Thursday 18 November 2010

Chiltern timetable 12 December 2010 to 21 May 2011

Chiltern have published the timetable for the 5 'winter' months starting on the 12th December, and are, of course, preparing for the use of the reconnected bay platforms at Birmingham Moor Street.

The key change for Birmingham to London passengers is in the off-peak provision: only one off-peak train (at 12 mins past the hour) will start from Birmingham Snow Hill and it will be 'slow' to London Marylebone (2hrs 19 mins). The 'fast' service will leave from Birmingham Moor Street at 55 mins past the hour and will take 2 hours.

Coming back from London, the pattern is that the 20 mins past the hour is 'fast' to Moor Street and the 50 mins past the hour is 'slow' to Snow Hill.

To celebrate the new timetable, the first train out of the new platforms at Moor Street will be The First Moor Street Express on Saturday 11th December headed by Castle class steam locomotive No 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Return fares to Paddington start at £80.

In praise of the Chiltern Clubman Wednesday 17th November 2010

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a great fan of the Chiltern Railways services between Birmingham and London. In my experience, the company provides reliable comfortable trains between the two cities at an amazing price when you consider the facilities offered, and the attitude of the staff who serve, both on board and at the stations.

Yesterday's return journey illustrated the Chiltern plus effect perfectly. Travelling up to London, I caught the 8.15 Clubman service from Birmingham Moor Street. As I have a Chiltern Gastro Card, I benefitted from a 10% reduction on the already bargain fare of £31.90 - paying just £28.70.

On its on-time arrival from Kidderminster, there was the usual mixture of many commuters (some of whom stay onto Solihull) and a few long distance travellers, so obtaining a table on which to work wasn't a problem. As expected, the socket was working so my laptop was happy...

Although a catering trolley joins at Moor Street for the journey through to London, it tends to be slow working its way through the train so I had bought a coffee from one of the many outlets on the station itself. In the event the catering stewardess made it through to the rear carriage by Warwick, and then appeared again around High Wycombe.

The train filled up during the run, particularly at Banbury, but wasn't over-full at any stage. Toilets were fine, and arrival at London Marylebone was on-time.

I returned on the 2.50pm Clubman from Marylebone. Reasonably busy to Bicester but again no trouble finding a table with a working socket. No catering trolley on the afternoon services but Marylebone has plenty of outlets. Arrival in Birmingham Snow Hill on time...

So what's there not to like? Well, the main weakness for those who want to work on the train is the lack of wireless connectivity which is aggravated for both Orange and Vodafone users by the poor coverage of the country portions of the route by the telecom providers. Apart from that, as I have commented before, speed isn't everything...

Sunday 14 November 2010

Wrexham and Shropshire timetable changes

Alas, Wrexham and Shropshire will be operating only three trains a day from the new timetable which starts on Sunday 12th December. Worse, Tame Bridge Parkway loses its afternoon departures!

New times out from Tame Bridge are 06.41 (arr London Marylebone 08.57) and 09.02 (arr London Marylebone 11.15). Trains from London Marylebone are at 09.24 (arr Tame Bridge Parkway 11.41), 16.30 (arr Tame Bridge Parkway 18.39), and 18.30 ((arr Tame Bridge Parkway 20.39).

The good news is that fares remain a bargain... Walk-on First Class return is £120 and includes a full meal, Wi-Fi, and truly comfortable surroundings (not mention the fantastically helpful staff), whilst a Walk-on First Class single is £70. Compare and contrast with Virgin's Pendolino offering - speed isn't everything!

So if you live in North or North-West Birmingham, give the W&S a try. The SatNav for Tame Bridge Parkway is WS10 0LD, buses from Walsall and West Bromwich do pass it, and of course LondonMidland local services from Rugeley and Walsall run through it.

Telegraph Virgin Trains offer update

Today's Sunday Telegraph repeats the offer with a slightly amended code (but yesterday's still works). Booking is open to Sunday 21st November and apparently 50,000 tickets have been allocated to the offer...

Saturday 13 November 2010

Virgin Trains Telegraph offer

Today's Daily Telegraph (Saturday 13th November) has the details of the latest Telegraph / Virgin Trains link-up to encourage First Class Travel at 'quiet periods' - in this case Saturday 4th December through to Saturday 16th January.

Based on a journey I need to make on Wednesday 15th December, First Class singles to London seem to be available at £18 on the following Monday to Friday services from Birmingham New Street: 10.50 to 14.10 and 18.50 to 22.10. First Class singles to Birmingham New Street from London Euston at £18 seem to be available on the 6.03, from 10.23 to 14.23, and from 20.03 to 23.30.

Full details on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/promotions/8117302/First-Class-travel-with-Virgin-Trains-for-less.html - a code from the paper is required before the promotional fares are shown!