London Midland - Great Easter Rail Sale!

[transportphoto]

Having had a search on the forum I cant see anywhere where this mentioned!


View Click or Click

For more info.

Doesn't look as good as the Unlimited Travel Days the have recently offered.

Though worth mentioning as I am sure that some one will take advantage of it!

 

[mickey]

Thanks times a million - I was going to get a super off peak for April but you've just made things much simpler.

6.60 (YP) return Liverpool-London? You're a star - I definitely owe you a pint for telling me about that!

 

[37401]

Yeah saw little cards about this on sat, BHM-EUS £6.60 gotta be done time to clear off some more 90s I reckon, out of intrest can they be used on any train Sat-sun like you can normally

 

[alexjames]

Thanks to the OP for the alert.

Trouble is that the site refuses to offer me a £10 ticket from Crewe to HRW on 18 April. Specifying via Northampton does not seem to help - machine seems keen to sell me VWC tickets but not LM tickets.

Anybody know whether I'm making the wrong key depressions or whether the LM ticketing site wrongly programmed.

 

[mickey]

Thanks to the OP for the alert.

Trouble is that the site refuses to offer me a £10 ticket from Crewe to HRW on 18 April. Specifying via Northampton does not seem to help - machine seems keen to sell me VWC tickets but not LM tickets.

Anybody know whether I'm making the wrong key depressions or whether the LM ticketing site wrongly programmed.

Click 'show slower routes' in the bottom left-hand corner and highlight all boxes with the text 'LM trains only'. That should remove all the faster and expensive VWC tickets to leave the ones you want.

 

[alexjames]

Advice above does not seem to work.

I got so ****ed off with being unable to persuade the LM website to do the right thing that I took the last resort of phoning their customer services. I got the attention of some idiot who needed to be told about five times that LM do actually run Crewe to London services. That same idiot had to be guided around the LM website to the pdf timetables so that she could demonstrate to herself that LM do indeed run those trains. The idiot eventually consulted somebody of slightly less idiocy who suggested booking it as two separate journeys: Crewe to Watford Junction and WJ to HRW. Amusing to have a TOC proposing fare splitting so as to pay more for a journey. I think that the underlying problem is that the clowns who have amended the ticketing software have failed to cater for intermediate LM stations on that route such as Apsley, Kings Langley etc.

The answer is to book it as Crewe/Euston and exit the train short. I guess a variation of that would work for other intermediate stations

 

[London_Midland]

Thanks for highlighting the issue; let me explain.

On the londonmidland.com/sale page we do point out that a handful of journeys don't come up with the £5/£10 fares. This is due to the 'flows' being priced by other operators, and there being no dedicated London Midland ticketing flow for the journey.

Crewe to Harrow is one such flow, Milton Keynes to Runcorn is another and, bizarrely, Worcester to Watford Junction is another (actually owned by CrossCountry). There are no doubt others, and we'll try to find a solution where we can.

Your idea of buying a ticket to Euston and cutting your journey short is exactly the right thing to do (just as the Runcorn workaround is to buy a ticket to Liverpool).

I'll have a word with our customer relations team to ensure the right information is being given out in future, although it's possible you spoke with NRE which is one of the options on our phone line. I'd be very surprised if our guys were unaware of our Crewe to London service!

I hope you have a great journey. Don't forget, off-peak returns are valid for a month, too, allowing you to return, potentially, well into May.

David.

 

[royaloak]

No need to call people idiots either, unless of course you are Mary Poppins IE positively perfect, and she was too polite to lower herself to that!

 

[Death]

Aye...We've already been referring to this offer in the Split check: Farnborough to Blackpool and Derby? and Sheffield Mdland - Reading threads. Can't believe that it didn't occur to us to post a notice about it, though! hock:
Although I have to admit: When I first found it on the LM site, I was given the impression that it was a regular LM internet fare until Mickey set me on the right lines!

It's very nice to see that LM have actually opened an account (Or so it seems...Could we have some formal verification of that though, please? ) and are letting us know first hand about why not all LM routes are available on this offer! 8)
Since joining the board a good three years ago, that's the first time I've seen a TOC participate and give us some useful info...Though that said, it's possible that I might've missed any prior postings by other TOCs.

Anyhow...I for one know that I'm going to be taking advantage of this offer for my trip Northbounde next month, and if all goes well I'll probabally switch to using LM as my main carrier for the Mersey and Wirral areas! 8)

If LM don't mind me taking the opportunity to ask a few questions of them, though:..

