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During the Games...

Chiltern Railways


2012 Games: Changes to Train Times and Commuter Advice
Evening Peak Timetable 1st, 6th, 7th August

The following additional late night service will run for passengers travelling home from the 2012 Games:

0130 from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street.

On Sundays 5th and 12th August, there will be an additional service from Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone at 0743

@chilternrailway (wo)manned between 0700 and 2200 every day during the Games

LondonMidland

Longer trains, extra seats
Monday-Friday
The following trains will have 4 extra carriages:
1133 Birmingham New St-Euston
1333 Birmingham New St-Euston
1953 Birmingham New St- Euston
1113 Euston Birmingham New St
The following train will have 8 extra carriages:
2053 Birmingham New St–Euston

Saturday
The following trains will have 4 extra carriages:
0953 Birmingham New St-Euston
1153 Birmingham New St-Euston
1253 Birmingham New St-Euston
1353 Birmingham New St-Euston
1613 Euston-Birmingham
2128 Euston-Birmingham New St

Sunday
The following trains will have 4 extra carriages:
1014 Birmingham New St-Euston
1114 Birmingham New St-Euston
1214 Birmingham New St-Euston
1314 Birmingham New St-Euston
1514 Birmingham New St-Euston
1814 Birmingham New St-Euston
1914 Birmingham New St-Euston
2014 Birmingham New St-Euston
0823 Euston-Birmingham
1028 Euston-Birmingham
1124 Euston-Birmingham
1234 Euston-Birmingham
1634 Euston-Birmingham
1734 Euston-Birmingham
1834 Euston-Birmingham
1934 Euston-Birmingham
2034 Euston-Birmingham
2128 Euston-Birmingham
The following train will have 8 extra carriages:
2114 Birmingham New St-Euston


Virgin Trains

Additional Services During Olympics & Paralympics
Sundays
0705 Wolverhampton to Euston via Birmingham New Street
Saturdays
2310 Euston to Birmingham New Street
Mondays to Sundays
0010 and 0110 Euston to Wolverhampton via Birmingham New Street

Weekend First on LondonMidland - another twist to the tale

Barry Doe in Rail 701 has pointed out that, like Virgin, LondonMidland allows anyone holding a Standard Anytime Return to upgrade without an additional fee to First Class at Weekends and Bank Holidays (presumably, anyone holding a Standard Anytime Single would also be able to do so). Apparently, LM are reissuing the staff briefing on Weekend First to clarify this matter...

Of course, one has to wonder who these passengers are that use a Standard Anytime Return at the weekend. The ONLY occasions that you need to buy an Standard Anytime Return on LondonMidland are:

1. Leaving Birmingham for London on the 0553 or 0653 Monday to Friday AND returning Monday to Friday from London between 4pm and 7.30pm
2. Leaving London for Birmingham on the 0530, 0713 or 0813 Monday to Friday and returning Monday to Friday from Birmingham between 4pm and 7.30pm

Otherwise, an Off-peak Return should be used (or indeed a Super Off-peak if you are arriving in either destination after 1pm and don't need to return between 4pm and 7.30pm) Monday to Friday. At Weekends and on Bank Holidays, a Super Off-Peak Return should be used.

Whoo...ssshhhh Chiltern Mainline to London

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...

Returning to Virgin Trains First Class off-peak

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.

LondonMidland Weekend First - the saga continues

After my daughter's experience of on-board train treatment last weekend, she decided that booking her LondonMidland Weekend First at the station prior to departure might be wise. Alas, on the Friday, neither Birmingham Snow Hill nor Birmingham New Street (Victoria Sq exit) LondonMidland staff could oblige as they hadn't been told where to find the ticket on the booking system...

So it was that she 'rocked up' at Euston for one of LM's hourly 'fasts' back to Birmingham early Saturday evening. The train was 'rammed' (to use her picturesque description) in Standard Class so she was glad to be taking advantage of LM's new upgrade. First Class was fairly busy, or at least it was until the Conductor came along prior to departure to check tickets. Only four passengers had pre-booked First Class tickets but the conductor seemed to be reluctant to sell upgrades to the Standard Class ticket holders, preferring to send them back to Standard Class...

My daughter stood her ground - after all LM had promised that all would be well this weekend - and, after departure, he returned and she was, at last, sold a Weekend First upgrade on a LondonMidland train! But, you can guess what came next... No further ticket checks on the journey north meant of course that standard class passengers drifted back into the compartment so that after Northampton it was virtually full whilst the standard class accommodation was relatively quiet! She was not pleased, nor, I suspect, were the other passengers who had bothered to buy a First Class ticket or upgrade.

