点评:A wonderful day out on the English Riviera Express, on July 18th, from Fareham to Kingswear and Dartmouth. The train really does recreate a bygone age of luxury travel, with great comfort and staff who excel (Kevin). It’s an expensive journey and many people seemed to be marking a special occasion, which is a great way to do it. Disappointed, but fully understood the reasons for not being steam hauled from Taunton, due to a National Rail ban. It didn’t spoil the day in the least, although I would have expected Saphos to at least have advised people - even the onboard staff weren’t aware of the ban, which had been in force for at least a week! My only other slight moan is the snack boxes which are provided… the contents are completely out of context with luxury train travel, because they most certainly weren’t luxury or nice! Mostly cheap processed rubbish, although oddly there was a miniature jam pot and clotted cream, but nothing to spread them on!
It would have cost Saphos less but been more in keeping with the type of travel had they have given out a breakfast roll going out and maybe a scone or piece of cake coming back. I’ll definitely do a trip again because it’s a great experience, but next time take my own water and snacks …
翻译:7月18日,我乘坐英格兰里维埃拉特快列车,从法勒姆前往金斯韦尔和达特穆尔,度过了美好的一天。这趟列车完美再现了过去那种奢华的旅行体验:乘坐舒适无比,工作人员也极为出色(尤其是凯文)。虽然票价不菲,但似乎很多人都特意选择这一天来庆祝特殊场合,这确实是个不错的方式。不过有点遗憾的是,由于英国国家铁路局的禁令,列车未能从汤顿出发时以蒸汽机车牵引——我完全理解这一规定的缘由。但这丝毫没有破坏这次旅行的愉悦体验。虽然我原本期望Saphos至少能提前告知乘客才对——就连列车上的工作人员都不知道这项禁令已经实施至少一周了!我唯一还有些不满的就是提供的零食盒……里面的东西完全配不上豪华列车旅行的定位,因为它们根本称不上是高档或美味的食物!大多是些廉价的加工食品。不过奇怪的是,盒子里还有一小罐果酱和凝脂奶油,但却没有任何可以涂抹这些东西的面包或饼干!其实,如果Saphos能在出发时提供一个早餐卷,返回时再给一块司康或蛋糕的话,虽然成本会稍高一些,但会更符合这类旅行的定位。我肯定会再参加这样的旅行,因为体验实在很棒;不过下次我会自己带水和零食……