From the Victorian arches to the Eliza Doolittle flower stalls, Marylebone station serves as a reminder of all that people romanticise about rail travel in Britain. It may surprise devoted users, then, that the inspiration for the service that operates from it is American.
Back from a holiday in the US and sporting the emblematic bald eagle on his tie, Adrian Shooter, the chief executive of Chiltern Railways, says the groups business is modelled on Southwest Airlines, the only airline in the US that has been consistently profitable and a model for low-cost flying.
This translates into simple, frequent trains, with fast turnround times to keep expenses down.
But if Mr Shooter has been running one of the most popular railways in Britain on those principles since 1994, the company has hit the radar because it is a potential template for other operators as the franchise system has come in for criticism.
In the wake of the furore over the planned renationalisation of the East Coast mainline, Chiltern Railways stands out for its willingness to invest in its services and its high score in passenger satisfaction surveys. Many politicians are pointing to a connection between the two.
The secret may be the unusually long 20-year franchise that Mr Shooter negotiated in exchange for putting millions of pounds into the station and services. That has seen the company extend the London to Birmingham line to Kidderminster in one direction and Stratford upon Avon in another.
It has also bought new trains, installed more signalling, brought disused tracks back to life, renovated old stations and built a new one Warwick Parkway in Birmingham. Both passenger numbers and trains have doubled since privatisation in 1996 when Mr Shooter took part in a management buy-out from British Rail.
The company is now owned by Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned German operator. But the team running the railway has been in place for 15 years and its success is based on its investment in staff as much as its finances, says Mr Shooter.
To this end every one of its 750 employees has been in to see him within a month of joining so they know what they are trying to do, have a continuity of purpose and are proud to work in the business, he says. A mission statement tacked to the walls of each office in Marylebone station urges staff to welcome customers.
But there is also more hard cash involved. The company is investing a further £250m in schemes that will shave 20 minutes off the two-hour journey time to Birmingham taking curves out of the track, for instance. It is planning to build a route from London to Oxford by 2012, providing the first rail services to the north of the university town.
Mr Shooter says there is nothing in principle to stop other rail operators negotiating similar long-term franchises in exchange for investment.
But he concedes that this has not been the governments latest thinking. Instead, it has reacted to each negative press headline by tightening rail contracts to the point where you have someone providing a detailed service like emptying dustbins.
Most rail operators are tied into seven-year franchises, where they have little control over their costs, their fares, their train frequency, stock, or length. Chiltern Railways is subject to some of these restrictions, with 70 per cent of its fares regulated by government. But its contract gives it more freedom to invest and it is there for the long haul.
The first company to introduce ticket barriers, much of Chilterns success has been achieved by an attention to detail. When it ordered new trains it helped to design the specifications.
It introduced more doors to help people get on and off more quickly, installed more comfortable seats, provided air-conditioning and patented its own model of laptop-friendly tables. At the stations, it chooses retailers carefully.
There are no first class carriages because they are thought to cause resentment and the company considered that if the trains were right for business people they would at least exceed the specifications for others, says Mr Shooter.
Critics would argue that the railway is small, and has few of the physical constraints that many of the other train operators have to contend with. But many would agree with Mr Shooter that most rail contracts have got the balance between freedom and regulation wrong.
After all, he says, If you are going to go through the upheaval and angst of bringing in the private sector, it doesnt make sense to remove flair and innovation.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/291d1848-8521-11de-9a64-00144feabdc0.html
Back from a holiday in the US and sporting the emblematic bald eagle on his tie, Adrian Shooter, the chief executive of Chiltern Railways, says the groups business is modelled on Southwest Airlines, the only airline in the US that has been consistently profitable and a model for low-cost flying.
This translates into simple, frequent trains, with fast turnround times to keep expenses down.
But if Mr Shooter has been running one of the most popular railways in Britain on those principles since 1994, the company has hit the radar because it is a potential template for other operators as the franchise system has come in for criticism.
In the wake of the furore over the planned renationalisation of the East Coast mainline, Chiltern Railways stands out for its willingness to invest in its services and its high score in passenger satisfaction surveys. Many politicians are pointing to a connection between the two.
The secret may be the unusually long 20-year franchise that Mr Shooter negotiated in exchange for putting millions of pounds into the station and services. That has seen the company extend the London to Birmingham line to Kidderminster in one direction and Stratford upon Avon in another.
It has also bought new trains, installed more signalling, brought disused tracks back to life, renovated old stations and built a new one Warwick Parkway in Birmingham. Both passenger numbers and trains have doubled since privatisation in 1996 when Mr Shooter took part in a management buy-out from British Rail.
The company is now owned by Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned German operator. But the team running the railway has been in place for 15 years and its success is based on its investment in staff as much as its finances, says Mr Shooter.
To this end every one of its 750 employees has been in to see him within a month of joining so they know what they are trying to do, have a continuity of purpose and are proud to work in the business, he says. A mission statement tacked to the walls of each office in Marylebone station urges staff to welcome customers.
But there is also more hard cash involved. The company is investing a further £250m in schemes that will shave 20 minutes off the two-hour journey time to Birmingham taking curves out of the track, for instance. It is planning to build a route from London to Oxford by 2012, providing the first rail services to the north of the university town.
Mr Shooter says there is nothing in principle to stop other rail operators negotiating similar long-term franchises in exchange for investment.
But he concedes that this has not been the governments latest thinking. Instead, it has reacted to each negative press headline by tightening rail contracts to the point where you have someone providing a detailed service like emptying dustbins.
Most rail operators are tied into seven-year franchises, where they have little control over their costs, their fares, their train frequency, stock, or length. Chiltern Railways is subject to some of these restrictions, with 70 per cent of its fares regulated by government. But its contract gives it more freedom to invest and it is there for the long haul.
The first company to introduce ticket barriers, much of Chilterns success has been achieved by an attention to detail. When it ordered new trains it helped to design the specifications.
It introduced more doors to help people get on and off more quickly, installed more comfortable seats, provided air-conditioning and patented its own model of laptop-friendly tables. At the stations, it chooses retailers carefully.
There are no first class carriages because they are thought to cause resentment and the company considered that if the trains were right for business people they would at least exceed the specifications for others, says Mr Shooter.
Critics would argue that the railway is small, and has few of the physical constraints that many of the other train operators have to contend with. But many would agree with Mr Shooter that most rail contracts have got the balance between freedom and regulation wrong.
After all, he says, If you are going to go through the upheaval and angst of bringing in the private sector, it doesnt make sense to remove flair and innovation.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/291d1848-8521-11de-9a64-00144feabdc0.html
