Monday 4th October

Up to London Marylebone on the 11.52 Chiltern Clubman from Birmingham Snow Hill. This service has Super-Off Peak availability giving a return fare of £19.50 if you can come back at 8pm or later (or between 10.30 and 15.20). An advantage of starting the journey at Snow Hill is that the train is usually virtually empty giving a good choice of table seats...

Settled into a table seat with a working socket and spent the journey happily working on my laptop. This train proved to be relatively quiet throughout the journey so working conditions were good. No catering trolley of course but I had stocked up at the Costa at Snow Hill. Ticket barriers at Snow Hill and at Marylebone plus a ticket check after Dorridge suggested that revenue protection was reasonably successful.

Chiltern trains are cleared of rubbish during the turn-rounds at Snow Hill and at Marylebone so the travelling ambience is good. Toilets clean and working too, and, being Chiltern, the train ran to time. Overall, it is difficult to fault Chiltern for their provision of value for money reliable services...

Returned on the 20.23 Pendolino from London Euston to Birmingham New Street. As I was using an off-peak walk-on standard class return, I hadn't booked a seat but as there were only 53 seat reservations on the train (according to the train manager) this wasn't a problem. Coach E is unreserved anyway so I started there (nearer to the platform entrance!) and found a table without difficulty. Finding a table is important when travelling Standard Class on a Pendolino and wanting to work as the 'airline' seats don't have sockets...

Had commented in a previous post that Virgin was expensive for food on the journey. In fact I discover from the latest Hotline magazine that if you have a trolley service then coffee and a flapjack would be £3 which is the same as Chiltern and only slightly dearer than LondonMidland's tfp trolley. However, buying from the shop puts the price up to £3.30...

My service had a trolley though it wasn't announced and for some reason didn't reach coach E so it was the shop for me.

No barrier or ticket check at the platform entrance, no ticket check on the train, and none at New Street suggest that revenue protection isn't such a high priority for Virgin...

Slightly late into New Street as a LondonMidland local was allowed in front at Coventry (!) but overall a good fast journey in clean stock with working toilets. The fare, of course, is over twice that of Chiltern so I think the jury's out on value for money...