1. I'm planning to break my journey twice on the return portion of my promo ticket - In Crewe for a few hours to visit the heritage centre, and again at Tamworth for a 14-21 day sub trip to Derby.
   The NRCoC and other posts on this board suggest that this is permitted, but are there any conditions specific to this fare that might inhibit that?
2. Is there any form of wi-fi installed on your trains (I'll probabally be travelling on Cl. 350s for the most part) and is it complimentary, or would there be a surcharge to use it?
3. How long does it take a typical London --> Liverpool service to complete that journey...And are all services stoppers, or are there some (semi) fast workings available as well?

Farewell, and thanks in advance for any info!
>> Death <<

 

[Mojo]

It's very nice to see that LM have actually opened an account (Or so it seems...Could we have some formal verification of that though, please? ) and are letting us know first hand about why not all LM routes are available on this offer! 8)
Since joining the board a good three years ago, that's the first time I've seen a TOC participate and give us some useful info...Though that said, it's possible that I might've missed any prior postings by other TOCs.

You have, and you've also missed the original postings by London_Midland.

 

[Death]

You have, and you've also missed the original postings by London_Midland.

Given that I only have time to read about 5-10% of the posts on this forum, I thought there'd be a likelyhood that another TOC might've posted here and I didn't spot it - Hence my choice of words above. 8)

Oh, and I did kind of "miss" LM's previous posts first time around...But the board search engine soon set me right on those lines!

 

[London_Midland]

In answer to Death's questions (and yes, it really is London Midland, not an imposter!):

"I'm planning to break my journey twice on the return portion of my promo ticket - In Crewe for a few hours to visit the heritage centre, and again at Tamworth for a 14-21 day sub trip to Derby"

- you can break your journey more than once, so this is fine.

"Is there any form of wi-fi installed on your trains"

- not at the moment, I'm afraid. We are looking into it, but at the moment the cost of fitting suitable equipment is prohibitive.

"How long does it take a typical London --> Liverpool service to complete that journey"

- It's not quick, but it is cheap You need to take a Euston-Crewe train to Stafford and change onto a Birmingham to Liverpool train there. Total journey time 3h24m northbound and 3h45m southbound.

I hope that helps,

David.

 

[TsLeng]

Did the Great Escape a while back ago. Good fun.

Will take advantage of this as well for a trip to London next week!

I am beginning to warm to London Midland haha. Luckily the Desiros are comfy which makes the longer journey time acceptable.

 

[LondonLarry]

Did the Great Escape a while back ago. Good fun.

Will take advantage of this as well for a trip to London next week!

I am beginning to warm to London Midland haha. Luckily the Desiros are comfy which makes the longer journey time acceptable.

Don't forget there's the strike next week!

 

[TsLeng]

Yes I just checked and realised...

Too bad I still have to go cos it is a somewhat important trip. I'll just have to bear the crush of people.

At least the service I am using, New Street - Euston will still have a service.
No service from my local to New Street I guess so I'll have to take the bus.
:cry:

 

[Daimler]

I was looking forward to using the offer to go from London-Liverpool next week too (£6.60 - and I far prefer travelling by Desiro to by Pendolino!)

However, the strike looks like London Midland won't be running any of their Birmingham - Liverpool trains .

Ah well, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a positive announcement tonight!

 

[TsLeng]

And I just realised that the important things I need to do may not be possible afterall if the strike goes ahead.

The people I am supposed to meet most probably won't be in

Oh wells, lets see then

 

[Death]

In answer to Death's questions (and yes, it really is London Midland, not an imposter!):

• you can break your journey more than once, so this is fine.
• It's not quick, but it is cheap You need to take a Euston-Crewe train to Stafford and change onto a Birmingham to Liverpool train there. Total journey time 3h24m northbound and 3h45m southbound.

Many, many thanks for the handy info and for answering my above questions, LM! 8)

I agree that it may not be as quick as certain other operators (And their plastic pendulums! ) but those timings don't look any longer than what I was used to back in BR days when the Holyhead InterCity took three hours to get from London to Crewe. Indeed...Thy timings to Liverpool are only an hour on top of the Chiltern ones for Marylebone to Birmingham!

Is there any form of wi-fi installed on your trains?

not at the moment, I'm afraid. We are looking into it, but at the moment the cost of fitting suitable equipment is prohibitive.

I don't know if this'd be much use to ye, given that many passengers would find it to be a painfully slow connection...But a wireless access point, a PC configured as a network server, and a USB GPRS dongle on an unlimited data plan would at least provide dial-up quality connections for roughly 25 passengers at once for a very low cost.

Although ye'd need to provide some form of connection management (Mainly blocking large file transfers, VOIP calls, IM applications and bandwidth-heavy sites like YouTube) to ensure that all passengers get fair use of the available bandwidth, the connection would still be more than good enough for sending/receiving e-mail and general web browsing with a bit of patience.
Although I can understand that many might find a 36kbps connection to their laptop be far less than what they'd expect, I can't see how anyone could complain if it's complimentary wi-fi they're using!

