My 1st travel review.

Back in 2019 I wrote a travel review on LNER’s inaugural Azuma service from Glasgow Central to Newcastle. I did not publish then as I did not have a platform to publish it on. Now I have that platform I figured I would share it as a bonus post.

Here is that review from 2019, let me know what you think.

For a train that has been hyped by current franchise holders “LNER” as well as previous franchise holders “Virgin” as a game changer for the East Coast Main Line (ECML) the Azuma certainly did live up to that target.

The 0648 from Glasgow Central to London King’s Cross on September 24^th marked the introduction of these new trains from Glasgow and with my ticket booked 1 week in advance all should have gone smoothly, and, for the most part it did.

There were a few small issues, the vestibule door at the London end of carriage L didn’t work properly leading to a few occasions of some weird dance moves being conducted to allow entrance to the carriage. The seat itself was perfectly comfortable and fulfilled all it needed to do in this journey of less than 3 hours. Where this service really suffered was the crew, they were for a lack of better word, shocking.

It came across as they just wanted to get the breakfast service over and done with as soon as possible so they could kick back and relax. When serving tea and coffee they seemed to go out of their way to make as much noise as possible so the whole train knew they were coming. Breakfast itself was to a high standard and was perfectly suitable considering the price I paid for the ticket.

Still relating to staff they seemed to take any criticism of the new train to heart and gave the impression that customers had to get used to it, when really they should have listened to the feedback customers had and agreed to pass it on to the relevant members of the organisation, or provided them with the contact information the customer needed so they could pass on their feedback themselves.

Apart from the staff the rest of the journey passed without a hitch, these new trains are fast, clean, provide plenty of seats and feature a much-improved customer information system, which is clearer for the customer thanks to the introduction of an automated announcement.

I should also point out that unlike the launch of Azuma services from Leeds and Edinburgh this was a very quiet and understated launch, most likely down to the fact that Glasgow is served once per day Sunday – Friday by LNER. The Social Media team at LNER were also insistent that this service would be operated by the Azuma from Monday September 23th which turned out to be false, which suggests that communication needs to be improved within the company to ensure that the correct information is being passed on to passengers.