Saturday, 29 January 2011

LondonMidland fare news

LondonMidland's Great Escape tickets are back! From Saturday 19 February to Sunday 6 March, unlimited off-peak travel is available for a day for £10 standard and £20 First. Tickets have be bought at a staffed station or on the train, using a Voucher completed online at http://bit.ly/i0FPxM

For Birmingham to London journeys, off-peak starts with the 0853 from New Street. Returning from London between 15.40 and 1900 will incur a supplementary charge of £5.

The Voucher is available now but can only be redeemed from Monday (31st January). The Supplementary Charge if required can be obtained from Monday 7 February.

So farewell to the Wrexham & Shropshire

As anyone with any interest in rail travel will know by now, the Wrexham & Shropshire trains ceased operating yesterday: the final service being the 1830 departure from Marylebone.

I wasn't able to be on this service but I was fortunate to be able to travel on the 1830 on Thursday. Although biased (see my many other postings on the W&SMR services) and 'misty-eyed', I can report that the service did not let down the well-deserved reputation of the Company as Britain's best.

It started with the late arrival of the incoming service from Wrexham, due - as was announced with a certain amount of relish - to problems with a Chiltern train... The staff had literally 10 minutes before the train was off again, not suprisingly rather busy.

As ever the crew were friendly and the atmosphere in First Class very convival. Souvenir hunters had stripped the First Class of menu cards, and, of course, stock was low in preparation for the end but that didn't prevent a choice of Shepherd's Pie, Bangers & Mash, or Macaroni Cheese being offered, followed by Caramel & Apple pie or Raspberry Frangapini. All served on proper plates with proper cutlery...

My choice of Bangers & Mash followed by Caramel & Apple pie was hot and delicious.

At Banbury, we were joined by the passengers off the 1630 departure whose Class 67 had failed (seems to have been a trend in this last week). Uniformly, they said the W & S staff has been wonderful though they weren't so complimentary about Banbury station...

Arrival was 22 munites late at Tame Bridge Parkway where I and my daughter were the only passengers from two train loads to get off. So therein lies the rub. Everyone loved the W & S BUT, and I am as guilty as anyone on this, the speed and convenience of the rival TOCs so often won out on day to day travel. It reminds me so much of the outcry over Beeching's reshaping... we all say we want rail companies to provide comfort, helpful staff, and low fares when in fact what our actions prove is that we will choose otherwise.

Sorry to all the hard working staff who provided such a magnificent service - you will be missed.

Thursday, 27 January 2011

Chiltern out, Virgin back

On Tuesday, I needed to be in London after driving to Solihull and had a tight turn-round in terms of completing my business and being back at my daughter's school for the early evening.

Clearly I had a choice: either to park at Solihull and go up to London on the 0825 Chiltern service then return on a Virgin Pendolino to Birmingham International for a taxi to Solihull, or to drive to International and use Virgin both ways.

Actually, the decision was straightforward to make... Solihull station car park costs 75p for a day's parking; International costs several pounds. Chiltern have an off-peak fare of £33 on the 0825; Virgin expect peak fares to be paid from International until 10:10. Chitern Clubmans offer tables with power points throughout; Pendolinos have few tables with power points in Standard Class THOUGH of course they do offer free Wi-Fi at present.

So I settled happily onto a table seat on the relatively quiet 0825 (one advantage of joining at Solihull is that many commuters get off there) and worked on the pleasant two hour journey to Marylebone. My only disappointment was that the Catering Trolley was not operating, and no announcement about its absence was made.

For my journey back, I had booked in advance for the 1623 Pendolino out of Euston to avoid paying the walk-on fare of £74.50 and to secure a table. Of course, nothing is straightforward with Virgin tickets. The quoted Advance fare to International is £49. However, an Advance fare to Coventry is £45.50 and an Anytime Day single (Virgin Trains only) from Coventry to Birmingham International is £1.40 so by buying the two tickets I saved £2.10. Had I had to use a walk-on single fare, splitting the fare at Coventry would have saved me £8.10 (£65 + £1.40)!

Unusually, the Pendolino was sitting in Platform 16 at Euston and was in reverse formation so Coach A was near the 'barrier' - I say barrier advisedly as there were no ticket checks prior to boarding. As is often the case, the reservations weren't being displayed before departure - I wonder if Virgin will ever crack this problem - but fortunately my table seat was unoccupied.

Currently, Virgin is offering free Wi-Fi to Standard Class passengers. The downside of this is that the Wi-Fi is extremely slow: only just capable of handling email downloads. Again this is something Virgin needs to get agrip on...

All Pendolinos offer catering through the shop to standard class customers. Not that the crew seemed particularly interested in alerting potential customers to this fact... Also lacking was any kind of ticket check on board - given the lack of barriers at Euston, Coventry, and International and the cursory ones at New Street, one wonders if Virgin have given up on revenue protection.

