Passenger Engagement and Public Toilets

Before reading any further, I must first of all point out that I am not in the habit of taking pictures in public toilets. Honestly.

A significant part of the role of a corporate Marketing & Communications team is to increase customer engagement with your brand. 

The word engagement is something that means different thinks to different people. Thanks to the English language, context is of course important. 

Employee Engagement is part of the modern management lexicon of corporate-speak. A cynic might say that someone with a high level of Employee Engagement is likely to accept less remuneration (or lower pay rises) and is less likely to leave, than would otherwise be the case. 

For a train company, customers are in the main your passengers. Passenger Engagement can therefore mean different things, but if a Marketing & Communications team can successfully increase brand perception, then that is good. It is what they are there for. 

A strong brand increases loyalty from existing customers and will also help attract new ones. For a train company, that means new passengers.

I am probably fairly high up the target list of a passenger that a train company would want to keep loyal. I do not say that because I have an over-sized head but because (a) my local Train Operating Company gets sack loads of my dosh every year (b) I use twitter to communicate with and about them and (c) I occasionally write blog posts about my experiences. 

For me, there is no chance of another TOC getting my day-to-day business. Chiltern Railways operate a monopoly in my area so, along with thousands of other commuters, I am not going anywhere else. 

It's a different story however for Chiltern Railways when looking at the entirety of their route. The London to Birmingham route is highly competitive. 

Here are the options and a snapshot view of each brand and offering (my views alone). 

• Virgin Trains. London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Fast. Expensive. 
• Chiltern Railways. London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street / Snow Hill. Not so fast, better value. 
• London Midland. London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Really slow. Good value. 

So, see what I've done? I have ranked and compared three multi-million pound businesses based on just two comparatives and my perceptions. 

Each of those comparatives (speed and price) can easily be challenged, or proven wrong, or may be completely irrelevant to particular passengers. 

Speed (time a journey takes) is affected by a number of factors including your specific start and finishing points, ease of connection to onward trains and even the time or day of the week. 

Price, as far as the UK railway industry is concerned, should be the subject of a Masters Degree in Confusion and Complexity. I will simply say that a single one-way journey between London and Birmingham can sometimes be obtained for as little as 50 pence (a newspaper promotional offer) to as much as £135. Of course the vast majority of passengers pay somewhere in the middle and well below the mid-point of those two prices. 

Other passenger relevant variables might include;

• The availability of wi-fi and it's cost. 
• Tables
• Refreshment services
• Station ambience
• Plug charging points
• Types of trains
• View out of the window
• Friendliness of staff
• Availability of seats
• Awareness of what choices there are
• Cleanliness of toilets

Everybody is different and each individual will have their own personal decision-making matrix that they use. That is complicated and is difficult to model or to communicate effectively. 

That is where the Communication and Marketing team comes to the front. Can they encapsulate little snippets of information that subtly make people want to use their services over those of a competitor? Perhaps a self-deprecating choice of language. Humour. Honesty. Integrity. Everything helps, almost anything goes. 

So, what has all that got to do with toilets?

Take a look at the toilets at Marylebone Station and you'll find out!

CU

Virgin Trains along the Chiltern Line - Sunday 25 August 2013

Engineering works are taking place today that will significantly affect Virgin Trains Operating out of Euston.
This means that for much of the day one train an hour, in each direction, will be diverted via the Chiltern Line.

Virgin Trains
Sunday

• Some trains are diverted to run between London Euston and Birmingham International, Birmingham New Street and Crewe via High Wycombe, Leamington Spa and Coventry
• Trains between London Euston and Birmingham New Street / Wolverhampton and Manchester Piccadilly will run to an amended timetable
• Until 12:00 trains will not run between London Euston and Rugby
• After 12:00 trains will not run between London Euston and Milton Keynes Central

For those interested in such things, I have pasted below a snapshot of the anticipated time for all of the diverted trains to pass through Princes Risborough. Thanks to Tom Cairns and the Realtimetrains website.

If you click this link, you will be taken to the live version of the same data - Click away to your heart's content! The data should be retained for 7 days, after which it probably won't work any more.

