About once every few months I need to take the train from London down to Penzance. It’s a minimum 5 hour train, often 6 hours.
I work full time and long hours, usually 9am-9pm. This means it’s pretty much impossible to get down to Cornwall for a proper weekend without travelling very early before work or in the evening after work. I used go get the sleeper train but this has genuinely tripled in price in the last few years.
I usually need to work on the train or I would need to use annual leave for the time off. There simply is not enough space or privacy to use a laptop for work in standard class. First is just a bigger seat and some tea and coffee really, but it makes all the difference.
DP thinks I’m precious about disliking standard class on the train. I’m v happy with standard for 2 hours or so, but can’t do it for 5 hours.