Thursday 29 July 2010

Wednesday 28th July

A trip to Farnham in Surry via London gave me an opportunity to use the return half of my Oyster offer ticket on LondonMidland and to validate my comments on the comparison between LM first class and Chiltern standard class (see http://bit.ly/b2OJ89)

The 0753 LM train to London Euston actually arrives from Crewe so was not waiting in New Street when I arrived at 7.40. Though a good number of passengers got off and joined the four car unit, the First Class section was quiet (only 3 occupants) so a table was secured. Two got off at Coventry and one at Rugby so the compartment was left to myself apart from one 'joiner' at Long Buckby...

Naturally no revenue protection checks on board the train but, despite the busyness of the standard class accommodation (particularly after Northampton), noone seemed tempted to chance using it with a standard class ticket.

As I have commented before, the ride of the Class 350 EMUs is good so working in the first class compartment is a relative pleasure. In addition, once past Milton Keynes, my Vodafone dongle worked perfectly adequately... Of course, with the journey taking a booked 147 minutes (actually arrived around 5 minutes early), there is plenty of time to do so!

At Northampton, the Birmingham portion joins a further four carriages waiting there. The downside of this is that on arrival at Euston there is quite a walk to the exit barriers... Quite a scuffle here as people tried to hurry through them - no wonder that in past times, the staff have simply opened the gates and not bothered with the ticket check.

I returned on the 7pm Chiltern service from Marylebone. A fairly full Clubman but a table was available. Alas, it was one of the sets which haven't been fully upgraded so there were no sockets at the table - will Chiltern bother to finish this work now that Project Mainline is in full swing?

A good run back with a revenue protection check after Banbury. Clubmans also ride well but it has to be said that the country stretches play havoc with a dongle connection so working online is rather hit and miss.

The walk-on fare for the Clubman journey was £31.90 compared to the normal LM First Class fare of £95. As the Clubman journey is normally faster than the LM service (and at least as fast as the fastest LM evening trains), is there any real reason not to prefer Chiltern???

Sunday 25 July 2010

Fare News

From Sunday 1st August until Sunday 5th September, LondonMidland are cutting their Off-peak return fares by 50% and still giving Railcard discounts. This makes the Birmingham to London Adult off-peak fare £12.50 valid on any train Monday to Friday from the 07.54. NOTE that these tickets HAVE to be booked online - booking opens Thursday 29th July. Full details: http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/summer-rail-sale/

Chiltern Railways are offering a third off fares on TUESDAYS until Tuesday 28th September to over-60 holders of the National Travel Pass or London Freedom Pass (i.e. your ‘bus pass’ displaying the ‘red rose’ logo). Full details: http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/news/over-60-brighten-your-chiltern-tuesday-13-fares

Barry Doe in Rail 649 (in newsagents from Wednesday 28th July) points out that Railcard holders can travel on any Virgin train journey on which VIRGIN SETS THE FARES at any time for the Off-peak fare (ie there are NO peak restrictions). For Birmingham to London passengers this means a saving of £43 on the single peak standard fare. Even better, for Senior Railcard holders, the First Class single fare on the first two trains Monday to Friday becomes £57.75 rather than £120 (see http://birmingham2london.blogspot.com/2010/06/virgin-fares.html for the reason).

When you add in passengers who can use the Virgin Charity Line facilty, I now understand why the 7.30 Pendolino is so busy in Standard Class! However, NOTE that the conditions for the Virgin Charity Line are changing from Friday 13th August: it won't be so useful after that date it would appear...

Friday 23rd July

A day's work in London presented a dilemna as I wanted to test out the Oyster card First Class travel offer on LondonMidland (see http://birmingham2london.blogspot.com/2010/06/cheap-return-travel-from-london-26-june.html). Catch the 0745 Chiltern service from Snow Hill and split the fare at Haddenham & Thame Parkway (£36 - see http://birmingham2london.blogspot.com/2010/06/chiltern-fares.html) or hope that a Virgin Advance single fare would be available on Pendolinos arriving before 10am.