As a consequence,Chiltern Railways services on their Mainline Route (Birmingham - Stratford-upon-Avon - Banbury - High Wycombe - London Marylebone) will have minor changes to their timetable. There will also be additional carriages on many trains as the planned closure on West Coast Main Line from Euston will mean additional passengers using their services.

___________________________

Virgin Trains through Princes Risborough

Sunday 25th August 201
(Click image to enlarge)

Edit: The original image has been replaced with one that shows what actually happened at Princes Risborough on Sunday 25th August 2013.

Route 18 is fifth in London to banish bendy buses

I use the number 18 quite a lot.

Whatever the spin (and it is drivel), my journeys will now be worse.

Traveling along the Euston and Marylebone Roads (long and straight) on a bendy bus (long and straight), with three sets of doors to get on and off, has been really quite painless. Given a choice of buses, the bendy bus has had my preference on this route.

It's early on the first day of the new double deckers - I may nip along later to check them out. I want to dislike them. Boris should be focusing on more important things.

HS2 at Northolt

On Saturday I travelled Along the Central Line for a short while, from West Ruislip to Northolt. It was fine.

This picture is taken from the Eastbound platform at Northolt. It is possible to make out the over-bridge station building, which is also where the main A412 crosses the railway.

Running parallel to the Central Line is a little used single track railway line. It runs from Northolt Junction, has a triangular junction at Greenford and then continues on to the Paddington main lines just East of North Acton station. The line used to be double tracked - I think there is a passing loop somewhere just East of Greenford.

The current plans for High Speed 2 involve the entire stretch of parallel line being part of the route from Euston to Birmingham.

There are all sorts of contentious aspects to the HS2 plans - tunneling underneath grumpy people on the route from Euston and carving up parts of the Chiltern Hills, never mind burning truckloads of money that we don't have.

To give some idea of the work involved, never mind the impact on those living nearby, imagine what will be needed to upgrade this single bridge (and probably the entire underground station building) to allow two high speed (up to 400 kph / 250 mph) tracks to pass through the area highlighted. Simply mind boggling.

Is the competition hotting up?

Over a large number of weekends this year, mainly due to engineering works in the Rugby area, Virgin Trains have been running hourly trains from London Euston to Coventry and Birmingham International, diverted up the Chiltern Railways route through rural Buckinghamshire.

According to a Network Rail press release put out today, the engineering work is now complete. Starting from next weekend the number of trains using the West Coast Main Line will increase dramatically, with journey times seeing significant reductions.

This is of course good news for travelers who will see a significant increase in seat capacity between London, Birmingham and stations north.

Hitherto, Chiltern Railways have offered the best value (ie cheapest) easily available fare between London and Birmingham at £5 each way (obviously, subject to restrictions).

In tonight's evening papers were Virgin Trains adverts offering tickets from the same price between London Euston and Birmingham, supposedly from next Sunday which is when the new timetable starts.

What a fantastic way for Virgin to thank Chiltern for their co-operation during the weekends of the Rugby blockade (see press release of 12 June 2008).

I do admire Chiltern Railways, but I've just checked with Virgin and it is possible to get a weekday mid-morning booking next month, from Euston for the promised £5 and the journey is scheduled to be as quick as 1hr 22 min.

Chiltern would appear to have some stiff competition!

Replacement Trains... Again

Today there have been further engineering works on the West Coast Main Line, meaning that trains from London Euston cannot get past Rugby. Virgin Trains have once again been running an hourly service to and from Coventry by means of a maze like route through West London and then up along the Chiltern Railways routes. Further to my previous post, I've found this blog post which has marked the london end of the diversion route on a map.

Chiltern Railways (which services include trains from Birmingham to London Marylebone) have been running as many seven carriage trains as they can muster on their long distance route and they have been pretty busy.

London Marylebone is one of the smallest London terminus stations and it is feeling a little crowded at times. It also sits on just one underground line (the Bakerloo) with quite lengthy escalators to and from the platforms.

This morning the down escalator was broken down. What with it being peak holiday season and the large number of extra people using the station, there were a lot of people struggling down the very long central stairway with quite heavy bags and cases. I hope they get the escalator fixed soon.