Still departure and arrival were on time and the ride was fine. BUT Virgin could do so much better...

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Chiltern Fares revisited...

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have commented in the past about Chiltern's continued selling of an Anytime Return from Birmingham to London when there is NEVER a need to buy such a ticket... (see http://birmingham2london.blogspot.com/2010/10/fare-news-chiltern-railways.html). A particular bugbear is the Chiltern leaflet 'If you think fares to London should be fairer...' which has been updated to give the post-January 2011 fares.

LET us be clear: there is never a need to buy the £85 Anytime Return on Chiltern Trains. The reason is simple: there are NO peak time restrictions on Chiltern train services out of Marylebone.

Thus, anyone travelling to London on a peak-time train out of Moor Street (ie those up to the 0748) can buy a £51 Anytime Single and save either £2 or £14.60 by returning on either an Off-peak single or a Super Off-peak single depending on the time of day... But of course, an Off-peak return from London costs only a £1 more, and a Super Off-peak return only 10p more so effectively you can have 3 journeys for less than the price of the Anytime Return and save money!

BUT greater savings are possible by the simple expedient of splitting your fare.

Take the 0546 train from Moor Street as an example. By booking Moor Street to Bicester North (£16.40 Anytime Single) and Bicester North to London Marylebone (£23 Anytime Day Single), the fare drops from £51 to £39.40. Quite a saving, and you cannot be prevented from requesting the two tickets at Moor Street or indeed booking them online.

So, come on Chiltern. You provide a brilliant service. Why not go the extra mile, be customer friendly in your publicity, and ensure that your passengers really are getting the best deal for thier journeys.

Friday, 21 January 2011

Shaping the future...

Yesterday's Birmingham Post had an informative (if slightly alarmist article) by Jonathan Walker on the newly opened DfT consultation on the 2012 West Coast Franchise.

The headline was 'New franchise could see fewer trains to London' but, as Jonathan highlights in his article, the DfT is simply asking for views on whether 3 trains an hour for most of the day is the right level of service between Birmingham New Street and London Euston.

Indeed, given that the consultation period doesn't end until April and that the franchise is set to be let by the end of 2011, one would be very surprised if anything other than the current timetable is used by the winning franchisee - especially as options are severelty constrained by both the DfT's micromanagement of the rolling stock provision and Network Rail's control over the route capacity...

Interested rail users have until 21 April 2011 to respond: either directly to the DfT (intercitywestcoast@dft.gsi.gov.uk) with a copy to Passenger Focus (info@passengerfocus.org.uk), or via the relevant local authority...

Don't forget that this consultation is being carried out at the same time as Network Rail's two Route Utilisation Strategies:

West Coast Main Line - closing date 11th March 2011 (comments to: westcoastmainlinerus@networkrail.co.uk)

West Midlands and Chilterns - closing date 4 February 2011 (comments to westmidlandsandchilternsrus@networkrail.co.uk)

and the ongoing planning for HS2!

One would hope that there is some joined up thinking going on...

Thursday, 20 January 2011

LondonMidland out / Chiltern back

Taking advantage of LondonMidland's Great January Sale, I travelled up to London on Tuesday using the 0753 service from Birmingham New Street for the princely sum of £11.20 (First Class Advance Single).

As I have noted before, the 0753 is actually a service from Crewe. On Tuesday, it arrived and departed from the newly re-opened Platform 1a. Fine for those joining from the main concourse but a real nuisance for those of us who use the Victoria Square entrance as there is no direct access to this platform... nor currently are there signs explaining how to get to it!

The First Class compartment was quiet so no problems getting a table seat and setting up my laptop to use the 2 hour 27 min journey productively. The Class 350 electric trains that run this service offer power points but not WiFi so it is a good chance to immerse oneself without the interruption (distraction?) of email.

A recent Tweet from LondonMidland seemed to suggest that the catering trolley now offered complimentary refreshments to First Class passengers on this service BUT I was assured by the attendant that this was not yet the case - perhaps end of January he suggested...

Apart from that disappointment, the journey was fine. The compartment remained quiet throughout even though there was only one ticket check, and arrival was on time at London Euston. So for £11.20 (£16 normally), good value...

But not as good as Chiltern, especially on return fares! The £11.20 / £16 fare is an Advance, travel on the specified train, single fare. For £33 walk-on return, one can travel out on the 0815 from Birmingham Moor Street and get into London Marylebone for 10.29. Chiltern Clubmans are genrously fitted out with tables, power sockets throughout, and there is a catering trolley (though, of course, no promise of complimentary refreshments in the near future!).

