Feature: Rail Travel Pictured: Chiltern Railways ➔
cheapest fare and requiring the booker to justify a more expensive choice. He adds: “Some companies have followed
the public sector by implementing a travel policy of no first class travel. But I wouldn’t advocate that, as there are good deals in first class if you can book in advance. An extra £10 or £15 is very good value,” says Watts. PricewaterhouseCoopers does not ban first class travel, but on rail journeys of up to two
hours it asks travellers to justify it. Travel manager Will Hasler says: “What I want to see is more deals like East Coast’s Scottish Executive ticket – a standard class product with complimentary upgrade to first class. We are currently talking to Virgin Trains to see if something similar could be offered on their routes.”
“Except on fast routes such as London to Manchester or Newcastle, train operators tend to struggle to attract business travellers”
Availability of discounted tickets on high- capacity routes such as those operated by East Coast and Virgin is generally good, especially off-peak. But as another prominent travel manager pointed out, there are many routes with restricted availability where journey times are not attractive for business travellers. “The big restriction is the rail infrastructure, as you can’t run fast trains between, say, Bristol and Glasgow,” he says. “Except on fast routes such as London to Manchester or Newcastle, train operators will struggle to attract business travellers.” He continues, “I am not in favour
of HS2 as it is diverting attention away from the real needs of the business traveller – better airports and more runways.” Will I re-consider going by train,
the next time I travel from Oxford to Leeds? The route is operated
by CrossCountry with a change of train usually necessary en route, and the journey time of around three hours and 30 minutes can be beaten by car, which also takes me door to door. So the answer is probably not!
Kick your £158 per day habit. Day return fare from London to Birmingham:
Virgin - £158 Chiltern Railways - £25*
To book or to find out more please visit
mainlineforbusiness.co.uk
*£25 fare excludes evening peak leaving London Marylebone and morning peak leaving Birmingham Moor Street.
2 trains
per hour between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street. Now from just 90 minutes.
18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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