February 1956 - the past is a foreign country...

The ABC Railway Guide February 1956

One of the unexpected delights of Christmas was the discovery of a February 1956 edition of The ABC Railway Guide in a box of timetables donated by a friend and passed on by my sister-in-law...

Naturally, I was intrigued by the Birmingham-London service offered fifty-seven years ago. As can be seen from the page reproduced below, even then the Snow Hill service was described as 'Another Route'...

Of course, the key difference one notices is the lack of trains...From Euston, there were ten trains north whilst Paddington offered eleven. No early morning trains, no clock-face departures, and no late night returns (though both routes offered a post midnight service). Timings were significantly slower - 2 hours being the best on the Euston-New Street run and 2 hours 7 mins on the Paddington-Snow Hill equivalent.


Fares are illuminating. The First Class return fare was 52/4 whilst the Third Class was 34/10 According to the Historic Inflation Calculator the equivalent fare now should be £54.03 for First Class and £35.97 for Third

Finally, it would have been fun to 'blog' about the 1956 sleeping car service from Snow Hill which departed at 1am Tuesday to Sunday and reached Paddington at 5.10am. I wonder how long one was allowed to 'sleep-in' before being turfed out?

ABC Railway Guide Feb 1956 London-Birmingham

Finally, just to note that the +ABC Railway Guide is still in evidence as a web site

Talking to Alan Riley, Head of On-Train Services, Chiltern Railways

On  Monday I had the opportunity to chat to Alan Riley (pictured below), Head of On-Train Services for Chiltern Railways. Alan has come to Chiltern after spells with Virgin Trains and First Great Western so is ideally placed to help Chiltern Mainline 'mix-it' with the big boys... As ever, the comments below are my take on the conversation and do not necessarily reflect Alan's or Chiltern's views.

I started by asking what he saw as his area of responsibility. His answer was: 'if you take away the driver, then everything else on board a service is mine'. Clearly, he works closely with Thomas Ableman and Jenny Payne is delivering the Mainline experience but equally clearly he takes responsibility for how a Mainline train is seen by its passengers.

When asked what he thinks a passenger's 'on-board' priorities are, he listed:

• Trains running to time
• Seats available
• Cleanliness

He believes that Chiltern Mainline will deliver for passengers through the December 2012 timetable so intends to build upon this success by 'adding value' to the passenger experience, in particular by harnessing the enthusiasm and dedication of the Chiltern train managers and catering staff to go that extra mile for the passenger.

Innovations such as the plated meal service on the Silver Sets Service are taking time to bed in but he hopes that Chiltern will get the day time and evening peak catering offering right in 2013. As ever, feedback from the customer is key and Alan intends to make himself very visible on Chiltern services.

He is a keen supporter of the Business Zone concept but accepts that it is still not hitting the mark from London in the morning and in both directions off-peak. Changes are in the offing but some may have to wait for the fourth set to come into service. In particular, the timing of the first Silver Set journey north is proving difficult to shift....

Alan is always open to emails from Chiltern customers / passengers. He can be contacted on alan.riley@chilternrailways.co.uk

Alan Riley, Head of On-Board Services, Chiltern Railways

Travelling from London to Birmingham in the morning peak

If you need to travel from London to Birmingham during the Monday to Friday morning peak, currently there is no question that Chiltern Railways offer the best value for money fares. Any journey is available for £27.50 super off-peak return which is huge saving on LondonMidland's £69 Anytime Return and Virgin's eye-watering £154 Anytime Return (Virgin's 0603 from Euston has off-peak fare availability of £47 return whilst LM's fare drops to £28 off-peak return from the 0846 - change at Rugby).

Alas from 2nd January 2013, Chiltern are barring super off-peak fares from London between 0630 and 0900 Monday to Friday making the morning fares off-peak at £50 return. Admittedly, this is still cheaper than the two competing TOCs though the journey times and facilities are slower and fewer respectively than Virgin's offering. BUT the fare change does open the way for LondonMidland to exploit the advantages of its new 'change at Rugby' 0846 fast service from Euston to Birmingham.

