In the week that Chiltern Railways restarted the Whoooooooooooooooooossshhhh down to London campaign in central Birmingham, I travelled to Marylebone yesterday on the 0655 from Moor Street.
I had wondered about booking the Business Zone Advance at £65 (a saving of £16 on the walk-on single plus BZ supplement) but it is not available through the Chiltern Railways App so decided upon a walk-on purchase on the day (£61 single).
One of the two 'adapted' Silver Sets now in service was waiting on Platform 3 as I arrived at 640 for the train. Not surprisingly, Standard Class was very quiet as I boarded so no problem establishing myself at a table and setting up my laptop. Power socket working fine but NO WiFi. Tracked down the Train Manager who promised a reboot...
Second, perhaps more serious, problem at that time of the morning: NO bacon rolls. Apparently the oven hadn't been fixed despite being reported failed on Wednesday. Had to make do with toast and jam to fortify myself for the journey...
Departure on time but still no WiFi. Tweeted @ChilternRailway but of course the team don't start (officially) until 8am so no immediate response. Train Manager suggested ringing Icomera support but of course this is a 0845 number so expensive when on a mobile... In the end, the Wifi came to life after Warwick Parkway, and, to be fair, @chilternrailway did respond just before 8am (thanks Emma). Chiltern are trying to get Icomera to start a Twitter support account but have had no luck so far. However, there is a Tweet Icomera session on 15 August between 5pm and 6pm so perhaps this will persuade the company to give it a go...
The train filled up nicely at the stops at Solihull and Warwick Parkway but not uncomfortably so. Good run to Marylebone saw a 2 minute late arrival into Platform 2....
The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that I traveled to London on a single. As I knew that I was returning later in the day before 4pm, I was able to buy a Super Off-peak return from Marylebone to Moor Street for £25 thus saving £9 on the Anytime Return fare and gaining an effectively free extra journey....
In the end, I returned on the 1507 Clubman service which was relatively empty at 2.50 (so no problem getting a table) but virtually full on departure. Good run to Moor Street (but the timing is sooooo slow) and WiFi was working! The Clubmans really are excellent trains for day-to-day travel....
£86 Chiltern against £158 for the equivalent Virgin train services (plus another £8 on Virgin for WiFi in Standard Class) - I really can't see why anyone travels on the latter...
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