrated the coach quite badly. Next I went on a Javlin which had a lot nicer ride, like riding on air, similar to Mk3 HST coaches but was cramped. I've seen people say faster trains have to have a firmer ride but the Azuma was traveling at 125mph and the Javelin 140mph. I didn't know that both were made by Hitachi and makes me wonder why they're so different in ride quality.

I'm sorry if it's been said before - but Carstairs Junction was named after the station too. Great stuff btw

Honestly the trains themselves are fine, really comfortable considering they haven’t been refurbished in 20 years (XC) and sound great too, all it is, is the overcrowding issue, that’s the only issue

I used to regularly commute on Virgin, later Cross Country, Super Voyagers between Bristol Temple Meads and Cheltenham Spa. they were okay and comfortable, no real complaints. Although I preferred the HST125s.

I had a couple of hours on one of those trains going from Mid-Wales to Hedge End. Didn't like the feeling of being cramped. After that, I went via London.

I used to work for and get involved with franchise negotiations and the problem is a TOC gets paid to run a route not the number of carriages and the capacity. Back when these plastic toys first appeared I was shocked at the lack of sets in them compared to the "old fashioned" British marine engine HST units. We would run 12/15 carriages and even then most trains were almost full whilst others ran 5 with the odd doubler with 10 but again they had a limited number of seats per carriage.

There is a village next to Edinburgh Airport called "Ratho Station" although there is no railway there. It seems there was a station there that closed around 100 years ago but the village kept it's name. There is also a nearby village called Ratho.

Lambeth Marsh in London just South of the Thames was renamed Waterloo after the station. The station was named after the bridge.

I travelled on a CrossCountry Class 221 today. It was very shabby and there was that funny Voyager toilet smell. However, it was fairly comfortable compared to the Northern Class 195 I started my day on which was rather jarring and had a rattle that sounded like the train was shaking itself to bits.

going past a legit Medieval castle is quite awesome and makes the trip well worth it even if the train itself isn't the best.

Used to see them all the time driving through Watford

There’s a station near Glasgow on the WCML where the line splits to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley that has a station originally called carstairs junction (now just shortened to carstairs) where a village was built around the station the village being named carstairs junction after the original name of the station

I'm pretty sure Verney Junction on the old Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway, LNWR and Varsity Lines exists purely due to the former railway junction (which no longer exists), named after Sir Harry Verney.