Features

In focus

27 Oct 2011 by Alex McWhirter

Alex McWhirter examines topical business travel issues. This week: London to Birmingham train travel.

Why wait for High Speed Two? If it ever gets built, the London-Birmingham high-speed line will shave about 30 minutes off the trip. But until then, travellers between our two largest cities already qualify for faster and better trains.

Two months ago, Chiltern Railways (chilternrailways.co.uk) upgraded itself from a humble outer-suburban train firm to an inter-city operator. It has invested more than £250 million in track upgrades, which has enabled it to provide a faster London-Birmingham service that is close to rivalling that of Virgin Trains (virgintrains.co.uk), the main rail firm on the route, and at lower prices.

There are several differences. For starters, Virgin departs London Euston and arrives in Birmingham New Street after taking the rail route equivalent of the M1/M6 motorway. Chiltern, as its name suggests, follows the more direct M40 corridor between Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street.

Virgin operates every 20 minutes with state-of-the-art Pendolino trains with free food, drink and wifi in first class. Chiltern operates trains every 30 minutes, some of which are fast mainline services taking as little as 90 minutes compared with Virgin’s fastest time of 82 minutes.

But Chiltern is upping its game further with new silver trains complete with a Business Zone. These trains operate four daily mainline services in each direction during the working week.

The silver trains use the coaches previously rostered for the highly praised – but ultimately unprofitable – Wrexham and Shropshire service, which was axed in January. Although this stock dates back to the days of British Rail, it is considered by rail experts to provide a more comfortable journey. These services depart Marylebone at 0837, 1337, 1650 and 1807, returning from Moor Street at 0619, 0655, 1055 and 1555. 

Off-peak trains are listed as those departing London at 0837, returning at 1555. Chiltern derives much of its business from West Midlands passengers, which is why the timings for the silver trains are geared to travellers bound for, rather than departing from, the capital. Trains call en route at Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick Parkway and Solihull.

Passengers pay an each-way fee of £10 (off-peak) and £20 (peak) on top of the flexible standard class fare to occupy the 30-seat Business Zone on the silver trains, which offers free wifi and paid-for at-seat refreshments and snacks. The zone is actually a first class carriage with spacious seating (legroom is 52cm, seat width 53cm).

A Chiltern Railways spokesperson says the decision not to provide free food was taken to “address the concerns of finance directors over payment for non-essentials” – clearly a dig at Virgin’s first class model.

Chiltern believes its Business Zone concept could replace first class now that corporate budgets are so tight. Thomas Ableman, the company’s marketing director, says: “Businesses told us that space to work and a decent internet connection were essential. They also told us that additional privacy at key times for increased productivity was valuable. We believe the Business Zone creates a new class of travel that could signal the end of first class business travel across the industry.”

One point to note is that online rail booking systems are not, at the time of writing, displaying Chiltern’s silver trains. So use the schedules shown above for guidance, or else download Chiltern’s PDF timetable from its website. The timetable lists mainline services as “M” with silver trains billed as “MS”.

What is hard to believe is how little Chiltern charges for flexible travel compared with Virgin (see box below). The latter has cheaper fares but they must be booked ahead and are restrictive. Virgin will always score on account of its fast and frequent services. But not everyone appreciates this level of service and neither are they prepared to pay for it.

FARES COMPARED

London-Birmingham (Flexible returns)

  • Chiltern Railways: £25-£75 (one class) plus £10 or £20 each way for Business Zone
  • Virgin Trains: £44.30-£149 (standard class), £240 first class
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