Chiltern Railways

I travel regularly from London to Birmingham and find the Chiltern Railways route to be really useful. The trains leave from Marylebone and go into Birmingham Moor Street or Snow Hill. The more popular route is the Euston / New Street route with Virgin rail. However this can be expensive. Marylebone station is very easy to use, it is a small station so no long hike from the tube, to the plaforms or to the shops. Although small, it still has the essentials like WHSmith and M&S food. Moor Street and Snow Hill are both in the centre of Birmingham, Moor Street is very close to the Bull Ring and from either station is ...  Read the complete review

I get this train from Birmingham down to London Marylebone and have had some very pleasant journeys! There are many attributes to this train service that may suit you very well, and some that beat other trainlines! The positives... :) Space availability- I've never had a reserved seat on these trains but find they are very spacious, with many seats and tables available. They do fill up when you get nearer London but the train is very open and airy so you can never feel clostrophobic or stuffy. :) Many cool tables- It's a nice contrast from the stuffy Virgin carriages to find cool white tables in funky round shapes. There are so many ...  Read the complete review

Chiltern railways is in my opinion Britains best rail service. They opearte services between London and Birmingham and I would say that Chiltern is your best bet for travel between London and Birmingham. Even though Virgin are faster the Chiltern service is far superior. The excellence Begins as soon as you reach Marylebone station which has the best atmosphere of all London termini. The station is small, clean and maintained to a very high standard with less crowds then you get at other stations such as Euston. There are good catering outlets with a Bagel Bar, a Soup Stall and the more common Burger King and Upper Crust. There is also a small pub that serves ...  Read the complete review

Introduction ~~ Well the British railways are in a bit of a state. Unsafe, late and unreliable are three words that come to mind. Well those three words don’t go with all of Britain’s railways. Well those three words certainly don’t go with Chiltern Railways, who I use a lot. They provide services between Birmingham, the West Midlands and London. Though I only use their service to travel into London from Beaconsfield or Gerrards Cross or go from Beaconsfield to Gerrards Cross to see friends. Frequency of trains ~~ Out of the many times I have used Chiltern Railways the train has never been more than 5 minutes late. And usually it is ...  Read the complete review

Given the current state of the nation's rail network, a railway company that gives a consistently good service ought perhaps to be regarded as bordering on the miraculous. Nevertheless credit should be given where it is due, and that's certainly the case where Chiltern Railways are concerned. They're a relatively small Train Operating Company (TOC), which admittedly gives them an edge over the sprawling networks of such outfits as Virgin, but even so the contrast between Chiltern and many of their competitors is stark. Competition was always given as one of the main reasons given for privatisation (well, Mr Major could hardly come out with the truth, ...  Read the complete review