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Today, I’m back to check out the brand-new version of one of my least favourite trains: Hitachi’s Class 800 series of high-speed trains for the United Kingdom. The early versions of this train were known for their uncomfortable seats, poor lighting, and overall ride quality, so I was eager to see if this new version is any better. Join me on a journey aboard this updated train, travelling from Liverpool to London.
Train type: Hitachi Class 807
Route: Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston
Train: 08:43 Liverpool – London
Distance: 193 miles (310km)
Journey time: 2h20m
Average speed: 82 mph (132 km/h)
Price: from £155 (Please just buy Standard)
00:00 Intro
00:34 Liverpool Lime Street Station
02:22 Train arrival and boarding
04:12 Route Map
04:38 Menu and Drinks (Liverpool-Runcorn)
05:55 First Class Seat
07:11 Crewe Station
08:04 Missing Tilting Technology
08:32 Complimentary Food
09:00 Train Tour (Huge Upgrade)
11:38 Milton Keynes Central
12:02 Coffee and Ride Quality
12:22 Final Thoughts
13:13 Tickets (Ridiculous prices)
13:36 London Euston
#Travel #Trains #TripReport
31 Comments
I think they've only succeeded in polishing a turd!
You the people never are happy — to slow is no good to fest no good, get the donkey and ride.
Those first class seats looks rubbish! For £200 I would want a padded reclining seat.
It's a pity the train experience doesn't match the nice looking livery.
Dreadful things
Japan, China, South Korea, Know how to adjust the suspension properly on the same equipment, We need to teach our engineers in the UK how to do it too, Its the same technology but we tend to "do it our way" which shown here is not the right way because ive seen trampolines bounce less
10:25 GWR
Why did Hitachi use substandard seats in the first place?
WOW AMAZING HAHAHA HAHAHA
MUCH BETTER THAN ANYTHING IN CHI NA 😂
The prices are embarrassing
Never understood why these trains are perfectly fine in Japan, where Hitachi are ubiquitous. Yet, typical British railways, we manage to turn something good into something shit….
I travelled on the Swanage Heritage railway a few days ago.The 1950's carriage had excellent comfy seating, table surface and layout, with ample room for luggage and a world better than many modern trains (I'm looking at you Southern Railways).
50 pounds for a standard is very expensive too…
The first class compartment just didn’t look premium . Certainly not worth paying so much extra than standard. Those first class seats looked meh.
Most hated…..have you never heard of the Voyager?
Not close to the comfort available on French, German and Italian equivalents and the 'cheap' price £155! Robbery…
Great british crap railways…..
Probably stinking already and tatooed hoodies have their feet on the seats and piss on the corridor when the toilet is occupied. Welcome to UK.
I went on a GWR 800 series the other week for the first time. Awful seats, yes, but I didn't think the ride quality was poor. Maybe not up to Mk3 quality, but I don't think it was a terrible train over all.
I commute on the NY subway and New Jersey Transit every day. We have train enthusiasts here in the US. I have no idea why.
I fear I might piss off some Brits but the BR Class 800 is not high speed. Only trains doing at least 250 km/h / 155 mph are high speed. The only high speed train in the UK goes to Paris/Brussels. If we keep lying to ourselves about these trains being fast we will never feel the need to build faster and better rails the way Japan and China are doing
We rode in an 805 last summer and noted the considerable improvement over the awful 800s we have to suffer on GWR. I can just about manage 2 hours travel on them and fortunately it is enough time to get me to London. I cannot see that I will ever travel to Cornwall by train again and I am reluctant to try Lumo to Edinburgh.
I was in England back in 2022, and wound up zipping back and forth to Liverpool and Manchester and birkdale from London. I had been warned by many people about how awful rail transport had gotten in England. But I never had a single problem. I traveled multiple times from London and to London and from London also to Oxford. And from Manchester airport. Never a single problem. Much better than Amtrak. Perhaps not quite as good as rail service in France or Germany. But not bad at all 🎉
There are no real high speed railwais lines in UK, apart for the Eurostar line.
Having done plenty of time on both, I'll take an 80x over a Voyager any day.
The 80x's are mechanically a good train. The interior is entirely down to operator specification, or in the case of the original IETs – civil service specification. The 805/807 standard class seats are good. The standard class interior layout is probably as good a 'compromise' layout as you can get – 5 airlines rows to 2 windows, then 5 well aligned bays, then 5 airline rows to 2 windows again. Less decadent than perfectly aligned 2 rows to each window, but the vast majority of rows have good window views.
Next time you go to the first class lounge turn right at the top of the stairs. There you will find the original signallling panel for Lime Street, since replaced. Well worth a look.
Like all IETs they look cheap and flimsy and I dread to think what the crash worthiness is like and how those seats would hold up under a crash. feel far safer on a 390
Still looks garbage can't we do anything right in Britain .other than sports 😅😅
I didn't like the new Evero
Simon , please , stop that nonsense . That's not a high speed train . In the UK there's only a short
high speed route , the one for the the trains that cross the Channel towards Paris . That's not an
UK train . So , definitely , the UK doesn't have high speed trains . What they have is a project to connect London – Birmingham – Manchester that is expected to be ready between 2033 / 39 . Got it ?
From Portugal 🇵🇹 European Union 🇪🇺