Tuesday 22nd June

An early evening meeting in London gave me the opportunity to book in advance on the 12.10 Pendolino south and the 20.23 return.

Going onto the Virgin trains web site on Monday morning showed standard class advance fares of £14 each way and First Class advance fares of £26.50 each way. If you are planning to work on the train, then there really is no contest: first class it is for the following reasons:
first, free Wi-Fi (£5 to standard class passengers);
secondly, regular refreshments (worth another £5?);
thirdly, guaranteed table with power socket;
fourthly, quieter less crowded environment;
and finally, the use of first class lounges (free WiFi, refreshments, papers, loos) at both ends of the journey.

The journey south was very pleasant: the Quiet coach H was very quiet; coffee was served on departure from Birmingham; 'lunch' after Coventry (ham roll, an apple, orange juice, and a second coffee); and arrival on time. My only complaint is that the staff place the free Financial Times on the rack at one end of the coach so unless you are in the know this benefit is lost...

Coming back was almost as pleasant though I don't think that the pasta salad alternative to the ham roll is particularly appetising. My key complaint is that the riding on the down line between Milton Keynes and Rugby leaves much to be desired: there were two times when the wheelset thumped alarmingly beneath me as it passed over a poorly maintained stretch of track!

Punctuality was good both ways as it has been in my general experience of using the VHF service. Interestingly, the May 2010 punctality record (http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=5268&NewsAreaID=2) shows Virgin overall heading to a 90% 'on-time' record.