Avanti's Refurbished Pendolinos! What are they like?

[Music] [Music] hello and good afternoon from Houston station here in London today we'll be heading up the West Coast Mainline to Preston in Lancashire traveling with Avanti West Coast now I'm really looking forward to this trip as this is the first time I will be trying out Avanti's relatively new standard premium offering but first as always we need to check out the station yeah Houston Station sits right at the very south of the West Coast Main Line having originally opened way back in 1837 however the current and rather Infamous brutalist building dates from the 1960s as we enter just to our left we have a large Travel Center here you'll find self-service ticket machines as well as staff ticket counters however as usual I won't be needing these today as I bought my ticket online and in advance well The Concourse has certainly changed a bit since I last passed through Houston the old dot matrix boards have now been replaced by these new LED displays now I don't know about you but I much prefer these they're much clearer and brighter making them way easier to read for me at least anyway as you can see there are still plenty of shops and restaurants here should you want to grab a bite to eat before starting your journey if you're traveling In First Class the lounge can be found up here on the mezzanine level for standard and standard premium passengers they've recently added quite a bit of seating to The Concourse here at Houston so you don't just have to stand like you used to if you don't want to anyway it'll soon be time to board our train there are actually two of anti-services leaving for Preston in quick succession there's the 1708 to Preston which makes quite a number of stops and takes the scenic route going via Birmingham then there's the train we're catching the 1712 which runs fast only making a couple of stops on the way to Preston before continuing on to Glasgow Central and with that it's time to head down to Platform One to board our ride up north foreign [Music] I always think boarding at Houston is a bit chaotic there are only three gates for all passengers to use now while this evening service isn't all that busy some of Avanti's trains can accommodate well over 500 passengers so I tried to think what this would have been like were it a full service well I ride up to Preston will be aboard this 11 car long plus 390 pendolino these are visually entered service with Virgin trains back in 2002 before Avanti inherited the fleet when they took over the franchise in 2019 with many of these sets now being over 20 years old Avanti are currently in the process of giving these units a midlife refurbishment and I was quite pleased when I found out that we'd actually be traveling aboard one of these refurbished sets this evening no the train appears to have come in the wrong way round as usually first class and standard premium can be found at the London end of the train however tonight they are at the Northern end so we now have a long walk down to coach H this reminds me of when I used to take the Caledonian sleeper quite a bit and I'd have to March the length of the platformer here to find the Inverness portion anyway without further Ado let's get on board and see just what these refurbished class 390s alike well at first glance things are looking a lot fresher the new LED lighting looks very good in my opinion as you can see standard premium is laid out in a two plus one configuration with almost all of the seats being part of a bay of two or four these are the exact same seats that you'll find In First Class too the difference being that there is no meal service included for standard premium passengers whereas this would be included in the price of a first class ticket now I did have a seat reserved in a bay of two for this evening's trip however a standard premium is practically empty I'm just going to plot myself down in an empty Bay of four right before we head up north let's just take a quick look at the boot we'll be taking this evening our vote will see us heading up the West Coast Main Line running non-stop for the first two hours to Warrington Bank key before stopping at Wigan Northwestern and finally Preston covering a distance of 209 miles or 336 kilometers scheduled travel time is 2 hours and 28 minutes and our top speed will be 125 miles an hour and we depart Houston just a minute late that's quarter past five foreign the train honestly seemed to take ages to gather any sort of speed initially just trundling our way North through the suburbs anyway let's take a look at these seats shall we actually got a right lot seems to have changed in terms of the first and standard premium seats legroom is still really good although they haven't changed the seat layout so it would be these new tables are a nice addition though there are way more plug sockets than they used to be and the tables even have wireless chargers built into them which is nice the seats themselves bar the nice new headrests appear to be exactly the same as before now don't get me wrong they are still pretty comfortable but they appear to have just put the exact same seat coverings back on them as before and a lot of the seats for clients still don't seem to lock as they should given that these trains are now around 20 years old I thought that they might have replaced these and lastly you'll find a coat hook window blind and reading light personally I think it'll be interesting to see what these seats are like in a couple of years as far the headrests and tables