Chiltern squares up to Virgin with 90-minute London service

CHILTERN Railways has given the clearest indication yet that it intends to become a major rival to Virgin Trains in the fight for business commuters travelling between Birmingham and London.

Until now, Virgin’s West Coast Main Line has virtually had the field to itself but following a £250m upgrade to the Chiltern Line, trains will soon be running between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone in 90 minutes.

This makes the Moor Street service a more than viable alternative for commuters looking to travel to morning appointments in the capital and vice versa.

Unveiling a clock on the Moor Street concourse counting down the 100 days until the launch of the new fast service on May 23, Chiltern announced it would be running two fast trains each weekday morning.

The first will depart Moor Street at 6.55am and will call at Solihull eight minutes later and then Warwick Parkway 12 minutes after this, arriving at Marylebone at 8.25am. A second fast service will leave Moor Street two hours later, arriving in Marylebone at 10.27am.

There will also be two fast return trains in the evening, again completing the journey in around 90 minutes.

The company’s ambitious growth strategy is aiming to carry around one million passengers in four years once the new timetable is up and running.

It will also add extra capacity on the line by utilising rolling stock from the former Wrexham to Marylebone service, which was axed last month.

Chiltern marketing director Thomas Abelman said no details on fares were currently available but added the company’s intention was to make them substantially cheaper than Virgin.

The company is embarking on a major marketing campaign to highlight to Birmingham’s professional services community the benefits of using the service.

“Some of these big firms have groups of people who regularly travel to London for meetings and during the course of a year they could save hundreds of thousands of pounds on their travel budgets,” said Mr Abelman.

The company is also introducing new Wi-fi enabled carriages with laptop tables and plug points so that commuters can work while they travel.