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.

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.

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'...!

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.

I always enjoy your informative commentary.