GWR Weekend 1st – Is it Worth it?

Back at the start of March, I took a trip to Bristol for the weekend to stay with some friends and explore some of the railways in the southwest of England. Travelling with GWR from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads and return, I decided to use this opportunity to try out the journey in both 1^st and Standard class, upgrading my outbound trip via Seatfrog and seeing whether it was worth upgrading to 1^st at a weekend.

If you haven’t yet discovered Seatfrog, its an app that allows you to bid for upgrades to 1^st class for various operators and in most cases means a 1^st class upgrade can be purchased for a lot less than it would be buying a 1^st class ticket. I’ve used Seatfrog plenty of times whilst travelling for work, and have managed to get some real bargains on LNER between Peterborough and Scotland. In this case the upgrade to 1^st class on GWR cost me £17 plus a £3 admin fee and the upgrade was confirmed 30 minutes before departure. This wasn’t an issue for me as it was confirmed just as I was arriving at Paddington, however if you’d hoped to be upgraded to waste away an hour or so’s wait in the lounge, this would have left you high and dry.

I had time to quickly visit the lounge for a coffee, an orange juice and some biscuits, saving me £6.10 compared to buying my usual order at Bristol Temple Mead’s Starbucks on the return journey (other coffee chains are available). The lounge is also a much quieter place to wait than the main concourse and with the platform being announced 20 minutes before departure, I headed over with around 15 minutes left.

My journey to the west would be onboard 800316, one of GWR’s 57 class 800s that form the backbone of their Intercity fleet. 36 of the class 800s are 800/0s and formed of five carriages, whilst the remainder, including this one, are 800/3s formed of nine carriages. The class 800s, along with GWR’s class 802s are part of the Intercity Express Train (IET) programme and all are bi-mode allowing electric running under the wires, whilst still allowing through services on unelectrified routes.

I was travelling on 1C06, the 0830 departure from Paddington to Taunton, with stops at Reading, Swindon, Chippenham (where the electrification ends), Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads where my journey would end. After Bristol, the train would continue with stops at Yatton, Weston-Super-Mare, Highbridge & Burnham and Bridgwater before arriving into Taunton at 1105, 3 hours and 35 minutes after leaving the capital.

Seat K32 was my spot for the journey to Bristol, a forward facing window seat in a pair either side of a table. A common complaint regarding the IET fleet (along with their LNER cousins) is that the seats are uncomfortable and whilst they still aren’t great, the 1^st class seating is slightly more comfortable than in standard class. There is also more space in 1^st, with the seating in a 2-1 layout either side of the aisle and more legroom than in standard class.

As well as a more comfortable environment, 1^st class also includes complimentary refreshments and so I was able to enjoy another coffee, some biscuits and a snack box during the journey. The snack box included some mini pretzels, breadsticks, houmous and a small piece of chocolate, so whilst not particularly filling, did tide me over until I was able to buy something more substantial at Bristol.

In comparison to the westbound journey, my return to London from Bristol was in standard class. There’s no first class lounge at Bristol Temple Meads and so I wasn’t missing out on anything here, and purchased my usual order at Starbucks for £6.10. With this service starting from Bristol the platform was announced over 30 minutes before departure and before the inbound service had actually arrived! Unfortunately this turned out to cause issues as the train had not yet been set up for the return journey, leading to the carriages being in the reverse order to what was initially displayed and I ended up in a rear facing seat with no table for the journey to the capital.

The service back to London was also extremely busy, with it being about half full from Bristol and completely full and standing from Bath Spa. Due to this, the ‘at seat’ trolley service became static two carriages away from where I was sat and 1^st class ended up being declassified for the majority of the journey. Seating in standard class is arranged in a 2-2 layout either side of the aisle and whilst there is less legroom than in 1^st class, my knees weren’t quite touching the seat in front so there was sufficient. Other than the seating arrangement and slightly less padding on the seats themselves, there’s not really any difference between the facilities. Whilst I was a bit more cramped on the journey back, I was able to get a seat and so wasn’t particularly uncomfortable.

Overall if you’re travelling at a weekend and can bag an upgrade for around £20, travelling in 1^st with GWR is probably worth it on journeys of 90 minutes or more. This is mainly for the extra space and comfort it provides and the savings on coffee if you make the most of what is provided. If your journey is any shorter than 90 minutes or the bid price is more than £20, I wouldn’t say weekend 1^st class is really worth it unless you really value your space. Even then there is always a risk of 1^st class becoming declassified on busy services.

PAD-BRI

Lounge              3*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food                2*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      19/25 (read about my rating system here!)

BRI-PAD

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     3*

Food                0*

Service             4*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      12/25