Avanti's Refurbished Pendolinos! What are they like?

Up this week, we'll be taking a look at one of Avanti West Coast's refurbished Pendolinos and sampling what their Standard Premium offering is like.

Date of Travel: February 2023
Class of Travel: Standard Premium (2nd+ Class)
Rolling Stock: Class 390 Pendolino
Type of Service: Express Passenger
Operator: Avanti West Coast
Train Number: 1S90
Origin: London Euston, United Kingdom (England)
Destination: Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom (England)
Cost of ticket: £64.70 ($78.65, €73.10)

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#Class390 #Pendolino #trains
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Credits

[stevelknievel]

This may be the first time Birmingham was ever described as scenic.

[colinriley]

You are right. At the moment LNER offer by far the best value service. Please continue to focus on this. Avanti and Cross Country need to up their game. Videos like this will concentrate minds.

[EdgyNumber]

Unlikely to see tilt trains after Pendolino gets decommissioned. HS2 supposed to take over the high speed duties and standard intercity services will take over the WCML. Trains will be limited back up to 110mph on older sections and 125mph on the speed upgrade sections (eg Trent Valley.) Currently there's lots of 110mph sections that have special provision for tilt train running at 125mph.

[John_Fugazzi]

It seems odd that they'd put new seats in Standard but not in Premium Standard or First Class. More people usually use Standard so those old seats may have been beyond refurbishing. Still, it seems cheap of them. On the brighter side it looked like a peaceful, relaxing trip.

[tag]

I travelled with Avanti in October last year in first class. It was only a short ride, but we were just in time for the last bit of the service, which was a hot or cold drink. It was a refurbished pendo, and I really enjoyed it. Seats were great and staff were friendly.

[CourtMcCheese]

When my train was delayed by 1 hour, we got a announcement saying that we won’t be stopping at all stations to fix schedule, so we had to get off the train.. we got on a refurbished one, I was happy about that.. the crossover was very very tight

[james-reid]

I travelled on one of these refreshed trains recently in standard class - was generally really really nice. Things that I didn't like: the coat pegs are not in a place that works and, while the wireless charging points on the tables are a really great idea, I think they could benefit from some tactile surface around them to stop the phone from sliding

[EuroDC]

To be fair the old standard seats were comfortable but had seen better days. The new ones definitely look fresher, have better tables, have the plug sockets and more room which is great but they're not as comfortable seats in my opinion. The whole look is a lot fresher.

First and standard premium on the other hand just seems a bit meh. The seats are comfortable, sure, but the big white marshmallows on the old and broken seats is just... Not good enough really.

The biggest disappointment to me though is that as part of the refurbishment the seating layout doesn't seem to have changed. It looks like the exact same layout has been kept with seats but particularly logically arranged, very poor window alignment (though with such tiny windows that's difficult) and luggage racks mid-carriage often with better window views than some seats.

In all I'm just not a fan of the pendolinos and the refurb hasn't changed that

[Lynxfan]

Hi there Dylan, the seats in First Class have been recovered in new moquette - the old Virgin Trans moquette in First Class was very similar to a tartan in terms of appearance and styling. There are new carpets in both First Class and Standard Class.
Best wishes and take care. Kind regards, Peter Skuce. St Albans. Hertfordshire.

[henrywilliam]

Great to we you back on your regular weekly blogs. Yes, I did watch last weeks too.
Great Vlog!
Thanks for your entertaining weekly’s and looking forward to your next.

[harrystokes]

I respect your opinion, underwhelmed is a great descriptive word. especially at the price verses what you get.

[kittyKatzGaming]

I had to chuckle when you mentioned having to walk the length of these trains. Working as a cleaner in a rather very busy station where these come and go from, you quickly have to get used to walking and cleaning platforms that a long enough for them haha I get your pain xD I have no idea of the train, but Avanti had to use an older set once and it looked cool in the Avanti colours, good bunch of workers those on the Avanti and were happy to let me have a gawk at it xD

[MidlandMark]

When you looked at the Standard Class carriages, I couldn't help but notice that, despite the chance to refurbish the seating, they've still placed far too many of them against window bulkheads, which is just not nice, especially at the prices they charge; I did a quick check and, to take that train tomorrow (15/02) all the way to Glasgow (5 hours, 37 minutes) was £76.70 for a Standard Advance, £112.60 for an Off-Peak Single - sorry, but £112 to stare at a blank wall for 5 1/2 hours is just wrong!

This may be why I use Chiltern to travel to London - trains with pretty much all seats having a view, decent prices, and two really nice stations at Birmingham Moor Street & London Marylebone.

[redorzed]

Cheers, look forward to watching this later!

[desmondatkinson]

Thank you for the video, Dylan - always informative and enjoyable. Please ignore the few negative comments from those pedantic grammarians! Looking forward to your next edition.

[shirleynitka]

yes I agree with you Dylan. The price was a bit steep all things considered. I can't see where the money is worth it for what you get.

[hughmnyks]

Not much cop, as we used to say back in the day. Never forget the day when the train manager apologised on arrival of train in Norwich for the train being two minutes early. Couldn’t help noticing the comment about cutting stops to make up time. You lot are up the creek without a paddle. Remember when only half the passengers were allowed onto a train in Stafford because they could only stop for two minutes. That’s not service! Thanks for your very patient, highly competent review, BTW.

[egpx]

Ey up Dylan, welcome back! I had the chance to sample the refurbished Pendolino a few weeks ago from Glasgow to Wigan and back in Standard Class. I was quite impressed with the new look and the plethora of charging options. The old Standard Class seats were badly in need of replacing so I had high hopes for the new ones. After two and a half hours in one I was suffering from a very numb bum as they really are quite hard. It was rather disappointing, another example style over substance. I was about twenty minutes late on the way down too. I think that counts as an on time service at the moment, there's hardly a day goes by when there isn't some problem or other on the WCML.

[stepheng]

Great video, but having tried 1st class on both the LNER Azuma and Avanti Pendolino I much prefer the Pendolino.
When I travel from Leeds to London I always make sure the train is a 225 set instead of an Azuma.

[DISCOPlayz]

This looks like the Best Train I've seen in the UK