Premier Inn, Dorchester

5 Pope Street, DT1 1GW

November 2022

 

A trip to Dorset involved an overnight stay, and, knowing that there is a very well-located PI there, that was the obvious choice. A £54 up front payment got us a double room for one night (postponable, but not cancellable); breakfast would have been extra, but we know good cafes in the town so didn’t bother with that. I have to say, it was good to stay in a PI again, after a few disappointing stays in independent establishments (see previous entries on my blog); for the first time in a few months we didn’t feel let down or ripped off staying away from home.

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Check-in was easy; they had my record on the computer and the receptionist gave us our key, before directing us to the lift to the fourth floor. All of the communal areas were spotless, if they have any walkers or other slightly grubby guests they are very good at cleaning up after them. 

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Entering our room the first thing I noticed was the desk, below a flat screen TV; a chair was provided should we wish to do some work or write some postcards. Our room at one establishment charging nearly four times what we paid here did not have this simple feature.  

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Adjacent to the desk was the standard PI wardrobe unit; hanging space in the middle, drawer below, tea and coffee one side and a stand-up, well lit dressing table (good for eye make-up, apparently) and hairdryer on the other. In one small space this had at least two features that same expensive room elsewhere hadn’t.

On the other side of the unit were a few coat hooks, again something that was missing in that expensive room; opposite them, a full length mirror, well placed to check your dress before you go out for the evening..  

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This unit was well placed opposite the bed; if you have a wardrobe on one or other side of the bed then one guest has to walk round the bed to get their stuff. PI rooms demonstrate good design; anyone planning to run a B&B should look at some to see how to do it. Certainly, some personalisation of the decor might be welcome, and independents are free to do that, but they should not miss out any of the basics.   

The bed itself was the usual PI king-size offering, with a comfortable mattress - certainly well up to the standards of the other places we’ve stayed this year (indeed, far better than at one). I must say the pillows were not quite to my liking, all four we had seemed to be quite thick and firm - usually PI provides one firm, one soft for each guest. 

Beside the bed, on one side was a table, on the other a small cabinet - well, table with shelf really. I don’t understand why they don’t provide a cabinet on both sides. I did note the lack of a Gideon bible, usually PI rooms have them; maybe a previous guest felt the need to take it. I like the idea of Gideon bibles: I know some people think it’s preposterous, but a bible in a room in a strange town can give comfort. Further, anyone who isn’t Christian can surely only justify their beliefs by undertaking an occasional study of Christian literature - and I write this as an atheist.  

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I was pleased to find the window opened to allow ventilation; beneath the window was a standard PI sofa. This gave us plenty of space to set out the few belongings we’d taken with us.  Later, at night, the room was warm, and that ventilation was valued; I do struggle with PI heating controls.

In the evening we did find the ceiling lights to be only just adequate. PI seems to have a thing for keeping lights dim; fortunately, there were good bedside lights, and a bright desk lamp too, as well as the lights on the dressing mirror.

We found the TV easy to operate, although when switched off (to standby) and switched on again it would always revert to channel 1. I don’t watch BBC1 so I find this frustrating; the channels were, however, set up to include all the Freeview ones I could think of, including radio. A freeview guide might be useful for any patrons who aren’t used to it. Also, the TV had been left with subtitles on - I would have expected that to be a checklist item for the staff when making up a room. 

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The bathroom was basic - small, no shaver point, the usual flip-flop plug in the basin (that more often than not leaks) and a fixed shower head over a bath. There were no grab rails for bath or shower users apart from ones on the bath itself; one on the wall above the bath would be helpful. The extractor fan outlet wasn’t 100% clean but it did show evidence of being cleaned in the past, which is more than I can say for some of the other places we’ve stayed recently.

The bathroom door wouldn’t stay ajar; it must have been slightly off-centre on its hinges, for if left open it gradually opened fully on its own accord. 

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Check out was easy; the receptionist just pointed us to the box where we could leave our key card. There was no administrative confusion or chaos.

