Chiltern Railways and LondonMidland increase fares from Sunday 2nd September 2012

In all the media fuss about the 3% +RPI fare increases in January, it seems to have been overlooked that both Chiltern Railways and LondonMidland are increasing fares between Birmingham and London on Sunday 2nd September.

For Chiltern, the affected fare is the Super Off-Peak Return which is currently £25 and will go up to £27.50 (the Super Off-Peak Single goes up from £24.90 to £27.40) - giving a rise of 10%

LondonMidland's affected fares are:

Anytime Standard Return: currently £65; will rise to £69
Anytime First Return: currently £90; will rise to £95

Off-Peak Standard Return: currently £27; will rise to £28
Off-Peak First Return: currently £45; will rise to £46

Super Off-Peak Standard Return: currently £20; will rise to £21


Anytime Standard Single: currently £40; will rise to £42
Anytime First Single: currently £51; will rise to £55

Off-Peak Standard Single: currently £26.50; will rise to £27.50
Off-Peak First Single: currently £44; will rise to £45

Super Off-Peak Standard Single: currently £19.90; will rise to £20.90

Thus LM's rises are between 5 and 6 % on the Birmingham to London route (though LM tell me that across their network, the increase is 3%)

Fares set by Virgin Trains (Any Permitted route) are NOT being increased.

Chiltern say that the increase is necessary because of the continued improvements that the company is making to the service offered.

LondonMidland have commented:

On the Birmingham to London route we have invested heavily over the past year, trebling the Monday to Saturday daytime frequency and introducing direct trains on Sundays. The next stage is to build on this with longer trains at weekends (we've already addressed this on certain departures) and a further review of our weekend service provision. Whilst our key strength is our low prices, the improvements do require significant ongoing investment, so it's important that we strike the right balance with our fares. We feel £21 for a Super Off-Peak Return remains a very competitive price. One of the options for our off-peak prices was to introduce differential pricing at weekends, but for the sake of simplicity this has thankfully been shelved in favour of developing opportunities in our off-peak 1st class range. That said, we'll continue to use our rail sale and Great Escape promotions to fill empty seats whenever we can!