Review: Great Western First Class lounge, Paddington Station

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• Matthew Vaughan says:

  30 Nov30 November 04:03

  I read somewhere that the second, more classic half was originally Queen Victoria’s waiting room.

• Larryflyer says:

  30 Nov30 November 05:23

  Re the onboard drinks/snacks: yes, the selection is not brilliant on Great Western, but at least access is unlimited. By way of comparison, I recently took a 2.5 hour journey on CrossCountry trains (Birmingham to Cambridge, in First Class) and was staggered to be told I could not have a complementary coffee “because you had a bottle of water earlier, sir”.

  • Rich says:

    30 Nov30 November 09:12

    It’s bewildering and annoying how stingy they can be! I asked for a cup of coffee once on East Coast to go with my cake, and the ‘host’ looked at me, horrified at the thought, and said ‘No. Not after York’.

    In fairness, it must be difficult to keep track of people traveling short, long, or very long distances, on a train that starts out at breakfast time but is still picking up passengers after lunch, all the while guarding against guzzlers.

    But being stingy with a cup of coffee is unnecessary.

    • the real harry says:

      30 Nov30 November 19:01

      and what about my free F&booze on the 30 BA tickets I have pre-booked for flights after 11th January?!

      I have got loads of screenshots and am considering my position 🙂

• Andy S says:

  30 Nov30 November 07:20

  Re. alcohol, no it’s not generally available, apart from in the evening when red and white wine are available.

  • Rob says:

    30 Nov30 November 08:14

    Only on a Wednesday, bizarrely, they told me.

    • Smid says:

      30 Nov30 November 08:31

      Is it free?

      It’s not typical for any uk domestic first class train lounge to have free alcohol. The virgin west coast in Euston has a paid bar (and some free alcohol for members of their first class loyalty programme), but not free. None in Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Crewe, Manchester or Glasgow.

      Only the eurostar lounge which is international, does free alcohol. Well, in the sense that if you’ve not paid buckets for your ticket.

      • Rob says:

        30 Nov30 November 08:44

        Amex Plat gives free Eurostar lounge access. And if you don’t send your Plat card back when you cancel it, it is the gift that keeps on giving …..

        • Nick M says:

          30 Nov30 November 09:36

          Do they check names? – My wife was sent 2 supplementary cards by mistake when I upgraded to Plat… would prefer to give it to my sister if it’ll be useful

        • Rob says:

          30 Nov30 November 11:05

          Yes – well, it depends. At Paris, because they have a reception desk, they tend to look closely at the cards and ticket. In London last time I just waved it at the guy standing by the door and he let me in.

        • Sideysid says:

          30 Nov30 November 10:55

          Thanks Rob, was just about to cut mine up today, that never occurred to me!

        • RussellH says:

          30 Nov30 November 11:14

          Not, of course, in anything like the same class, but the AA every-so-often has sent me a free basic membership card, which gives 20% at some, though not all motorway services. Again, the person on the payment desk just recognises an AA card and presses the b20% discount button on the till.

          It almost makes Costa Coffee a reasonable purchase.

        • Alex W says:

          30 Nov30 November 18:23

          My cancelled Amex Plat also got me in to 2 different delta lounges in the US.

        • Genghis says:

          30 Nov30 November 18:58

          Been to Eurostar lounges in St Pancras and Gare du Nord a few times over the last few months and they both seem to check the name on Amex Plat against the ticket.

        • the real harry says:

          30 Nov30 November 19:03

          I’m getting my son & myself into lounge @ T3 @ Xmas – on Lounge Pass – even though only 1 freebie remaining – several here say it’s not patrolled very tightly 🙂

        • zark says:

          30 Nov30 November 20:35

          Last time at St Pancras, they made a note of my Platinum card number.

    • Nick Burch says:

      30 Nov30 November 11:41

      On board the train, each route has one day a week when there’s free wine

      In the lounge, there’s free wine every evening, but only in the “modern” half, it’s normally by the door to the kitchen. They used to also do nice cornish beer on request, but sadly no longer

      As for why most people are in the modern half – old half doesn’t have departure screens, and you have to know it’s there!

