Declaration of interest: this second of the two set of journeys covered in these postings was courtesy of a Chiltern Railways Free Travel Pass (food, however, was purchased by me).
On Tuesday, I was surprised to find the 10.55 service from Moor Street in reverse formation: ie loco at the back and the Business Zone carriage at the London end. No-one seemed to know why... Of course, this made the carriage even quieter but at least there was a bustle in the Expresso Bar which indicated the arrival of staff. Even better, an ex-Wrexham & Shropshire staff member was rustling up bacon sandwiches which were being sold at £3.50 including tea. Now there's a delight!
Less of a delight was the discovery that the power points in the Business Zone were not working. The on-board crew tried everything they could to rectify the situation but had to admit defeat - one for the fault book. Still Wi-Fi was working and there were copies of the Financial Times available so I settled back to enjoy my bacon roll, use laptop until the battery ran down, and then simply enjoy the ride.
As I mentioned in the previous post, departure was delayed due to a LondonMidland train getting priority but at least the loss of time was not accentuated further down the line so arrival into Marylebone was only a few minutes late. Even still, one has to wonder when Chiltern will persuade the Network Rail signallers that they are actually handling Express trains once more from Moor Street as I'm sure that Virgin's Pendolinos are treated with more respect...
Returning from London, I was expecting to pay my supplement to use the Business Zone once more on the 1807. Alas, it was the same set as worked the 10.55 and the power point issue had not been resolved. So I left the other three people in the Zone in peace and went in search of a standard table with power.
The 1807 is relatively busy in Standard but by no means crowded so finding a table further along the train proved not to be a problem. As power and WiFi was available, and the seats are the comfortable ex-W&S, one has to wonder again what I would have gained for my £20. Well there is the free tea served by a friendly host (Ex-W&S), it is quieter, and there is more room but overall I still can't see the package offering true value.
Good job I had the bacon roll on the way down as there was no hot food available on the 1807 - the paninis hadn't turned up! Still, the tea is reasonable value at £1.60.
Departure was slightly late due to earlier problems and of course we immediately ran into the pathing problems as we caught up delayed locals at Gerards Cross and High Wycombe. So despite taking Anyho Junction at line speed (first time I had experienced this benefit of Evergreen 3), we failed to keep to time to Warwick Parkway, and then lost further time post Solihull trying to get into Moor Street and Snow Hill. Things were so bad that the 1810 Stourbridge Junction service caught us up at Snow Hill despite supposedly being timed to arrive 17 minutes after us.
So Chiltern, you provide a good service from Birmingham to London at very competitive fares with stock which is a pleasure to use. BUT coming back from London is not such a happy story. Can you try harder please.
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