Question for George Matthews: You mention in the Amtrak forum that you make frequent trips to Scotland. I assume that's on Virgin from Bournemouth or somewhere, reversing at Reading; how do you find the experience in general? Also, have you done it since they finished the rebuilding at Reading? Is that working as intended?
I'm not sure exactly where George lives (southwest england somewhere), but there was a service from Cornwall, all the way up to Scotland . Around 12 hours , probably the longest route for a HST set. whether it still exists , I don't know.
I suspect the fastest way would still be via London.