Yesterday morning was bad for someone, for many and for the Central Line

Yesterday (29th June) I had an early morning meeting in Canary Wharf. It is the first time I have had to travel directly all the way from leafy Buckinghamshire to Docklands. While the Jubilee Line (and Chiltern Railways) were as good as ever, I am pleased I don't have to make that particular journey every day.

The return trip from Canary Wharf to Tottenham Court Road was, unfortunately, not good.

It is always a bit of a lottery: Is it better to take (i) the Jubilee Line to Waterloo and then change to the Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road or (ii) the DLR to Bank and then the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road?

Yesterday we chose option (ii), the wrong one. Unfortunately there had been a serious incident at Liverpool Street on the Westbound, so our journey ended up being:

• Walk to Canary Wharf DLR
• DLR from Canary Wharf to Bank
• Stand on Westbound Central Line platform at Bank until we gave up
• Northern Line from Bank to Euston, change to Charing Cross branch
• Northern Line from Euston to Tottenham Court Office
• Walk to office

What is usually a 25 - 30 minute door-to-door journey turned into a very hot and sticky hour long expedition.

My only observations about the root cause of the problem would be (a) it wasn't the fault of London Underground and (b) however bad life gets, why the flipping heck should should train drivers and the emergency services have to deal with such crap? Seek help or find a way that causes less distress to other people.

Whoops! I spoke too soon about Chiltern Railways

Yesterday I mentioned that Chiltern Railways ran a good service. Unfortunately today (Monday 9th April 2007) Chiltern Railways are suffering a major signal failure in the Princes Risborough/ High Wycombe area.

A special emergency timetable has been put in place, details of which are shown below.

If you intend to travel with Chiltern Railways today, I recommend that you check their website for the up-to-date position. Due to engineering works over the holiday period on the West Coast Main Line from London Euston, Chiltern are supposed to be taking the strain for passengers traveling between Birmingham and London (into Marylebone), so this is not good news.

New Year's Day Train Services from Watford Junction

I am a creature of habit and will once again be travelling through Watford Junction, towards London Euston on New Year's Day.

My second post of this blog was a rant at the timetabling of trains from Watford Junction during engineering works.

Silverlink Trains do not appear to be having to endure significant engineering works from Watford Junction this year on New Year's Day and appear to be offering a pretty good service. Good News. A link to their timetable page is here.





Have a very Happy New Year!

Wem? How do you Spell that?

I spent last weekend up in Shropshire and traveled from London to Wem by train. I bought my ticket a few days in advance at Marylebone. It made me chuckle when I was asked by the ticket clerk; "Wem? How do you spell that?". Clearly I was going to a small place.

On Saturday morning I traveled to London Euston to catch the Virgin train to Crewe. Fortunately no engineering work on the Central Line so no problems getting into central London.

The train from Euston was fine, though whoever had distributed the seat reservation tickets seemed to have lost half of them. No matter, most people were seated roughly where they should be. The train did a passing impersonation of a rush hour tube train when, between Coventry and Birmingham New Street there was some severe overloading. Long distance express trains should not have to have people standing, jammed in along the full length of each carriage.

We pulled into Crewe about 10 minutes late.

The two coach train to Wem left half an hour later. I realised I was heading to an area of small towns and villages when the guard announced that three of the first five stops were 'Request Stops' and to let him know if you wanted the train to stop.

A fun family weekend then followed.

Watford Junction - New Year's Day Timetable Rant

See if you can fathom this one out:

New Year's Day, lunchtime.
Silverlink County operating hourly stopping services southbound from Northampton. ALL terminate (contrary to published New Year's Day Timetable), arriving at Watford Junction at xx.26

Silverlink Metro operating hourly stopping services southbound from Watford Junction departing at xx.22

Southern operating hourly service southbound services from Watford Junction departing at xx.22, first stop Harrow & Wealdstone then Kensington Olympia.

What sort of idiot makes up these timetables? I was of course aiming for Harrow & Wealdstone. In the end Virgin Trains agreed to accept southbound to Euston- so with 95% of the passengers having been herded outside to catch a 'Fast Coach' to Euston, a small number of us lucky cattle were able to get on a big fancy red train resulting in me going the long way round, probably quicker than any other means. Oh- and the screens weren't showing any Virgin Trains going south, because they are only timetabled to drop off.

What exactly is it that Network Rail do? Grrrrrr...