Every so often, to quote Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun', I feel the need for speed - especially when I am returning to Birmingham after an evening meeting and I can book ahead... Of course, Tom Cruise had the infrastructure of the US Navy behind his craving; I, alas, have to rely Virgin Trains and Network Rail for my fix...
So let us start with the good things. Virgin's First Class Lounge at Birmingham New Street is not as palatial as that at Euston but for a mid-morning's hour's office space for £3.50 (the cost of a First Class Virgin Only single to Birmingham International) it can't really be bettered. Tables at which to work, free hi-speed wi-fi, coffee and snacks on tap, the FT and Independent to take away, and, of course, a free toilet!
I had booked onto the 12.10 Pendolino yesterday for the princely single fare of £10.50 to London. (Regular readers of my blog will know that I like to travel First Class when booking in advance but Virgin have upped the minimum price to £37.50 - shame). The 12.10 starts in Wolverhampton so there was the usual scrum down to get on board, not helped by Network Rail running it into Platform 4 which was already crowded with passengers waiting for a late running CrossCountry train. Can't the Platform staff get messages to the signallers?
Of course, a large part of the problem is the local flows to Birmingham International and Coventry - once past Coventry the train was relatively quiet. Ironic that Chiltern should have crowding problems in London whilst Virgin suffer them in Birmingham. Doubly ironic that due to lack of ticket checks at New Street / Birmingham International / Coventry many of this flow could well be travelling for free... (at least Chiltern have gates at Marylebone).
Yesterday, Virgin had reserved a table seat for me in the quiet zone as I has requested so I was able to settle down to work on my laptop. Power point and WiFi working too. Usual guff on departure about the type of tickets not valid on the service. As yet again no ticket check took place why does the train manager bother? Presumably, lost revenue from people travelling free or on invaild tickets is built into Virgin's business plan to the end of the franchise - what a joke!
Having had my rant, I'll grant that the Pendolinos do do a great job in getting people from Birmingham to London in round 84 minutes - most of the time.
Arriving back at Euston in good time for the 20.23 return Pendolino, I discovered the news about the disruption so dashed over to Marylebone (thank you Tfl!) and arrived in time for the 20.10 Mainline to Kidderminster. Fortunately, Chiltern were accepting Virgin tickets so had no problem getting on the train (thank you Chiltern). The 20.10 is a four-carriage Clubman but wasn't full as I had expected so I was able to settle at a table, plug in my laptop, and use the FREE wifi. Aren't Clubmans spacious compared to Pendolinos Standard Class!!!
Running to time got me back by 10pm.Now if Chiltern would only delete the Bicester stops on their evening Mainline services and re-introduce the trolley service, I would never be tempted by speed alone again (well hardly ever)
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