The Train Kept A Rolling.

My recent trip north of the border gave me the first opportunity I have had to use the cross country service since Arriva took over the route from Virgin. The drawback, for anyone from this part of the world wishing to travel to the west of Scotland, is that there is only one train per day that goes to Glasgow direct and that takes something like nine hours. otherwise you have to change from Arriva to Virgin at Birmingham New Street.

I was pleasently surprised therefore, to find that, even with changes at Birmingham and onto Scotrail at Carlisle, I was in Ayr in just under eight hours and on the return journey was back in Exeter in under nine. There seemed to be few holdups and the trains ran pretty much to time. My only gripe about the Arriva service is that it only uses a trolley service for refreshments which means less choice then the shop which still operates on Virgin. All in all good journeys in both directions.