Chiltern vows to continue marketing new rail service despite delays

CHILTERN Railways is to continue marketing the benefits of its high-speed trains to businesses in Birmingham – despite the introduction of the new service being delayed by four months .

The company had planned to start the new 90-minute services between Moor Street and Marylebone in May and had announced details of its service as part of a consultation among passengers.

It had even unveiled a clock on the concourse of Moor Street counting down the 100 days until the start of the service on May 23.

However, within the space of a week following the launch of the clock, the rail company issued a statement saying it was having to delay the new service because of fears over over-running engineering works and the risk of disruption to services.

Despite the situation, marketing director Thomas Abelman put on a brave face and said the delay was “not a disaster” for the firm.

“The delay does not change our long-term plans. Everything we were doing with regard to marketing the new service will continue as planned and the delay will allow us to ensure everything is ready for when the new service begins,” he said.
 
“The May to September period is always quiet and business travel is reduced. While it would have been ideal to have been able to launch tomorrow, we will now have to wait.

“However, the wait will ensure there is no risk of the service being disrupted.”

He said the consultation into the new timetable would continue, although the deadline for comments was not being extended.

As far as the countdown clock is concerned, that will be reset when a new date for the launch of the service is announced.

The company has yet to say when that will be, but it expects to update passengers within the next month.