LondonMidland out, Chiltern back

Last Thursday I had an opportunity to try out LondonMidland's enhanced First Class offering by using the 0753 Class 350 from Birmingham New Street to London Euston.

Regular readers of my blog and tweets will know that LM is now offering free tea / coffee / water with biscuits to First Class ticket holders between New Street and Milton Keynes on selected through services (basically morning and early afternoon). Full details of the trains can be found at http://bit.ly/eVZJpf

Knowing that I was using the 0753, I was able to book an Advance ticket for £16 for the journey (a saving of £47 on the walk-on fare). As usual, the 4 car unit was the service from Crewe which the station announcer insisted was terminating at Plaform 1A despite the fact that it was clearly going forward. Surely someone can reprogramme these announcements to take account of 'reality' rather than the bureaucracy...

First class was very quiet so a table to myself with a power point meant no excuse not to work on my laptop! One other passenger had clearly bought an Advance ticket as she was singing its praises to a friend BUT she hadn't realised about the enhanced refreshment service so some work still to be done by LM's marketing dept.

The refreshment trolley passed through the First Class compartment after Birmingham International and my 'complimentary' tea and biscuits (a choice of 4 varieties) served once my ticket had been verified. Interestingly, this was the only ticket check on the journey - clearly LM have the same issues with revenue collection that beset Virgin!

The journey was uneventful and on time though of course slow... the linking up to another unit at Northampton costs at least 5 minutes on the schedule.

So, if one has plenty of time, can book in advance, and wants to end up in the Euston area, then LM are providing an improved service... and don't forget that between 19 Feb and 6 March, the LM Great Escape voucher gives a return £20 fare on most off-peak trains (see http://bit.ly/i0FPxM for full details).

However, Chiltern still lead the pack for value for money even though the Company doesn't offer First Class. I returned on the 14.20 Clubman to Moor Street, which offers a journey time 34 minutes quicker than the 0753 for a walk-on ticket price of £19.40

As I have blogged many times, the Clubman is an ideal environment in which to work, having spacious tables and power points throughout. No catering at that time of day and of course no WiFi but still an amazingly good way to travel.