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Overall, yes, this PI has faults. So did the independents we’ve stayed in recently; the things about this stay were the price and the facilities provided for that price. You struggle to beat a Premier Inn for predictable value; as I said earlier, those running independent businesses should look closely at the PI offering, and make sure they do at least that if they wish to charge any more than a chain hotel. 

Will we stay at the Dorchester PI again? Almost certainly. 

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A journey on South Western Railway

November 2022

 

I travel by train a lot; I’ve given up using a car - too stressful, too expensive. A trip to Dorchester gave me the somewhat dubious opportunity to try South Western Railway, a company that was already making eye-watering losses (£137m was reported in January 2020) before Covid (1). 

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I have used SWR and their predecessor, SWT, many times, but this was the first long distance trip since the pandemic. I say long distance - at two and a half hours from Waterloo to Dorchester South it takes longer than London to Leeds on LNER. And that’s what I will benchmark the experience against; and I’m afraid SWR don’t come out very well. For reference, the journeys involved the 11.35 from Waterloo to Weymouth on 10 November, and the 11.13 return on the 11th.

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Arriving at Waterloo on foot, we scanned the display boards which showed our train to be leaving from platform 15; a ten coach train, the ‘Front 5 coaches’ were for stations beyond Bournemouth. We negotiated the barriers at that platform, and started to walk along the platform. The carriages were not numbered! Neither was there a sign showing where the ‘front 5 coaches’ began. We walked what seemed like most of the way to Vauxhall and boarded, hoping that a display inside would confirm that the carriage would go to Dorchester. That was a false hope: the display in the carriage wasn’t working. Carriages on LNER trains have letters, and each has a destination on the side by the doors: why don’t SWR ones? 

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We selected seats by a table; there weren’t many of these, perhaps four tables in the whole carriage. Table seats are surely needed for long distance journeys; people need to be able to get their food and drink out onto a table to eat it. More table seats would surely make rail travel more enjoyable.  Unfortunately, the seats did not line up with the window, the one ‘back to the engine’ had a pillar in just the place any passenger would want to look to see the scenery. This is a common problem on modern trains; isn’t the opportunity to look out of the window, rather than focussing on the road ahead, a big selling point for rail travel? Strangely, I also noted that while the aisle, and middle, armrests could be raised, the window side one couldn’t be. 

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We’d struggled to find anywhere to buy snacks and drinks at Waterloo - Marks and Spencer opposite platform 5 is closed, signs indicate it is due to reopen next year. We found a small shop by platform 1 where we could by a bottle of wine, sandwiches, and water, but the range of options on offer was limited. There was no obvious place to buy tea and coffee (if we could carry it, with our luggage. The reason we had to look around before joining our train was that one thing absent on the train was any form of catering; this, on the one-time route of the Bournemouth Belle. No restaurant car. No buffet. No trolley. No vending machine. Not even a concession for an independent vendor to come on board and sell snacks and drinks over part of the route, a long stop midway for passengers to buy food and drink (as happened before refreshment cars were introduced in Victorian times) or vendors at intermediate stations selling food to passengers through the train windows (as happens in India). (That last one wouldn’t work because the windows don’t open on these trains…). Again, one of the selling points of rail travel is that you can relax at your seat. Travellers will want to eat. They are even encouraged to ‘keep hydrated’ sometimes. How can they do that if they can’t buy a bottle of water? Rail catering is an opportunity to generate additional income for SWR, but it doesn’t seem to care. It doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a suburban hop from Wandsworth Town to Barnes Bridge and a trip half way across England. It's no wonder it is losing money. I don’t know if SWR is used to being compared unfavourably to the Indian railway system, but it shows how far standards have fallen in the UK in recent years.

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Our tickets were checked somewhere around Winchester. I had half expected the conductor to confirm we were in the right part of the train for our destination; he didn’t. If I had asked I am sure he would have done. No other ticket checks took place, so a traveller from, say, Brockenhurst (where a significant number of students boarded) to Bournemouth lacking a ticket (or railcard) might not have been given the opportunity to assist with SWR’s finances.  