On Tuesday, I returned on a Super Off-Peak return ticket using the 14.50 from Marylebone for a fare of £19.50. No catering trolley and WiFi but access to a table to myself and power sockets... As ever, Chiltern delivered an on-time arrival at Moor Street and an 'early' arrival at Snow Hill (when will they drop the pretence of a 10 min journey between the two stations?).

So, for me, Chiltern still have the upper hand over LondonMidland.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

LondonMidland Fare News

Until Sunday 23rd January, LondonMidland are offering a 30% discount for online purchases on journeys where there is a specific 'London Midland only' fare. The fare discount is applied when the link from The Great January Sale page is followed (discounted fares are denoted by a red *).

There are no restrictions other than the quota restrictions on Advance fares, tickets can be bought for travel up to 12 weeks from the purchase date, AND railcard discounts apply.

The discount means that Birmingham to London fares on LondonMidland trains are:

£11.20 First Class Advance Single (0753 - 21.33) / £9.10 Standard Class Advance Single (0753 & 0853) / £6.65 Standard Class Advance Single (0953) / £4.20 Standard Class Advance Single (10.53-21.33)

'Walk-on' return fares (BUT remember have to be bought online): £70 First Class Anytime Return / £47.60 Anytime Return / £21 Off Peak Return / £18.20 Off Peak Day Return / £12.25 Super Off Peak Return

Book review Birmingham Moor Street Station A Century of Enterprise

Birmingham Moor Street Station - A Century of Enterprise by Ian Baxter and Richard Harper documents the story of Birmingham's fourth station (after Curzon Street, New Street and Snow Hill) over the past 101 years.

As a non-Brummie, I found it fascinating: the City around the station has changed so much and the photographs in the book illustrate this time and again.

For the rail user, the story is told, simply and effectively, of how the station was built, boomed, died and has returned to become a key point in the city's transport infrastructure.

For the rail historian, there is a wealth of detail on how Moor Street served as the goods depot for the adjoining wholesale markets.

Highly recommended!

Contact details for the publisher: krm@krm.org.uk Phone number: 01562 825316. If you want a copy posting to you it is £19.95 (not charging postage).

Book review The Chiltern Railways Story

The Chiltern Railways Story by Hugh Jones tells the story of the creation and success of Chiltern Railways from the 1990s to the present day.

The book is in two parts. The first half, written by Hugh, is the history of the company and of the development of the railway service from Marylebone to Birmingham under its stewardship. The second half is a series of personal tales from the key players involved in the railway side of the creation and development of the company which Hugh recorded during his research for the book.

Along with the text, there are copious photographs which illustrate well what the company has acheieved.

The book is unashamedly pro-Chiltern and accepts that in the case of this company privatisation has worked well for the railway. It is full of fascinating detail on the convuluted processes which brought the company into being, and emphaises time and again how the company's success was down to the vision and determination of the key railway players involved.

If it has a weakness as a book to read, it is that the history is so convuluted that at times the flow of the story is difficult to follow. Also, I would question whether the story of the Gerrards Cross Tunnel collapse makes an appropriate opening chapter, though undoubtedly it does highlight all that makes Chiltern such a special train operating company.

Overall, the book is a must read for anyone who uses the rail links between Birmingham and London, and for those students of business and politics who will study rail privatisation in the future.

Please note that the author of this review is a personal friend of Hugh Jones.

In praise of the 16.33 from London Marylebone

Regular readers of my blog will know that I wrote about Chiltern's publicity for thier new slam-door trains in December (Going First Class with Chiltern - well almost...) Due to snow and holidays, it wasn't until last Thursday that I was able to try out the new stock and service...

The 16.33 from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street is formed of Wrexham & Shropshire stock and staffed with a W&S crew BUT is run under Chiltern's operating agreement. Therefore, as the publicity makes clear, the first class carriage is available to all Chiltern ticket holders so naturally that is where I headed.

Fortunately it was at the Birmingham end of the train which meant that most passengers were getting on the standard class carriages. Even still, a fair number of people seemed to be 'in the know' and the First Class carriage was filling up nicely as I boarded. Nevertheless, I was able to get a table seat easily.

The publicity leaflet suggests that a dinner is available on this train. However, it was the first time that the W&S crew had done this turn and the two stewards on duty didn't know anything about the dinner provision. Still, the buffet car was well stocked and I had a wide choice of hot and cold snacks from which to choose. In the end I settled for a hot chicken tika and rocket pannini, some Welsh cakes and a latte.

Then it was simply a case of settling back into First Class comfort, switch on the Wi-Fi, and enjoy the trip... Loadings after Bicester and Banbury were light, and after Solihull I was virtually alone in the carriage. Arrival was on time at Moor Street.

So, for the standard class Chiltern off-peak fare (£33 return) this is definitely the way to travel! Just a pity about the dinner...