So just what is happening at Snow Hill?

Readers of Rail 725 will have seen a sidebar by Christian Wolmar entitled 'A token effort to crack down on fare dodging'. In it he lambasts ATOC for the press release on fare dodging noting that the 'implication that operators are doing everything in their power to clamp down on fare dodging is hardly borne out by my experience'.

Now Christian is a Londoner so his experience tends to be very southern focussed. Alas, however, those of us who live in the West Midlands know his experience only too well.... Virgin Trains and +London Midland seem to have given up on revenue protection between Birmingham New Street and Coventry - Birmingham International and Coventry are truly 'open' stations and New Street often is - and now +London Midland seem to have given up on Birmingham Snow Hill routes.

Last Wednesday I tweeted a photo (below) of the open gates at Snow Hill at 10am in the morning. In response (not from @londonMidland 's official twitter account), it was suggested that the gate staff were on a 30 minute break... On Friday, at 10am, not only were the gates open but the booking office was closed... Again came the (unofficial) response about breaks...

Now once is just about believable but twice? So come on, +London Midland , at least make some effort to show that buying a ticket during the day is a worthwhile exercise (I won't start on the complete lack of revenue protection in the evenings or at weekends). As Christian says, it would be great if TOCs saw staff as being an essential pat of running the railway rather than as a cost which eats into their profits.

Virgin Trains First Class or Chiltern Railways Business Zone?

One of the joys of attending an event such as yesterday's is the chance to talk to rail industry insiders under Chatham House rules. Thus it was I found myself discussing the positives and not so positives of a recent First Class trip on Virgin Trains between Birmingham New Street and London Euston.

A couple of weeks ago, I was needed in Cambridge for a 9.30 meeting. As I have noted previously, it is possible to travel directly from Birmingham to Cambridge on CrossCountry Trains but they tend to be expensive for the speed of journey and often the trip via London is more comfortable and a better use of my time. So the 5.50 Pendolino it was, connecting into the 745 First Capital Connect service from King's Cross.

The 5.29 and 5.50 Pendolino's are both 'off-peak' trains and so one can benefit from the split ticket routing via Birmingham International to reduce the single First Class fare from £127 to £92.70 (£3.70 New Street to International + £89 International to Euston). However, advance fares are excellent value on this train so I was able to book through to Cambridge for £51 First Class.

All was well at New Street and on the journey in terms of timing and overall comfort. Virgin of course give their First Class passengers free WiFi along with tables with power sockets and on the early morning trains breakfast. So far so positive...

Alas, as ever with Virgin, it is the small things that niggle (especially given the price of the fares). First Class passengers are supposed to be offered a Financial Times or a Guardian. I actually saw the papers being loaded into Coach J but of course that is where they stayed. When I asked a paper at my seat in Coach H, I was promised that one would be brought... in the end I walked up to Coach J and picked up the papers from the pile where they had been left.

Coffee or tea is served after Birmingham International and toast offered after Coventry but my full breakfast didn't turn up until nearing Milton Keynes. The breakfast itself was excellent - just a shame everything is back to front. However, my main grouse is that Virgin staff don't smile... I know that it was early in the morning, that the First Class was quite busy, and that their shifts are horrible BUT some interaction with the fare paying passengers would help make the journey pleasanter.

Compare and contrast with the +Chiltern Railways Business Zone experience. I returned from the Awards on the 1815 Silver Set from Marylebone, which was sitting in Platform 3 when I arrived for the train at 6pm. The Business Zone host was busy offering tea or coffee already and she was smiling and chatting with the passengers. Admittedly, the Business Zone is not as busy as the Pendolino First Class and her shift is from Moor Street and back but the difference is marked.

However, Chiltern aren't perfect either... The big weakness of the Silver Sets is the poor WiFi offering, especially if the Set is busy. Yesterday, the signal disappeared after Princes Risborough and didn't return until a reset after Banbury. There are some areas where Virgin can teach the upstart how to do things!

Taking the slow (Chiltern) train to The Railway Industry Innovation Awards

One of the mysteries of the current +Chiltern Railways timetable is that Birmingham Snow Hill, supposedly so important for Chiltern's reach-out to the Birmingham business community, has the slower of the two off-peak services each hour from Birmingham to London Marylebone. Yesterday's 10.12 Clubman ambled its ways south in just under 2 hours (1 hour 56 mins to be precise).

Of course, if like me you use the train as a travelling office, this may not matter: Clubman's are comfortable, have power points at the tables, offer free WiFi, and some of the xx.12's even have a catering trolley (10.12 / 13.12 / 14.12). However, if the loading of yesterday's service to go by, there aren't too many doing so...

The keynote speaker at the Awards was Peter Wilkinson, interim Franchising Director at the Department for Transport. Not being an industry insider, some of the coded references passed me by but he was clear about the importance that his political masters now placed on meeting passenger needs by making relationships within the rail industry work (he highlighted that 60% of the revenue base was from the fare box). Further he indicated that there would be a new focus on commuters who he suggested had been forgotten about... Outside London, public transport was NOT optional and rail has a big part to play BUT all involved must share the Government's transparency agenda and must show that innovation is possible through engagement and partnerships between the industry's key players.

As to the Awards themselves, not too good for the Birmingham to London TOCs this time. Virgin Trains didn't make the long list in any category (and were noticeable by their absence from the event). +London Midland 's Project 110 was on a long list but didn't make the short list. The refurbishment of +Chiltern Railways Mk 3s by Wabtec Rail made the shortlist for the Operations and Performance Award but didn't win...