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The computerised indicators in our carriage remained blank until we reached Bournemouth; there were few announcements as to what the next station was. I presume most of the travellers on the route know it so well they do not need reminding where they are, but I can’t help thinking that occasional travellers would have appreciated working displays telling them what train they were on, which carriage they were in, and where the next stop was. 

After Bournemouth the display did come to life, displaying ‘Carriage 3 of 5’, and ‘the next station is Branksome’ - even long after we had passed that station.. It still didn’t tell us what the next station was. Clearly there is a problem, perhaps these displays are exceedingly unmanageable, or maybe the morale of the staff is so low that they can’t be bothered to operate them properly. Other rail companies get these things to work, admittedly with some occasional errors (Thameslink’s have recently started to indicate the train is in the opposite order to that it actually is, for instance, so the number of the carriage you are in is given incorrectly). If they aren’t working, shouldn’t clear announcements be given? Or should SWR perhaps revert to the old way of doing things, of having boards in each carriage, saying where that carriage will be stopping?

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The train was running around five minutes late by the time it reached Poole. This matter was unreported and no reason was given. This gives the impression that SWR, and its employees, do not care - and perhaps do not even notice - that their service is failing to keep to schedule. It does not give a good impression of the company, or of rail travel in general. Other companies do make announcements when trains are more than just a couple of minutes late. 

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Passing through Poole station, our experience might have been more memorable if we had been able to see the harbour, even if one of us had to lean forward to see around the pillar (previously mentioned). A wall blocked the view of Poole Harbour from the train in the station. Surely railings would have been a better idea here than a wall? Do railway management not understand the appeal of train travel is very much related to the ability to see the countryside through which the train is travelling?

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Before we arrived at Dorchester I took our rubbish off to find a bin. I could not find any under any of the seats (where they often are), there was one, poorly marked, in the vestibule at the end of the carriage beside the door. It's no wonder people leave their half-finished drinks on the tables or floors of trains when the presence of bins is so poorly advertised. Wouldn’t it help to have announcements to the tune of ‘when you leave the train can you please take all of your belongings, INCLUDING YOUR RUBBISH, with you ?

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I also used the loo on the train. I don’t recommend the experience, and managed to avoid having to on the return journey.The floor was wet, enough said? 

On the journey back I did notice that the door of the loo was stuck open, giving a view to all of its thoroughly unhygienic state. Haven’t SWR thought of fitting devices to the doors, springs basically, that will keep them closed? Sights and experiences like this do not make the occasional traveller warm to the idea of another long journey by train.

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For our return journey, we entered the rather cramped station building at Dorchester South - a modern structure that replaced rather nicer, Victorian buildings, when the line was electrified thirty or so years ago. Notable by their absence were printed timetables; the staff at the station have become so fed up with people asking for them that they have printed out the timetable for the line, and leave a copy in a folder on the booking office counter for people to browse or photograph - but not take away. Pocket timetables provide vital publicity for transport services, and are essential for those unable to access the internet. SWR are failing a huge number of people, and it is not surprising they are losing money. 

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Once again, the display panels in our carriage were not working properly. Between Dorchester and Southampton they were blank; then they stated ‘The next station is Dorchester South’. After Winchester this changed to ‘The next station is London Waterloo’, despite the train being required to stop at Woking. 

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A long journey on South Western Railway is, it seems. an experience to be endured, rather than enjoyed. It is not quite as unpleasant as having a tooth drilled at the dentist, but, if the dentist happened to be attractive, it's not far off.

Overall, I am unsure who is responsible for this situation. It seems that someone in authority (government holds the purse strings for rail companies, and of course they might in turn be dancing to the tune of the likes of the IPCC, the WEF and the CCP) does not believe that travel should be a pleasant experience; that transport is there for those who need it (like students going to college), rather than those who would just like to travel for recreational purposes - such as going to visit relatives. It all seems very totalitarian, but it is sad that we are now in an age where an ordinary person visiting family is something that the powers-that-be do not wish to encourage. 

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References

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51026397