Declaration of interest: up to now, my blog posts have arisen from travel paid for by myself. However, today's parts 1 and 2 come courtesy of Chiltern Railways who were kind enough to invite me to join Adrian Shooter's afternoon tea party on the 1555 departure from Birmingham Moor Street yesterday, and then gave me a pass for the 1807 return journey from London Marylebone...
The 1555 is a Mainline 'Silver' train (ie loco-hauled Mark 3 coaches). Afternoon was served in Coach B, with Coach A (the Business Zone) being used by the caterers and Coaches C - E left to the actual fare-paying passengers...
The train set had been fully refurbished in terms of branding and livery but, of course, had not yet had it's slam doors replaced. Apart from the amazing comfort and facilities of this standard class as compared to almost every other offering on the Birmingham to London route, the big plus is the smooth and quiet ride of the stock.
Adrian Shooter started proceedings with a speech of welcome which touched upon the achievement to date of Evergreen 3 as shown by Mainline and on Chiltern's plans for the future. Then it was down to the food - excellent - and conversation with Chiltern senior staff. Everything was up for discussion, ranging from the internal signage to the 'Expresso Bar' to the development of business cases for Oxford and Stratford to the iniquities (my word) of the way that information about Birmingham to London services is made available by certain parties within the railway industry.
Clearly, Chiltern are determined to make further inroads into the Birmingham to London and London to Birmingham travel flows. Good news for those of us who actually like competition within the rail industry!
My thanks to Emma (the wonderful Chiltern Tweeter) and Nicola (the marvellous Chiltern press officer) for their hospitality, and good luck to the team behind Mainline (dare I say you might need it). Businesses in Birmingham wanting to develop their travel portfolio for trips to London should contact John-James Davidson at Moor Street (John.davidson@chilternrailways.co.uk)
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