TPE First Class : Doncaster to Manchester

[Willie Bee]

My wife and I recently took this journey, heading to Manchester Piccadilly on TPE from Doncaster (Sunday 29th October at 11:44)

We had never travelled on TPE before and also, this was our first time in first class.

At the time of booking in August, I was surprised to find we could not pick specific seats, something that works well with LNER. With it being first class, I thought I would ring TPE to see what could be done. All they said was 'sit in any seat'

Anyway, our train arrived but unfortunately no two seats together were available, which was pretty annoying. A stroke of luck, well a kindly gesture really as a chap gave up his seat so we could be together. Full marks to this other passenger, but this sort of thing wouldn't happen with LNER .. you select your seats from the seating plan and that's that.

Now we were on our way I was thinking .. do we get a coffee or anything.

As it was, we didn't get anything and in fact didn't even see anybody from TPE on the train.

As a first TPE journey and our first 'FIRST CLASS' trip .. we were not very impressed

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Last time I did First Class with TPE (Manchester Victoria to Northallerton) it was certainly full, but there was no food, or drinks provided or available on board.

There was, however, a ticket inspection after Leeds, where it soon came to light that maybe some three quarters of the passengers occupying the First Class section weren't actually in possession of First Class tickets, including one woman who cheekily asked if she could stay where she was sat, as she was alighting at the next stop (York).

 

[Techniquest]

Transpennine Express seem to be very hit and miss at the moment, certainly have been since November 2022 at the least which was my last long-distance use of them. Quite, that may have been my last use of them full-stop!

Fortunately other TOCs are a lot better at providing First Class service, so I'd recommend using a different TOC next time for a better First Class experience. LNER do a decent job, but out of all the TOCs with First Class I'd recommend Avanti the most. However, I also really liked the First Class lounge at Kings Cross!