Yet again @londonmidland was sympathetic and helpful but clearly the message about Weekend First is not getting through to those who actually staff the LondonMidland weekend services. Fortunately for LM (and for my daughter's sanity), she  has finished her current travelling south. I wonder if matters will be sorted come to the autumn?

Of Chiltern Railways Business Zone and other matters

Yesterday, I had an unexpected journey to Leamington Spa which gave me an opportunity to try out the Business Zone offering on the 1555 from Birmingham Moor Street.

Yesterday's train was made up of the 'adapted' Silver set. Presumably, this set has now bedded down and is running reliably in service. Alas, the crew still had problems with the sliding door between the carriage and the toilet vestibule. In the end, it was left on 'manual' so at least it was shut for most of the journey.

Other than that, and the hum of the alternator which is evident when at a stand, the Zone was a delight for all two passengers to travel in... Tea served promptly in tea pots upon departure, and the Financial Times available to be picked up (pity the CBD Digest in the racks was an old edition). WiFi was working fine and, of course, there is so much space in which to make yourself comfortable.

So, Chiltern, why can't you sell the benefits more effectively? Is it the timing of this service which is perhaps a  tad early for returning business travellers to London, or could it be that the journey time is too long (111 mins compared to 84 mins on the 1550 Pendolino)? It would be a shame to see the Business Zone wither away through lack of use.

Chiltern Railways Monthly Money saver

Chiltern have introduced  a Direct Debit scheme for Monthly Season Ticket holders which gives the 12th month free if the first 11 months are paid for under the scheme. For Birmingham to London commuters, this would make the cost £7,075.20 if monthly season tickets were bought. However, the cost of the Annual Season Ticket between the two cities via HighWycombe is £6,700 so you are paying Chiltern an extra £375.20 for this facility...

Note too that Annual Season Ticket holders who buy their Birmingham to London season tickets from any Chiltern station Banbury southwards are entitled to the National Rail Goldcard which gives numerous benefits for both the holder and family within the old Network SouthEast area. As an aside, the same applies to any Annual Season Ticket holder who travels from Birmingham to London using LondonMidland or Virgin so long as the ticket is issued in the old Network SouthEast area ie Northampton southwards.

[Barry Doe has confirmed that my interpretation of the following wording from the Goldcard site is correct

Annual Season tickets can be issued as Gold Cards when:

• the origin station is within the area, or
• the issuing station and either the origin station, destination station or both are within the area.

Chiltern have said that the Business Travel Service cannot allocate Goldcards to Birmingham - London Annual Season Tickets bought through the Service as, although the service is based at Bicester, its sales are not allocated there... So, DON'T use the Business Travel Service to purchase an Annual Season Ticket from Birmingham to London!]


Thursday 5th July 18:36 - I hope that this will be the final update to this particular blog post... Of course, another way to get the Goldcard is simply to have the Annual Season Ticket running from London TO Birmingham using the ticket offices at Marylebone, Euston or Paddington.... As ever, when grappling with the national rail fares system, one's head begins to hurt!

Sun, Sea, Sand, and super savings

Finally, Chiltern seem to be suffering from the delusion that Summer has arrived (says he watching the rain pour down in Birmingham). For passengers from their commuter belt north of London, they are suggesting GroupSave trips to Brighton, Whitstable, Margate, and Worthing. Alas, at a journey time of almost 4 hours to Whitstable from Birmingham even the £50 Super Off-Peak fare isn't going to temp me that far south.

Upgrading to First Class - pitfalls for Standard Class passengers

Until my daughter's experience yesterday I was under the illusion that a standard class ticket holder could upgrade to First Class on board a train if she or he so wished and space was available. Apparently I was wrong!

According to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (from 20th May 2012), Condition 12 (Restrictions on when you can travel):

If you have an Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket and board a train on which your ticket is not valid, you will only be charged the difference between the fare you have paid and the cheapest valid Anytime or Off-Peak fare for the service concerned. The same principle will apply if you wish to transfer to first class accommodation. This rule does not apply in designated Penalty Fares areas, where you may be required to pay a Penalty Fare.

LondonMidland operates a Penalty Fares scheme and does NOT allow the purchase of a First Class upgrade on the train Monday to Friday (you can, of course, upgrade at a booking office prior to departure). This is to prevent abuse of the First Class accommodation.

The Weekend First upgrade on LondonMidland is available on-board Saturday and Sunday (or again by purchase at the booking office prior to departure).

Virgin Trains does not operate a Penalty Fares scheme so you should be able to upgrade on board, and, of course, Weekend First is available.

Chiltern Railways don't offer First Class but where Business Zone is available an upgrade can be purchased on the train.