The new Chiltern Railways Mainline service goes live today with the first Mainline train making its debut journey from Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street.
Journey times between London and the West Midlands will be slashed by 30Â minutes on the fastest services, now running from just 90 minutes and an enhanced on-train experience will maximise use of travel time.
Not only has the company increased line speed, it has restructured fares and restrictions, changed the onboard offer, increased car-park capacity at key stations along the route and improved station facilities
Adrian Shooter, CBE, Chairman of Chiltern Railways says:
“Chiltern Mainline is the result of the largest private investment in passenger rail infrastructure in over 80 years.
“Created in response to the needs of business travellers and commuters travelling between our first and second cities, we have been working to ensure Mainline allows them to become more efficient and productive.
“We can confidently now say that the Chiltern Mainline will provide the best service from the West Midlands to London, more than rivaling the current service from other rail companies into Euston.”
The engineering upgrades along Chiltern Mainline include almost 55 miles of new track, which enables the Mainline trains to travel to speeds of up to 100mph, cutting the journey time substantially.
The ‘experience’ on the train has also been improved with the addition of free WiFi and the launch of the new Business Zone, which is a much more cost efficient alternative to First Class, with many of the key benefits to improve people’s productivity at a fraction of the price.
The new Chiltern Mainline carriages will also provide plug points at every seat and more tables, plus greater ticket and booking flexibility than the competitors.
Journey time improvements include fastest times of:
- 90 minutes between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone
- 1 hour 22 minutes between Solihull and London Marylebone
- 1 hour 10 minutes between Warwick Parkway and London Marylebone
The launch of the Mainline service is yet another success for Chiltern Railways, which is the only train company to hold a 20 year franchise and has the strongest growth record of any rail business in Europe, with passenger miles increasing threefold since the start of the franchise in 1996.