A comparison of the Chiltern and LondonMidland offerings is illuminating.

The 0845 Chiltern Mainline Silver Set service takes almost exactly 2 hours to reach Moor Street. If you were to return on the 1555 Mainline Silver Set from Moor Street the journey time would be 1 hour 44 mins. For the £50 fare, you get comfortable carriages with tables and power points, free wifi, catering, and for £30 more the Business Zone in both directions.

The 0846 LondonMidland Desiro service to Birmingham by changing at Rugby takes either 1 hour 56 mins if you stick to LondonMidland trains (fare £28) or 1 hour 41 mins (fare £34.40) if you catch the following Virgin Pendolino (10 min change at Rugby). Coming back, the xx.54 LM services from New Street take 1 hour 55 mins by changing at Rugby (no speedier Virgin connection)

Of course, LM don't offer power points with the tables in Standard Class nor is there WiFi or catering. However, if cost is your primary consideration then the 0846 could be a winner.

UPDATE - LondonMidland are offering 25% off off-peak fares for journeys in the first quarter of 2013 if they are booked by Sunday January 6th 2013 (http://www.londonmidland.com/sale/).

2013 is going to be a good year...

After all the upheavals of 2012 it is good to think that 2013 will be a year of consolidation for the three train operating companies which serve the Birmingham to London rail routes. Not that there won't be surprises - some of which I can predict with confidence below...

Chiltern Railways

After the success of the marketing campaign for the Dec 2012 timetable changes, the Chiltern marketing team is seconded to the Treasury. Its members waste no time in proving that although Britain has entered a triple dip recession, the saving of 6 minutes on the Kidderminster-Marylebone journey time means that the country is on the road to recovery. George Osborne hails the team as a beacon of light in an ever darkening world.

Later in the year, Chiltern start the consultation process on the 2014 Oxford-Marylebone timetable. In an unexpected move, the Silver sets are transferred to Stratford-upon-Avon to run a Stratford - Oxford - Marylebone service which includes the local services between Banbury and Oxford. Despite the journey time lengthening to four-and-a-half hours, I blog excitedly on the split fare possibilities opened up by the stops at Heyford and Tackley...

LondonMidland 

Bouyed by their nomination in the Goldentwit awards, LM's Twitter team expand their remit to that of answering life's big questions on a 24/7 basis. Alas, the answers all seem to involve broken rails at Bletchley and leave the Twitter community totally bemused

More positively,  LM solves its ongoing driver crisis by handing local services to Centro and London Overground and merging with DB Schenker to form a dedicated long distance driver pool. Passenger Groups praise the company for its ingenuity but question whether making Bescot Stadium a major interchange station is actually feasible.

Virgin Trains

The big news of the year will be that Tony Collins is made Secretary of State for Transport when Virgin successfully bids for the franchise to run the Dept. of Transport on a 20-year concession. Alex Salmond responds by making Tim O'Toole Minister for Transport in the forthcoming independent Scottish Government.

Totally unrelated is the news that Peter Strachan is given special responsibility for the Grosmont - Whitby track doubling, based in a new office at Battersby Junction. A source close to Peter tells the Telegraph that he is really excited by this latest challenge which he estimates will take all of two weeks. His future once the project is completed is unknown...

Network Rail

Finally, the year wouldn't be complete without the latest 'closure' of the WCML by Network Rail. For Christmas 2013, the whole of the WCML south of Rugby will be closed for two weeks so that toilet cubicle doors can be upgraded at all stations. When asked why two weeks was necessary when most stations no longer had toilets, a Network Rail spokesman referred the questioner to Chiltern Railways who started to explain... But of course that is where the year started...

Have a good one!

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

Chiltern Railways 90 min swansong - well, at least that was the idea...

So the Chiltern Railways Mainline 90 minute journey time adventure ends - no more will passengers on the (superb) Silver Sets be able to lay bets on what was today's reason for the journey time not actually being 90 minutes...