Amazingly, checking on the Thursday morning, I found a £28 standard advance fare on the 0830 Pendolino and, better still, was able to book a table seat (giving me access to a socket!) Interestingly, if I could have caught the 8.50, I would have travelled First Class for £44 - a bargain when you consider it includes a full breakfast, free WiFi, and access to the First Class lounges at both ends of the journey.

The 0830 starts from New Street so was sitting waiting for me when I arrived at 0815 off my Plusbus connection (another hidden bargain: £2.20 unlimited bus travel in the West Midlands compared to the walk-on nbus fare of £3.70). Friendly staff with amusing announcements made the journey very pleasant, especially with the shop being very convenient for my table. Used the £5 WiFi connection for an hour: adequate without being brilliant - the upload speed wasn't sufficient for me to upload files to my websites...

On time arrival in Platform 1 at Euston as I have come to expect...

No problem buying the Oyster offer ticket at the LondonMidland booth on the concourse. The 18.13, which is LondonMidland's fastest train of the day from London at 123 minutes, was sitting in Euston's other extremity platform (18) and formed of 12 coaches. Walked up the train to the front 4 coaches so as to be sure to be on the through portion and found First Class reasonably busy but by no means full. No table available but the drop-down table on the airline seats is actually adequate for a laptop and of course there are sockets.

Departure was on time as was arrival in New Street. The ride was very good but the facilities even for First Class are minimal: no refreshments for a start! However, the train was clean and the loos fine so for £30 return, can one complain? Well, Chiltern offer virtually the equivalent level of comfort, speed, and facilities for their standard class passengers at almost the same walk-on fare day in day out...

Finally, the lack of revenue protection surprised me: no check on boarding at Euston, no on-board check, and, as ever, no check on leaving at New Street's Victoria Square exit. It's a good job that most of the travelling public are honest, and that most standard class passengers remain happy to take the accommodation offered for their fare... Even so, LondonMidland do need to up their game as they have admitted to Barry Doe in the latest Rail magazine (649 due out on Wednesday 28th July).

Saturday 10th July / Tuesday 20th July

A family holiday in France gave me an opportunity to experience Virgin's services once more courtesy of the Eurostar link booking service for stations outside London. We were travelling to Perpignan for the princely adult single advance fare of £69 and were booked on the 0830 Pendolino out of New Street.

Yet again, a more than adequate service: clean train, on time, clean loos, open shop, interesting 'Hotline' magazine... just a pity that Standard class isn't particularly comfortable, especially in the lack of leg room if you haven't secured a table.

Lots of announcements on the section to Coventry about not using LondonMidland only tickets; ticket check occured after Coventry allowing a quick exit at Euston (as a point of interest, NO ticket check took place on the TGV from Lille to Perpignan).

Returned from Paris on the 20th and were booked on the 20.23 service from Euston. Again, more than adequate but our seats were not aligned with windows at all - such a contrast with the comfortable layout of the Eurostar standard class carriages. Still, the service ran to time and of course was superb value - Paris to Birmingham in 3 1/2 hours (thanks to the time change) at an adult advance single fare of £59

Monday 5 July 2010

Tuesday 29th June

Another early evening event in London... As I had had plenty of notice of this 'do', I took the opportunity of trying the Megatrain booking service for the Pendolinos and ended up travelling down on the 12.50 and returning from Euston on the 20.03 - all for the princely sum of £12.50 (£5 down, £7 back, and a 50p booking charge).

Of course, Megatrain is standard class only and doesn't reserve a seat for you. On the few Birmingham to London and return trains on which it is available this shouldn't be a problem as they are lightly loaded. Though, of course, it would help if a) the seat reservation system is working (it wasn't on the 12.50) and b) Virgin made it clear that Coach 'E' is usually reservation free!

Apart from the seat reservation glitch and the failed air-conditioning in Coach 'C', the 12.50 down and 20.03 back were perfectly good Pendolino services: on time, clean, and with open shops. Pity that standard class is so claustrophic and noisy even at quiet times - perhaps Megatrain should suggest a 'no-frills' First Class equivalent for those of us who like a bit more space and a quieter environment...