Avanti West Coast

 Edinburgh to Birmingham  

This train was late arriving from London so eventually left Edinburgh 8 minutes late. Not the best start.

It was a Pendolino, tilting train. All the first-class facilities worked just fine except the ride was rather harsh when on the straights. Cornering and tilting was smooth.

I had two light meals, on china plates, during the four-and-a-half hour journey, and three bottles of beer. I didn't ask for the second and third, they just came along. I turned down the fourth bottle.

Then there was the strangest announcement, apologising to coach C. It said the air-conditioning in coach C had filled its watertank and when the Pendolino tilted a certain way some water overflowed onto passengers. This tank can only be emptied during overnight maintenance.

We frequently stopped and waited just before a station, they said we were running behind a stopping train, this made us 25 minutes late arriving at Birmingham so I might be able to claim some Delay Repay for that.

Otherwise the Pendolino and staff was brilliant scoring a top-of-the-tree 80%. Top speed 129mph.

One nice touch was the onboard information screens which, when approaching a station, displayed available connections from that station and their platforms.

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