Farewell for now, cheers for the info, and hope my info on affordable GPRS networks is useful to ye!
>> Death <<

 

[yorkie]

You can't just shove a home wireless hub, a PC and a GPRS/3G dongle onto a train. Installing WiFi onto a train is going to be very expensive and trying to do it on the cheap is going to just frustrate people and be a waste of money when it doesn't work.

 

[Death]

You can't just shove a home wireless hub, a PC and a GPRS/3G dongle onto a train...

Are ye sure about that, Yorkie? I've managed to do exactly that at least twice in the past, now! hock:
Of course, the dongle and AP were in a bag and the PC was in a suitcase...They wern't hooked up and running at the time!

That said...I wonder if the at-seat sockets on LM's 350's would provide enough current to safely run a 300w PC, a flat-panel and an AP? It'd be interesting to put such a temporary/experimental on-train wifi network to the test!

Installing WiFi onto a train is going to be very expensive and trying to do it on the cheap is going to just frustrate people and be a waste of money when it doesn't work.

That's a very good point, I suppose.
Personally, I'd be happy with a 9660 baud connection (That's 9,660 BITS per second! hock if it was complimentary, and I'd adjust my usage of the network to optimise the slow connection in the most efficient manner possible...Most likely through using a stupidly huge pre-populated cache on the laptop (Or whatever I'm surfing on), loading only HTML and JSON, and not touching binaries! 8)

However, ye try teaching the average business or domestic user how they can optimise a very slow connection...They probabally wouldn't have the foggiest idea even after a very explicit lesson. All they'd be wondering is why the hell is the connection so "slow"?...

It's a pity that high speed wi-fi is more or less a prerequisite for service providers now, as optimising slower connections was always a fun challenge. After all, it was only fifteen years ago that the fastest Internet (Well, ARPAnet!) connections ran at about 768bps, and were so expensive that only academic and military institutions could afford them! hock:

Anyhow...I just managed to book my dirt "cheep" LM ticket for the 16th, so that's me sorted for me next 'oliday! 8)
Just gotta hope that I can collect my LM Only tickets from the SWT QFM at Farnborough Main! That's the option I chose so that I could collect my LM tickets when I go to buy the other three, but - With LM not offering PDF e-tickets - This is the first time I've ever had to use ToD collection.

 

[mickey]

Just gotta hope that I can collect my LM Only tickets from the SWT QFM at Farnborough Main! That's the option I chose so that I could collect my LM tickets when I go to buy the other three, but - With LM not offering PDF e-tickets - This is the first time I've ever had to use ToD collection.

You haven't missed much I've never used them on SWT machines but I have on most other people's and there's never been a problem.

- It's not quick, but it is cheap You need to take a Euston-Crewe train to Stafford and change onto a Birmingham to Liverpool train there. Total journey time 3h24m northbound and 3h45m southbound.

I'll happily add my voice to those congratulating you for your proactive approach to customer service in coming on here and replying to people's questions and comments, David. Indeed, I'll return the gesture by adding some feedback of my own...

As a regular (ish) user, I must say it's fantastic to have the choice of spending a little longer travelling for a much lower fare when not in a rush - that's one example of how competition on the railways has definitely made for a better service for passengers. Your team deserve much credit too for making the connection so simple at Stafford between the London and Liverpool trains - and even VT's station staff are to be commended as there's nearly always an announcement on arrival of the platform to change to, which always goes down well with confused passengers. In fact my only concerns are firstly the lack of Sunday connections (I know you have problems there, but it's something to bear in mind if ever you are able to sort them out), and secondly the fact that 350/2s have started creeping in on your longer-distance routes - surely I can't be alone in thinking you should keep them for commuter routes and have only 350/1s operating on all routes north of Stafford?

 

[London_Midland]

Thanks for the feedback Mickey; I can't always reply to everything, but I do my best to address problems!

The 350/2s should generally be allocated on Northampton to London trains, but the diagrams are such that they do stray up to Birmingham.

They shouldn't end up on the Euston to Crewe route, but inevitably they do, usually following earlier disruption, which means they can then find their way onto the Liverpools the next day. Obviously if a 350/2 is all we have, then it's better to use that than nothing at all, but hopefully such occurrences are starting to reduce.

David.

 

[TsLeng]

Strike's off.

Going to book my tickets soon hehe.

 

[thewolf]

I'm having issues trying to book a ticket from Stoke (to Hereford).

It won't give me the £6.60 from Stoke (or Longport, Kidsgrove, etc), and if I put it from Crewe, it only offers me trains via Shrewsbury.