• Tom says:

  30 Nov30 November 07:46

  Am I right in thinking you could get in here by buying a first class ticket from Paddington to Ealing, or similar?

  • the real harry says:

    30 Nov30 November 15:07

    sure

• Rory says:

  30 Nov30 November 07:52

  As a weekly user, let me add a couple of extra points.

  The lounge is, as you say, surprisingly comfortable. They also put out a decent afternoon tea selection (full-size cakes, sliced) and wine in the evening. Similarly, the trolley on board carries red and white in the evening peak.

  You got lucky with the seats. The refurbishment is a couple of years old now and, while attractive, it is the same underlying seat – many of the recline mechanisms and arm rests are, again, broken. I suspect they will be in a sorry state by the time the new trains take over.

  Interestingly, as we talk so much about densification of airline cabins, it should be noted that was the major outcome of this revised first class. One of the first coaches was converted to standard and more seats were added to the remaining 1.5 coaches by adopting an “airline style” configuration for the single seats.

  • Aeronaut says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:04

    The densification does make sense in terms of how popular the Great Western routes are. Though like many, I somewhat lament the reduction in table seats.

• Mark says:

  30 Nov30 November 08:17

  A far better product in all senses as compared to Virgin Trains who by comparison are really poor.

  • RussellH says:

    30 Nov30 November 11:07

    The ambience of the new western First does look good, but the on-board offering by Virgin WC is a lot better than what Rob describes here.

    I am usually lucky though – travelling to/from Penrith, an hour north of Preston, we normally get two complete services on Virgin, because of the crew change at Preston.

    Though with an hours drive following the train when travelling northbound I have to decline the enormous glass of wine offered after leaving Preston.

• Alex says:

  30 Nov30 November 09:56

  If you have a sleeper train ticket of ANY class, you should also be entitled to access this lounge. We did it in the way back from Cornwall a few years ago. The train arrives at Platform 1 at 5am, they let you sleep until 6am when they wake you up and serve you breakfast and you have to vacate the train by 7am. This is the time when you just move to the lounge a few steps away from the train. The lounge was nice and proved popular among passengers. I even manage to spot a UK govt minister in the lounge!

• philip bramley says:

  30 Nov30 November 10:49

  The food in the Octagonal lounge is replenished and you can ask if they are a bit behind , the sandwiches and cakes available at lunchtime are usually excellent in both quantity and standard as is the afternoon tea , but its all unlimited along with the soft drinks , the on board offering is rather more restricted but again is as much as you can eat/drink . I have never come across any hot food in the lounge though .

  My concern on the new stock to be introduced is that there will be no restaurant car just a trolley , a backward step I think .

  • RussellH says:

    30 Nov30 November 11:09

    > My concern on the new stock to be introduced is that there will be no restaurant car just a trolley

    Ah, but this is what the passenger, sorry customer, wants these days. At least according to the surveys with carefully worded leading questions.

    • Tom says:

      30 Nov30 November 14:42

      This is certainly what I want. I typically sit at the other end of the train and to get to the buffet car either have to carry my worldly possessions from one end of the train to the other in order to get a coffee, or leave them and hope that they are still there by the time I get back! Roll on the trolleys on FGW!

      • Tom says:

        30 Nov30 November 14:43

        I mean GWR of course… stuck in old money!

      • Philip bramley says:

        1 Dec1 December 09:07

        My concern really was there will be no hot food as a result

  • Nick Burch says:

    30 Nov30 November 11:46

    The DFT spec’d 800/801 trains for GWR won’t have a kitchen, only the Virgin ones will do. However, I think the GWR spec’d 802s (with full use of the engines), which are destined for the south west (Devon / Cornwall) will have them. So, it should only be the Oxford / Bristol / Wales trains which miss out on the kitchen

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