not a lot seems to have changed however be sure to let me know your thoughts on these seats in the comments below anyway back outside we've now made it as far as Milton Keynes however progress still seems to be rather slow with very little time spent at 125 miles an hour right time for a Wonder these new displays are a nice touch with plenty of information being shown regarding our progress one thing that has changed as a result of the refurbishments is that there are now only three coaches of first and standard premium seating as opposed to the four that there used to be meaning that there's now an extra coach of standard class speaking of standard class there's certainly no doubt that these seats here are new they definitely look a lot fresher than the old ones we'll take a look at one in just a moment the luggage storage situation is the exact same as before with racks being located in the saloons also wheelchair spaces and the accessible toilets can still be found in coaches b d and j [Applause] well I must say the onboard shop looks a lot better now much brighter and easier to find things than before I used to find that the old shop was just a bit hectic in terms of its layout right as for the new standard class seats they're almost identical to what you'll find on lumos trains legroom is good and every seat now has access to plug sockets the seats themselves are pretty comfortable too being nicely shaped and fairly well padded and these headrests are an excellent addition too a large extendable tray table is also provided overall a drastic improvement from the old seats in my opinion I believe that these standard class seats will also feature on Avanti's new class 805 and 807 units when they enter service later this year as for the toilet again not a lot has changed here it just looks like they've been given a little bit of a refresh that said though everything was clean well stocked and in good working order which is always great to see foreign by the way if you're looking for the likes of baby changing facilities these can be found in the accessible toilets lastly this train is Wi-Fi enabled although with speeds like this it might as well not have been with that now all that's left to do is kick back and enjoy my latte as we continue North the coffee was really nice by the way and at two pound 70 I guess it isn't complete daylight robbery as on train prices go well we have finally picked up some speed although a lot of the time this seemed to be rather short-lived it was a very stop-start Journey this one foreign however we do eventually pass through on the fast line see if you can make out the silhouette of the APT as we pass crew Heritage Center just after the station at long last we arrive at our first stop of Warrington Bank key currently running around 20 minutes late a short time later we arrive at our second and final intermediate stop of Wigan North Western well I must say I do have some rather conflicting views on the refurbishments of these pendolinos on the one hand it's great to see that these trains are getting a midlife facelift and there is undoubtedly an improvement in the level of comfort when it comes to standard class however we're using what a now 20 year old seats in standard premium and first class certainly doesn't seem like the brightest idea on the part of Avanti to me if I'm to be brutally honest many of the seats were knackered before and that still seems to be the case as for the cost of today's trip I paid 64 pounds 70 for an advanced standard premium single including rail Card discount of a third booking two days in advance without a rail card this would have been an eye-watering 98 pounds 10. to be honest though I think that both prices are rather expensive for what's being offered here now I did a quick search on lner's website for a ticket from London to Leeds which is a similar distance to what we traveled today and first class is around 15 pounds cheaper than this even if you book on the day and not to mention that this also includes lounge access and a meal once on board so yeah if I'm being honest I'm a bit underwhelmed by what Avanti are offering here however these are just my thoughts and opinions so do be sure to share yours in the comments below thank you [Music] and at last we arrive into Preston 19 minutes late at two minutes to eight well I think I'll end the video here I've got around three quarters of an hour to wait here now until my connecting train to Bradford arrives however in the meantime I do hope you enjoyed the video if you did be sure to help me out by giving it a like commenting and subscribing as they all help the channel out an extra special thanks as always to my fantastic patrons and channel members if you want to join them in supporting the channel you'll find the relevant links in the description below with that all that's left for me to say is thanks a lot for watching and I'll see you next Friday

Channel: Dylan's Travel Reports

Views: 35,295

Keywords: avanti, avanti west coast, avanti refurbishment, avanti west coast refurbishment, class 390, class 390 refurbishment, avanti west coast standard premium, avanti west coast first class, avanti first class, avanti standard premium, avanti west coast new trains, avanti west coast pendolino, pendolino train, pendolino refurbishment, pendolino first class, class 390 review, avanti west coast review, refurbished pendolino review, avanti refurbished pendolino, refurbished class 390

Id: setLD9PbKFA

Length: 14min 52sec (892 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2023