As I have commented before, if you can book in advance and need to return from London mid-evening or later, then the Virgin Trains Pendolinos First Class are the way to travel. Yesterday, I was able to travel south from Birmingham New Street on the 13.50 and return north from London Euston on the 21.03 for £23.50 each way (Advance 1st).
For this fare, you get a fast journey in a comfortable, spacious, and quiet environment with WiFi, refreshments, and newspapers (Guardian and FT) included. Yesterday's food choice on the journey south was spicy pork wrap or egg roll or chicken salad with sticky toffee cake, uglies cocoa cookie, an apple, glass of orange juice, and two servings of coffee. Coming back, the chicken salad wasn't available nor was there fruit...
The staff are friendly (and look very 'Olympian' in their Team VT polo shirts), ticket checks are now being carried out, and the trains ran to time. Just a pity that the walk-on First Class fare for that journey would have been £184.60 (splitting at Birmingham International) - four times the Advance fare. No wonder the First Class carriages are largely empty off-peak.
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