American who has never ridden in an English train here.
So, what do you get in First Class, that you don’t get in 2nd?
Better food? Bigger seats?
I have ridden trains in Romania (a couple decades ago) where the difference mainly seemed to be that you didn’t have live pigs and chickens crammed in with you in first class, but I’m sorta assuming that the Brits are above that in any class.
Bigger seats is about the only thing that’s guaranteed, but with most companies there’s tables, power points etc at all seats, at-seat refresment service, maybe some complementary stuff. But it’s hard for many people to justify the extra cost - so as we’ve observed, it’s mainly a business-expenses matter.
I travelled first class a couple of times when I was in the UK last February, mainly to ensure that I **did ** get a seat. I was sick of having the train arrive and discovering that the 2nd class/standard/economy (whatever it’s called) seat that I had booked was in a non-existent carriage.