After a wonderful fun filled day in Exeter, including a whirlwind tour of the city centre, playing board games and enjoying an excellent meal, we headed back to the city’s St. David’s station for our journey back to Penzance.
Mid-way through our holiday in Cornwall & Devon, we took the opportunity to travel to Exeter by train and sample the first-class products of two different Train Operators, GWR & CrossCountry.
The Looe Valley Line, which upon leaving the Cornish main line at Liskeard, heads into the Looe Valley and to the town of Looe itself, via four rural and rather remote request stops.
The main aim for the trip was to experience Greater Anglia’s first-class product on their Norwich to London route (which will feature in a later blog), however it was also the perfect opportunity to review East Midland’s Trains Liverpool to Norwich route beyond Peterborough.
My arrival onto platform 7 at King’s Cross on the evening on Monday 20th May made what had been an unremarkable Monday into an exciting opportunity to take my first ride on an LNER Azuma
One thing I like about Birmingham New Street is that they display platform information well ahead of a train’s departure allowing you to get away from the shopping centre concourse and wait on the correct platform whilst watching the trains to pass the time. Given the timings of my day, and my advanced ticket allowing travel only on the 2025 service, this is exactly what I did and also gave me the opportunity to observe what I can only describe as a “Train Hokey Cokey”!
