October 18, 2013
Monarch Airlines Faro - Manchester 1135a – 225p A321-200 Economy Class
Transpennine Railway Manchester - Preston 429p – 530p First Class
Virgin Trains Preston – Glasgow 541p – 758p First Class

Just two blocks from my hotel was a bus stop serving the #62 line, providing direct service to Faro Airport for just €1.00. Thirty minutes later I’m enjoying coffee and a croissant while awaiting the designation of a check-in area for Monarch 581. Interestingly, most of this morning’s departures are headed for various airports around the U.K. via airlines like Monarch, Ryanair, Jet2 and EasyJet. The only domestic flight I saw listed was a mid-morning departure on TAP up to Lisbon. Once I got checked in, I proceeded through security and headed halfway down the terminal to the Faro Lounge.

Before departing on this trip I took advantage of a Priority Pass promotion and invested $199.00 in a membership good for ten lounge visits with subsequent visits priced at $27.00 per visit. Anyone who flies a lot knows how much the peace and quiet provided by lounges can contribute to a more comfortable, less stressful airport experience. Consider today’s departure from Faro. Here I’ve checked in with almost an hour and a half to go before my flight boards. The terminal is noisy and crowded with few places available to sit down. Meanwhile, across the way in the Faro Lounge I’m relaxing in a comfortable chair with a fresh cup of coffee, a cookie and a Wi-Fi connection. The ambience is relaxed and when the time to board approaches, I just head on over to the gate and on to the airplane.

Because our plane was remotely parked, boarding commenced about 50 minutes out. Monarch’s A321s seat 214 passengers and today’s flight was completely full, so two busses were available to handle the initial horde. Though normally I’m pretty excited about flying on a new airline, I found myself somewhat less than enthused about the prospect of spending two and a half hours in an airplane where seat pitch is listed at 28-29”. I remind myself that I only paid €54.00 for this 1160 mile flight and that this is how a significant portion of the world flies these days but it does little to take away the pain and stiffness that settle into my lower back after about an hour and a half in that seat. Monarch does offer a small section of six rows of seats offering an extra five inches of legroom for those willing to pay more. For this flight that would have amounted to about $55.00 more – a mere pittance now that I’m confronted with the reality of actually sitting in this 29” pitch seat.

Aside from the tight seating, Monarch actually provided a surprising amount of service. Of course, you’ve got to pay for every last bit of it but the flight attendants came around the cabin early and often serving everything from pre-purchased hot meals (they smelled delicious!) to sandwiches, snacks and beverages from an extensive onboard menu. They also made a number of garbage runs, even taking time to separate plastic cups for recycling. In short, they worked hard and efficiently, contributing greatly towards making a flight aboard crowded, tightly packed aircraft much more enjoyable than I would have imagined. Well done, Monarch!

This was my first flight into Manchester Airport and during our taxi in I wished I’d had a window seat so that I could get a better look at the grounds. MAN is the third largest airport in the U.K. and is served by over 40 airlines. It’s got three terminals and is poised for further growth in the years ahead.

It was a short walk from our arrival gate down to Customs and Immigration. I was directed to fill out an entry form and proceed into the lane marked for “Non EU” residents. No problem. The line of humanity gathered there looked quite manageable compared to the huge horde of returning U.K. residents across the hall. Little did I know that those just joining the huge queue of U.K. residents would likely be out of the airport and well on their way home by the time I finally reached the front of my line.

The problem was two-fold. First, where were the Immigration inspectors? During the hour and ten minutes I stood waiting in line, there were only two inspectors assigned to the Non-EU line, one of whom was a trainee that worked slowly and carefully while receiving constant and thorough supervision from another inspector. Those two only lasted for a half hour or so before they left and we were down to just one inspector for a line exceeding forty passengers. On two separate occasions I took note of a brightly clad person who’d joined the rear of the much larger UK Residents line next to us and watched with dismay as they twice made it all the way through their line while I’d hardly moved. The other problem was that all of the people ahead of me were fresh off a Pakistan International Airlines flight. There were language issues as well as potentially more stringent security and immigration concerns given Pakistan’s role in the troubled Middle East. Additionally, there were some folks around me who took a much more relaxed approach to personal hygiene than I was used to. Lastly, my back was killing me from standing so long.

Out of sheer boredom I recorded the amount of time some of the folks in front of me spent with the inspectors. Five minutes, twelve minutes, six minutes… I’d allowed for two hours to get through immigration and customs but at this pace there was no way I was going to make my 4:30pm train departing from the airport station. Sigh… Well, we’ll cross that track when we come to it.

Finally two more inspectors arrived during my last twenty minutes in line and things improved a bit. Once I got to actually chat with an immigration inspector, things moved along quite swiftly. The conversation essentially went like this:

“What’re you doing here?”
“I’ve come to ride the West Highland Line train along with a couple of others”
“Is this your first trip to the U.K.?”
“No, I’ve been over here four or five times.”
“How long will you be in the U.K. on this trip?
“Five days.”
“Alright then – enjoy your stay.”

