London Midland - Great Escape promotion

[Green Lane]

Whilst I'm on, may as well also mention that on the London Midland website, the "Great Escape" promotion is available again.

From my limited knowledge it seems that any day between (and including) 29th May and 6th June, you can travel anywhere on the London Midland network for £10 standard or £20 first class.

You just have to get a printable "voucher" from the website, which then allows you to claim the reduced-price ticket via a staffed ticket office at any station served by London Midland.

May be useful to some on here. Seems there's a quota to the number of vouchers available, but you can request as many as you want.

Personally, I've got a voucher for Sat 5th June, might go to London or Birmingham. Didn't fancy 29th May so much due to engineering work on the WCML affecting both LM & Virgin services on that date. What I like about this offer is the fact that you don't actually have to purchase the ticket until you are 100% sure that you want to travel e.g. the day before or even on the day of travel, provided you already have your voucher.

 

[323235]

it seems that they've doubled the quota from last time

 

[Mojo]

Great to see it return; but what useless dates for me!

 

[Green Lane]

Well, that was another enjoyable day I had yesterday, taking another train ride from Liverpool to London and back, thanks to the £10 offer.

Also, thanks to the forum members who told me how to purchase a London travelcard via a National Rail TOC website to pick up at a machine (works fine when using the Southern railway website I found). I picked my travelcard up from Liverpool Lime street as intended.

When I got into Euston yesterday morning, the lady in front of me had a Great Escape ticket, issued at Northampton. The ticket barrier there would not accept it.

I instead inserted my travelcard, which I was going to do anyway - so no barrier issues for me.

Took the Orpington train from Victoria to West Dulwich to visit the Picture gallery. Haven't been inside Victoria station for a long time - I've never seen so much scaffolding! Came back via North Dulwich-> London Bridge. The trains on that line really remind me of Merseyrail trains as they make exactly the same sounds and everything.

Also went up to Colindale on the tube to visit the RAF Museum.

So overall a good day for merely £10 plus £6.30 travelcard.

Can't wait for the next special offer! I notice today is the last day of this one.

 

[323235]

Can anyone give an insight into how popular it was this time round?

 

[John @ home]

Can anyone give an insight into how popular it was this time round?

Detailed report here.

 

[Ibex]

An interesting report there.

the GE ticket was universally recognised
at once both on trains and at stations, including non-LM stations such as
Watford Jct. I certainly feel that I got my tenner's worth.

Last time I checked Watford was a LM station. The big information screen with This station is managed by London Midland on it is a slight giveaway :P

I've just had two days around the LM network with my friend who had Great Escape tickets and I have to say they were both very good days. We got most of the network covered and not once did we encounter a delayed train (though that is really pot luck) and all the trains we travelled on were clean and tidy, friendly revenue and catering staff throughout, well kept stations etc.

It was also good to get an insight into the rest of the network outside of my end of the line.

The only off-putting thing was the local talent hanging around stations like Smethwick GB, Hednesford and Cannock etc.

 

[323235]

Good stuff

 

[Green Lane]

Can anyone give an insight into how popular it was this time round?

On the way out I noticed there were far more passengers than usual on platform 4 as I changed trains at Stafford, so I thought (due to past experience) that the train really would be totally rammed by the time we got to Northampton. However, it worked out fine as this time we did join onto the Birmingham train there, which always reduces crowding between there and Euston. A few people were standing from Nuneaton onwards but this service was not as packed as it had been in the past. Also, they allowed all passengers to use first class (which invariably seems to happen on this service). Buying a first class ticket on this particular stretch at this particular time of day would almost always be a waste of money.

The return journey was much quieter. It was also an 8-car train at Euston, splitting at Northampton. I'm guessing the rear four (Birmingham New Street) coaches may have been busier as they require less walking along the platform to board at Euston, but I was in the very front coach of the Crewe portion (Coach A) and there were only about five people in that coach! I don't think I've ever departed a London terminal on such a quiet train before. Just a few weeks earlier, the same train had been packed at Euston. (But that time it was only 4 carriages).

Splitting/joining trains is a great idea and makes a lot of sense - provided there is absolutely no confusion as to which portion of the train is going where. The repeated automated train announcements on the return journey were completely correct on this point ("Front->Crewe" and "Rear->Birmingham"). However, when we got to Northampton, the guard said it the wrong way round! Human error I suppose. One family ran from the next carriage to ask me if this was the Birmingham portion. I said "No, this is going to Crewe" and they just got off with seconds to spare before the train departed.

In the morning, on the way out from Liverpool, the guard was very helpful and chatty, well the train was very quiet. Although he inadvertently gave incorrect platform information for changing at Stafford. He said to change onto platform 1 for the Euston train, but that's actually the Virgin Trains service. Again, just a mistake that's very easy to make I suppose! I knew from previous journeys that the LM service usually arrives on the same platform as the Liverpool-Birmingham service (Platform 4) and so just stayed on the same platform, waiting for approx ten minutes as usual. The connection timings are very good on this route in both directions.

The most "fun" part was when I went to collect the GE ticket on Friday lunchtime at Liverpool Lime Street travel centre. I handed my voucher in and asked to buy the £10 ticket. The lady said is it a single or return? I said I thought it was just unlimited travel for a day! The reason she asked is because apparently loads of people from the Liverpool area got either stranded in London or had to buy VT tickets in order to return last Saturday. I told her I wasn't surprised by this as there were WCML engineering works last week. Also you do have to leave London early (i.e. before 17:00) if going all the way back to Liverpool using LM-only trains. She told me a lot of people didn't know these two things and therefore came a cropper! She said some of them paid £122 to get back apparently. (perhaps she meant two people or something!) I would've instead got a £20 Chiltern train service to BHM and gone back that way if possible but I guess not everyone knows about that.

So she said "You can't use this ticket on Virgin trains". I said "Thanks, I know." Then she said "It takes three and a half hours to get to London". I said "I know, I've travelled the route five times recently, but thanks for the info". I did say to her though, "It's good that you tell people what's involved", because not everyone knows. To be fair, she was just concerned that she didn't want to see any more people stranded on these tickets.

If doing Liverpool->London and back with LM, you've just got to leave very early in the morning for it to be worthwhile.

An interesting report there.
Last time I checked Watford was a LM station. The big information screen with This station is managed by London Midland on it is a slight giveaway :P

Yes I immediately noticed that too. On checking it again, I noticed someone corrected him on the newsgroup thread, so he knows it now.