5 reasons why I travel with LondonMidland and 5 why you might not...

On Tuesday, I used the LondonMidland service between Birmingham New Street and London Euston to spend the afternoon in London. Here's my top five reasons for using the company...

1. The Fares: LondonMidland offer a wide-range of fares, which combined with the generous off-peak restrictions (no evening peak from Euston), mean that travelling with them is almost always cheaper than travelling with Chiltern Railways and, of course, many times cheaper than travelling with Virgin Trains.
2. The Promotions: on top of the already low fares, LondonMidland has led the way in using the online booking system to offer innovative marketing offers. Currently, the company is offering 29% off many fares in celebration of Team GB's success.
3. The Service: outside peak times, LondonMidland offers a 20 minute interval service between Birmingham and London
4. The Trains: the Desiro trains used by the company ride well (certainly better than Pendolinos) and are relatively spacious.
5. The Twitter feed: a key strength of LondonMidland is the engagement that the company has with its customers through its use of Twitter. Virtually 24/7, issues are generally resolved quickly and efficiently.

Of course, there are at least five reasons why LondonMidland might not make the grade for you...

1. Northampton: alas, everything revolves around this town in terms of the Birmingham to London service. It has to be said that sitting at this station for between 4 and 16 minutes does not add to the pleasure of the journey.
2. Journey times: at 2hrs 14mins to 2hrs 24mins Birmingham to London, the company's services are slow. Strangely, coming back from London in the evening peak sees journey times reduced to a shade over 2hrs
3. Commuters: when all is said and done, LondonMidland is primarily in the business of moving commuters to and from the big cities which it serves. Thus, peak trains can be long (up to 12 carriages from Euston with the Birmingham portion at the far end) and can be mobbed...
4. Facilities: the services lack WiFi, refreshments, and power points (though these are found in First Class). Table provision is rather sparse too
5. Punctuality: although I have been rarely affected, LondonMidland do use the crowded West Coast Mainline and are thus at the mercy of events often outside the company's control Performance figures overall hover around the 90% mark...

Chiltern Railways and LondonMidland increase fares from Sunday 2nd September 2012

In all the media fuss about the 3% +RPI fare increases in January, it seems to have been overlooked that both Chiltern Railways and LondonMidland are increasing fares between Birmingham and London on Sunday 2nd September.

For Chiltern, the affected fare is the Super Off-Peak Return which is currently £25 and will go up to £27.50 (the Super Off-Peak Single goes up from £24.90 to £27.40) - giving a rise of 10%

LondonMidland's affected fares are:

Anytime Standard Return: currently £65; will rise to £69
Anytime First Return: currently £90; will rise to £95

Off-Peak Standard Return: currently £27; will rise to £28
Off-Peak First Return: currently £45; will rise to £46

Super Off-Peak Standard Return: currently £20; will rise to £21


Anytime Standard Single: currently £40; will rise to £42
Anytime First Single: currently £51; will rise to £55

Off-Peak Standard Single: currently £26.50; will rise to £27.50
Off-Peak First Single: currently £44; will rise to £45

Super Off-Peak Standard Single: currently £19.90; will rise to £20.90

Thus LM's rises are between 5 and 6 % on the Birmingham to London route (though LM tell me that across their network, the increase is 3%)

Fares set by Virgin Trains (Any Permitted route) are NOT being increased.

Chiltern say that the increase is necessary because of the continued improvements that the company is making to the service offered.

LondonMidland have commented:

On the Birmingham to London route we have invested heavily over the past year, trebling the Monday to Saturday daytime frequency and introducing direct trains on Sundays. The next stage is to build on this with longer trains at weekends (we've already addressed this on certain departures) and a further review of our weekend service provision. Whilst our key strength is our low prices, the improvements do require significant ongoing investment, so it's important that we strike the right balance with our fares. We feel £21 for a Super Off-Peak Return remains a very competitive price. One of the options for our off-peak prices was to introduce differential pricing at weekends, but for the sake of simplicity this has thankfully been shelved in favour of developing opportunities in our off-peak 1st class range. That said, we'll continue to use our rail sale and Great Escape promotions to fill empty seats whenever we can!

So it's farewell Virgin Trains and welcome to FirstGroup

After weeks of clearly well-informed speculation, today saw the formal announcement that Virgin Trains will cease to run after close of play on Saturday 8th December 2012, and the WCML franchise will pass to First Group from Sunday 9th December.

Naturally, FirstGroup are delighted at their coup - see press release and web page - whilst Virgin Trains are devastated (see Richard's Blog) but what will it mean for Birmingham to London passengers?

Well, the only two details that I have gleaned so far that could affect this route is first, that a cut of 15% is promised in standard anytime fares within two years, and secondly, that the 'cliff edge' of fare difference between First and Standard is to be tackled. This latter promise is to be welcomed as most Virgin Pendolinos run with near-empty First Class carriages outside the peak hours Monday-Friday...

Let the countdown begin!

LondonMidland celebrate Team GB's Gold Medal success

In another marketing coup, LondonMidland are offering a discount on their advance and long-distance off-peak fares based on the total number of gold medals won by Team GB (as I write, worth 28% - go Team GB!). Registration with LondonMidland is required by Tuesday 14th August, after which a code will be emailed out for online purchases from 15 August to 2 September. Full details at http://bit.ly/NXg7VY

Yest again, LM show themselves ahead of the pack in their imaginative use of the online booking system... Gold Medal stars in their own right...

Update Friday 17th August: the discount ended up being 29% (well done Team GB) BUT no code is required. Simply click on the CLAIM Button on the offer page