Yesterday was a classic Chiltern experience: great value fares, comfortable stock, friendly visible (Virgin Trains take note) on-board staff... and of course neither the 0655 up to London nor the 1807 return to Birmingham keeping to time...

Going up to London, the delay was caused by a failed freight train blocking the through line at Leamington which meant that the 0655 couldn't overtake the preceding 0647 from Stratford. 10 minutes late into Marylebone.

On the way back, a mixture of Chiltern confusion and Network Rail obduracy meant a 12 minute late arrival at Moor Street. ONLY Chiltern could cancel a train (the 1810 to Birmingham), add a stop at Leamington to the 1807, then reinstate the 1810 at 1807 so delaying the departure of the Silver Set by 4 mins. Sometimes Chiltern try tooooo hard to be 'nice'. As for Network Rail - well clearly they don't believe that Chiltern run Class 1 services! Classically last night, control let a late-running CrossCountry (stopping at Banbury) ahead of the Silver Set at Anyho Junction, then compounded the delay by sending a LondonMidland local ahead of the service at Dorridge! Clearly Chiltern need to send in a Tony Collins to sort out the situation.

So brave try Chiltern but perhaps the 94 min best timings are more realistic... Good luck from Monday

Chiltern Railway fares from Tuesday 2nd January

Chiltern 'have announced that as of 2 January 2013, fares will be going up by an average of 3.5%, which is significantly lower than the average industry increase of 3.9%.' (http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/news/january-fares-increases)

Of course, the devil is in the detail... Season ticket holders seem to be bearing the brunt of the increases - see analysis at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwD8vJ2m9VtYN2JEdU9SdlpqczA/edit?pli=1 which makes scary reading for those who commute into London from stations between Bicester North and  Kidderminster. Clearly if you can renew before the 2nd January 2013 it makes sense to do so.

For those of us who travel ad hoc between Birmingham and London, the news is not bad... ticket prices are held at 2012 levels ie £95 Anytime Return, £50 off-peak return, and £27.50 super off-peak return. However, Chiltern have made a significant change to the super off-peak fare restriction FROM London. From the 2nd, Super Off-peak tickets will be barred between 0630 and 0900 Monday to Friday meaning that the cheapest ticket will be the off-peak fare. Still significantly cheaper that Virgin BUT now on a par with LondonMidland...

The Business Zone supplement remains at £20 peak / off-peak and £10 super off-peak. If travelling south and returning north on the peak Business Zone services then it makes sense to buy the £125 Business Zone return fare. NOTE that there is no need to buy this fare if first travelling north.

12 Dec. update - my thanks to @centraluser for pointing out that the 0605 Monday-Friday service from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill still has Super Off-Peak fare validity (£27.50) AND that it is a Clubman train so has free WiFi. However it takes 117 mins to reach Moor Street, doesn't convey catering,  and is clearly a commuter service as it nears Birmingham. The equivalent 0603 Virgin Trains service from Euston has Off-peak validity (£47), conveys catering, offers WiFi at a price (£4) and takes 84 mins...

Contacting Virgin Trains, LondonMidland, and Chiltern Railways

Today, alas, Google alerted me to a site which it had indexed which claimed to give the Customer Relations number for Virgin Trains. The number quoted was started with the 0843 code, which is described by the Ofcom Number Crunching Guide as follows 'Calls are charged between 1p and 13p per minute for landline customers. Calls from mobile phones are typically charged between 15p and 41p per minute, depending on the provider and the number called..'

In fact Virgin Trains has a VERY informative page on how to contact the company at http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/contact/ Alas, what that page doesn't tell you (but SayNoTo0870.com does) is that Virgin Customer Relations does have an ordinary landline number: 0121 654 7478 So don't use the 0845 number quoted unless your provider gives you free 0845 calls!

In contrast, LondonMidland's excellent 'Contact Us' page (http://www.londonmidland.com/contact/contact-us/) does tell you the landline number which is 0121 634 2040

Finally Chiltern's 'Getting in Touch' page (http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/help) has an 0845 contact line which SayNoTo0870.com translates as 01295 759930