The listening TOCs: Chiltern Railways, LondonMidland, and Virgin Trains

One of the good things about travelling between Birmingham and London by train is that the three train operating companies all care about what their customers (passengers) say to them - even if the answers are not to the liking of those making the comments...

On Tuesday evening , I was able to witness the closing act of the latest 'Meet the Manager' session for Chiltern Railways at Marylebone. The manager in the firing line was Bevis Thomas, Head of Train Planning, ably supported by management trainee Jim Mason (pictured below) and other key members of the Chiltern team.

Jim Mason - part of the 'listening' team at Chiltern

As ever, a summary of the comments and of the answers will appear on the Chiltern web site in due course

LondonMidland have perfected the art of communication using Twitter (@londonmidland et al). The team has been nominated for the Business to Consumer category of the Golden Twits award. Winner to be announced on the 14th December at 3pm @goldentwits

Now Virgin Trains, fresh from their tussle with the Department of Transport, have joined in. Today, Richard Branson launched a short video asking for help to shape the future of Virgin Trains...

"So, have a think about what you would like to see from 2014 onwards.

What could we change or improve? Where should we be running our trains to? What exciting innovations should we have onboard?

We’re open to any suggestions so be as creative as you like, after all your idea might just be the next big thing in the future of train travel!"

Email  Customer.Relations@virgintrains.co.uk  with the subject line My Virgin Trains idea