Operator: LNER
Headcode: 1S12
Route: PBO-NCL
Class: 1st Class
Seat: K08
Date: Monday 27th March 2023
Having already had plenty of trips with LNER up and down the East Coast Mainline (ECML), I decided it was time for another as I headed to Newcastle for a couple of nights to explore some more of the East Coast. Thanks to a discount (more on that later) I was travelling in first once again and was hoping to try out the ‘Dish’ menu that I keep missing out on.
LNER run a loyalty scheme called ‘LNER Perks’ for when you book journeys onboard their trains directly with them, providing credit towards future journeys. Having saved this cashback for a while, I was able to purchase my ticket for this journey in first class for the price of a standard class ticket. This worked out as roughly a £20 saving or 50% discount, so its definitely worth signing up if you travel with LNER regularly.
As regular readers will know, there’s no first class lounge at Peterborough, so having arrived early I grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and watched the trains go by. Azuma 801223 was my ride north and we departed Peterborough on time at 1118 for a scheduled journey of 2 hours and 21 minutes to Newcastle.
The majority of services from Peterborough to Newcastle are actually the hourly London to Edinburgh stopping services, although there are a few services in the evening that do terminate at Newcastle. For my journey there were six intermediate stops at Newark Northgate, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington and Durham, although these do vary dependant upon the service. The best service to catch is the 0948 from Peterborough (1S09) which only stops at York and Darlington with a journey time of 2 hours and 5 minutes.
LNER services have one of three first class menus, ‘Deli’, ‘Dish’, and ‘Dine’, with this service being advertised in their timetable as a ‘Dish’ service. After issues with crewing and hot food on previous LNER services, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the menu was being delivered on this service. Despite this service being a 1030 departure from London the lunch menu was being served so I decided to go for the creamy coconut, sweet potato and paneer curry which I had missed out on on our journey back from Scotland (read about that here).
Just north of Peterborough is Marholm Junction, one of the railway’s newest junctions which connects the Up and Down Stamford lines with the Werrington dive under. This dive under, the other end of which is Glinton Junction on the Up and Down Spalding lines, was constructed to assist freight trains in crossing the ECML. Traffic between the Spalding lines and East Anglia can now dive under the ECML rather than crossing on the flat at Werrington or Peterborough North Junctions. This allows more reliable journeys for both passengers and freight, and in the long run will also enable more paths for increases in services.
Before we had passed through Grantham the onboard crew had come through to offer out cold drinks and take the orders for food, the latter being delivered before our stop at Newark. The curry was deliciously creamy, exactly as described and, when accompanied with the small chocolate desert, was a reasonable size portion that kept me going for the afternoon.
As always, the majority of the staff onboard were very friendly and helpful, providing a great service throughout the journey. Unfortunately, on this journey there was one member of staff that seemed a bit standoffish and didn’t really engage in conversations with passengers. They weren’t rude in anyway but they also didn’t have the usual positive attitude that I’m used to on LNER. Overall though the staff were great and kept us regularly topped up with drinks throughout the journey.
As we approached Doncaster we passed some of the many railway yards, sidings and depots that scatter the area. On the eastern side of the railway is Doncaster Up Decoy, one of the many Network Rail Local Distribution Centres utilised for preparing engineering trains. There’s also the Doncaster Railport intermodal terminal operated by Freightliner and Hitachi’s Doncaster Carr IEP depot, home to some of the Azuma fleet, along with Hull Trains’ Paragons and TPE’s Nova 1s.
The majority of the rest of the journey was uneventful, although a short delay at Darlington to allow a fast service to pass meant us departing 3 minutes late. As is often the case on the railway, this 3 minute delay meant further delays over the last few miles of the journey and we eventually arrived into Newcastle 10 minutes late. These things do unfortunately happen and so there’s no point getting worked up about them and thankfully I still had time to nip to my hotel to check in before my next train.
All in all this was an excellent journey with LNER. The food was great, the majority of the staff were brilliant, and the Azuma once again delivered an efficient and relatively comfortable journey. I still find it disappointing there is no first class lounge at Peterborough, but I assume there isn’t the demand for one, so this is understandable. Overall pretty good LNER!
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 4*
Service 4*
Punctuality 4*
Overall Rating 16/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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