Our conversation couldn’t have lasted even a minute! I should imagine most of the passengers still in line behind me were both thankful and surprised at the brevity of my exchange. Me – I was just thankful to get outta there! Down at baggage claim, my bag was one of just two still riding the belt. I grabbed it and set out on the long trek over to the airport train station.

Along the way I’m embarrassed to admit that I made a rookie mistake. I stopped at the first ATM I saw and withdrew £150.00. It was a Travelex sponsored machine and the exchange rate was very much in their favor. Oh well. I promptly went and squandered some of my expensive new British Pounds on a USD $4.50 cup of coffee. It was just regular coffee too, not one of those fancy foo-foo drinks.

All of my tickets for train travel throughout England and Scotland were purchased over the internet. The process could not have been easier, I benefitted from early purchase fares and all I had to do was present my record locator and the credit card I used for the purchase to claim my tickets. Automated kiosks were available in the larger stations.

My destination for the tonight is Glasgow, Scotland. Although Manchester based TransPennine Express operated a 5:00pm departure direct to Glasgow, I found a 4:29pm connection with Virgin Trains through Preston with just an 11 minute layover. Better yet, Virgin includes complementary hot meals to its First Class passengers whereas TransPennine provides only biscuits and coffee.

I will give TransPennine this: Outside of South Africa, they have some of the most colorful trains I’ve ever seen.

You always hear about Swiss trains being legendary for their on-time performance but over the years my experience with trains in England and Scotland has also been quite good in this regard. Now before any of you go firing off a post detailing your nightmare on a U.K. based train, I don’t doubt there’ve been some bad days on U.K. rails but from my personal experience – about fifteen rides worth – they’ve been really good.



The Station at Manchester Airport

My bright blue and purple Class 185 Pennine Desiro pulled into the station about five minutes before our scheduled 4:29pm departure time. People got off. People got on. The doors closed. By my watch we powered out of the station at 4:29pm. Chalk up another on-time departure.



The Class 185 Pennine Desiro



First Class Seating on TransPennine

You definitely won’t mistake the First Class seats on most British trains with those you may have sat in on a proper airliner – unless you’re flying European domestic Business Class. Seating in the First Class carriages is configured 1-2 (as opposed to 2-2 in 2nd Class) and though the First Class seats look large and impressive, in reality they are not very well padded and so are fairly hard and not very comfortable. They do at least have decent recline via the bottom of the seat sliding forward.

On the 16:29 to Blackpool North however, I was happy simply to have a seat! Second Class was so packed that its patrons were spilling over into the First Class cars because there simply wasn’t any more room to stand back there. I had three loud guys laughing, joking and swaying mere inches from my seat for much of the ride. Even if there were any kind of a trolley beverage service, it would have been impossible to perform with all the people in the aisle. When I detrained at Preston my seat was immediately taken by someone who was assumedly traveling 2nd Class. Whatever. I was just happy to get off that train.

Preston has a nice old brick station that dates back to 1838, though the current station was rebuilt as of 1880. Modern amenities such as dot matrix display screens on each platform provide easy to read information on upcoming train arrivals and departures. We waited under what was basically a big train shed next to the main station building. The temperature was in the 50s so for a northern breed like me, the short wait was quite pleasant if not downright refreshing.

At 5:41pm Virgin’s attractive red, yellow and silver Alstom Class 390 Pendolino sped into the station. There was nothing slow or stately about this train’s arrival. A stiff breeze washed over me as the train sped past, eventually stopping with three carriages to spare. I had a bit of a walk to find my First Class car but once onboard, I liked what I saw. My single seat was situated alongside a large window. In front of me was a spacious table with a nicely muted table lamp and place settings for two that included a small plate and a good sized coffee mug instead of those dainty little cups that are so popular over here. Ah… it’s good to settle into a more comfortable seat with proper legroom. The load was light and as there was nobody sat across from me I had plenty of room to spread out. Each table comes with an electrical outlet so I plugged in my laptop and took advantage of the complimentary Wi-Fi until the car attendant arrived with a trolley bearing tonight’s dinner selections.



First Class Seating on Virgin Trains

Welsh Rarebit or Beef Pasty? I’ll have the pasty, please. Complimentary alcohol was available, so I accompanied the pasty with a passably cold bottle of Spanish lager. Dessert was a slice of fairly plain looking cake which I also declined. Now I’ve had a few pasties in my time but I must say the one I was served on Virgin tonight may well have been the best beef pasty I’ve ever had. The crust was deliciously flaky and the filling hot, flavorful and plentiful. By contrast the Welsh Rarebit looked a bit tired.



First Class Dining on Virgin Trains

Virgin’s Pendolinos are capable of speeds up to 125mph though judging by the speed of lights and buildings passing by it looked like we kept it down to about 100. The ride was nice and smooth though and time passed quickly as we sped through the Scottish countryside. Due to a slow train up ahead of us, our arrival into Glasgow’s Central Station was actually about 5 minutes late. It was raining lightly as I stepped onto the platform but it was only a short walk into the warm and brightly lit station. I had no problem finding my way over to the local underground where I caught a short ride out to Partick and then back to Charring Cross Station. My hotel for the night, the Premier Inn, was conveniently located directly outside and above the station.



The View of Glasgow Out my Window at The Premier Inn