It will give me the cheap fare from Stafford, but I'd envisage getting in trouble with that, as I'd be travelling beyond what the ticket says.

Any ideas?

 

[37401]

I am beginning to warm to London Midland haha. Luckily the Desiros are comfy which makes the longer journey time acceptable.

comfy compared to having you legs cut off with a rusty butter knife yes, but not comfy overall.

Not doing this LM thing, ill pay the extra and go with WSMR, Proper train with proper seats, polite staff and decent food not a trolley that might not even be on the train
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

You can't just shove a home wireless hub, a PC and a GPRS/3G dongle onto a train. Installing WiFi onto a train is going to be very expensive and trying to do it on the cheap is going to just frustrate people and be a waste of money when it doesn't work.

Write letters to every home along the WCML asking them to turn their WI-FI security off "oh I've got a small signal, no wait strong, oh no its gone...oh wait no got another one" hahaha

 

[TsLeng]

I find the Desiros better than Pendolinos.

Partly due to the fact that its a brighter interior and airy feel due to bigger cross section

WSMR does not run New street-Euston unfortunately. And definitely not at 6.6quid return hehe.

 

[37401]

I find the Desiros better than Pendolinos.

Partly due to the fact that its a brighter interior and airy feel due to bigger cross section

WSMR does not run New street-Euston unfortunately. And definitely not at 6.6quid return hehe.

Meh, Desiros Vs Pendos its debatable but I find ill wish I did the pendo when all 50 odd of them pass me on the fast on the way to London.

If LM layed on their 321s I would consider it but, still rather have Mk3s over a unit

But they do run Tame bridge-Marylebone, may not be for £6 but think about what you get for the £20 WSMR sell at. Comfy seat, guaranteed to be able to buy food, and nice hot food too, and a table (350/2 doesn't have that)
and from a cranks point of view you have some power at one end and not a eeeeeeee underneath you every time you stop start


And lets ignore this whole london for £6 (or Fun-don fro a fiver as our friend David would call it)

on a normal day you can go from Birmingham to London and you have the choice of 4 operators, 1 is over priced, 1 takes forever and has horrible stock, the other 2 yes not the fastest but better than the first 2 and when evergreen is finished and Chiltern get their 67s Loco hauled service from Snow hill/Moor st there will be no competition.

LM may aswell throw in the towel now

Id rather have a journey thats a fair price and enjoyable over a journey thats fast and overpriced or cheap and nasty

Lets look at the difference between LM & WSMR traveling from the Midlands (leaving before 0930, 3rd May)

(According to LM website)

Anytime return vaild on LM only: £42.90 w RC
Duration: 2h 25m
What do you get for that: Trolley service (maybe), no tables on /2s

Return on WSMR: £21
Duration: 2h 13m
What do you get: Nice seats, Buffet car selling hot drinks and food as well as fresh food, a table, smiling staff, a nice view out of the window

Take your pick
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

In answer to Death's questions (and yes, it really is London Midland, not an imposter!)

Prove it

 

[TsLeng]

WSMR does not run from Birmingham centre which is the problem. Factor in time to get to a station where WSMR runs from my place would make the total journey time more. Not to mention paying extra for that bit too.

Normally, I would always book cheap advance ticket from VT for my Brum-Lon trips. They offer the best value / time balance to me. I normally make do with very cheap fares since I do not need to travel peak which is what the LM easter promotion is about. Off-peak passengers.

On occasions, when fares are too high, I just take Chiltern. (they have nice trains too)

But if the price is right, I will take LM and with that in mind, I get the bonus of a better cabin experience compared to standard on VT. Thats all I meant.
And I don't care much for food or drinks on board. 2.5 hours is not that long. (1.5 if I am not VT)

A kip, some work, times up.

Please do not compare peak time travel as that is irrelevant.

 

[37401]

WSMR does not run from Birmingham centre which is the problem. Factor in time to get to a station where WSMR runs from my place would make the total journey time more. Not to mention paying extra for that bit too.

BHM-Tame bridge takes no more than 30mins, if that, and the £21.10 WSMR offer is not a Peak fare as they have abolished them.

Im on about fares not times, I threw the times in for the hell of it.

As I said, why pay more for less, if traveling for leisure from the Midlands go for WSMR, best value for money, if people are looking for a journey that they can enjoy and have a meal on then go for WSMR, its not £6 but with LM you'll get what you pay for: sod all

And don't get me started on LMs first class service, what's the point, you get a recliner and a headrest thats it.

Maybe David can enlighten me as to why LM bother with first class as its really not worth
it

I live in Birmingham myself and would rather do the extra 30 or so mins and pay the few bob extra and go for the better journey

 

[radamfi]

The point of LM first class is the same as for other commuter TOCs. It just means you are more likely to get a seat at busy times.