Summer 2013 promotions from Chiltern Railways

Two promotions running with +Chiltern Railways at present.

Those travelling from London to Birmingham Mondays to Saturdays until Friday 26 July can travel for £2.50 each way (certain trains only) by registering at www.chilternoffers.co.uk and using the special online booking matrix which is then displayed. Note that the trains down from London are in the morning and the trains up to London are in the afternoon / evening. Tickets need to be printed out from the confirming email attachment. Passengers from Birmingham can of course use this offer for £5 south by booking return with an unrequired journey north...

As ever, Chiltern remain optimistic about the weather and have launched a Summer of Surprises promotion. Well actually they haven't* as in a classic piece of Chiltern planning the site was promoted through a wrap-round in today's Birmingham edition of the Metro without it being actually ready! Emails or tweets of despair to stressed marketing team if you want to take part!

* The site is now live and taking registrations (tested at 7.30pm) - looking forward to my first surprise...

Updates from Rail 724

Rail 724 has useful articles in relation to the TOCs that provide services between Birmingham and London...

Network Rail track access charges

+Chiltern Railways will pay £324m in Control Period 5; +London Midland £1,040m; and Virgin Trains £2,740m

Chiltern Railways calls on the services of DB Schenker '67s'

Britain's train fleets in 2013

Virgin to the rescue

Letter from Chris Gibb on the WCML 'Thunderbird' offering

Rail 724 is on sale from tomorrow (Wednesday 12th June)

The usefulness of the Network Railcard

The Network Railcard gives discounts on off-peak travel in London and the South East and is available for journeys south on the three TOCs from Banbury ( +Chiltern Railways ), Northampton * ( +London Midland ) and Milton Keynes (Virgin Trains).

I have blogged before on its usefulness, especially in relation to Chiltern (using it for a split fare on the Banbury-London leg after 10am allows for a return journey between 4pm and 7pm at a saving on the £50 through fare). Yesterday's journey to Cambridge was a good example of why Birmingham passengers should obtain one.

Going to Cambridge from Birmingham is possible 'directly' using CrossCountry's Class 170 service via Leicester and Peterborough but, of course, being CrossCountry, the journey is slow and expensive when you look at the fare being charged: £54.40 for the hourly 2hr 45min journey.

The alternative is via London. Using the Network Railcard and Chiltern:

Off-peak: first train Birmingham Snow Hill 0912 to reach Cambridge at 1231 (via King's Cross). Cost: £13 Chiltern only anytime day return to Banbury, then £32.75 off-peak Banbury-Cambridge. The 09.55 departure from Moor Street would get to Cambridge at 13.01 (again via King's Cross).

Thus for a total fare of £45.75 you get free wifi for at least the Chiltern portion of the journey (plus table and power point), and, as occurred yesterday, the opportunity to take in a meeting in London too.

BEWARE you may have difficulty buying a walk-on ticket at Birmingham Snow Hill for the Banbury onwards leg. Yesterday I was told by the ticket office staff - who I usually find very helpful - that they did not have a code for the Network Railcard discount. In fact, @londonmidland assure me that there is one so it may be a case of persisting. Otherwise, the Chiltern train manager can sell you one on the train.

* Actually, Long Buckby marks the Network Railcard boundary

South with Chiltern / North with LondonMidland

+Chiltern Railways is looking for feedback on the Business Zone provision on the Silver Sets - complete the online survey for a chance to win VIP tickets to London as well as influence the company's thinking.

Of course as a regular off-peak user of the BZ I am one happy customer (so long as they don't increase the supplement beyond £10) but it will be interesting to see what peak users say now that the supplement for them is £25.

Yesterday, I caught the 1055 from Moor Street and benefited from the usual high level 'at seat' service from one of the regular BZ hosts. Also enjoyed the vegetable chow mien plated meal at £3.50 - tremendous value when needing an early lunch.

Yesterday too allowed Chiltern to boast that the company has been 'named top franchise rail operator for right time train punctuality for a record sixth period running, according to research released today by Network Rail.'  The company is well ahead of +London Midland and Virgin Trains in this regard BUT of course it doesn't have to use the West Coast Main Line...

Returning from London on the LondonMidland 1813 'fast' service to Birmingham New Street showed just why LondonMidland and Virgin Trains haven't a chance in the right time train punctuality stakes. A points problem in the Wembley area during the afternoon was proving difficult to sort meaning that trains were stacking up on the approach to Euston (Virgin being particularly affected). Fortunately the 1813 made it into Platform 14 in reasonable time to load but then was delayed by 4 minutes on departure and then held several times on the approach to Wembley to allow Virgin services to get in front. Once past Wembley, the train had a good run but the damage had been done and it reached Northampton 20 minutes late. The 4 coaches for Birmingham left at 1945 but LM control took the decision to terminate the service at Birmingham International where a following Virgin Pendolino took us onto New Street - arrival 28 minutes late!

Clearly neither LM or Virgin can do anything about Network Rail infrastructure problems and one has to admire the resilience of the staff who have to put up with these ongoing issues day in day out. It does seem a bit hard for the press to focus on the train operating companies when it is actually the infrastructure company at fault (and don't get me started on Network Rail bonuses).

Talking of staff, one final note of sympathy for those on the front line. Last night, the admirable @londonmidland twitter feed was in full swing keeping passengers informed. Also in effect was the real time running information available from the Chiltern Railways App. Thus it was that those of us 'connected' knew well in advance of the Train Manager that the 1813 was going to terminate at International - the poor man only found out once Control actually paged him... Wonder when LM staff will be able to use the information now available to passengers???