London Midland TERRIBLE

dj_ad1200

I bought the great escape London Midland deal to go from Liverpool to London.

I upgraded to First Class for the extra £10.

What a waste of money that was !!

1. The website is VERY misleading as I was under the impression I could use the Virgin train. Obviously I know that the companies are separate but on the London Midland website it gives the Virgin trains timetable. Also when we got on the Virgin train in Liverpool there was an announcement a few minutes before the train took off to tell people on the train that London Midland tickets were invalid on this service. Maybe others have been misled too.

2. The train that went through the Crewe station before us brought down the overhead lines so we had to wait for an emergency repair (not London Midlands fault but oh well)

3. Swap at Birmingham. NO-ONE to ask what platform we should go to at all so just followed the crowd.

4. On the way back we jumped on the last train to Crewe and were due to get a connecting train from Stafford. This diddnt happen. At Northampton the WHOLE 8 carriages were kicked off and we were made to wait in the cold for another train (no reason why. just do it) when the next train arrived it was a 4 carriage the people on that train got off and we all squeezed on. We managed to get a seat but MANY diddn't. Then the people who were on the original 4 carriage got on the 8 carriage (what was the reason behind this). As a result of all this we were a total of 24minutes late for the train from Stafford to Liverpool and as a result we missed it.

The next one was in half an hour so AGAIN we waited in the cold at the train station for half an hour for a train that we shouldn't be waiting for.

Over all I was very disappointed with the service and I'd like to know if anyone has had a similar problem.

Also what did we pay the extra money for first class for as on the train coming back the doors to section you off were broke and permanently open and apart from a babys bib on the back of the chair you don't get anything else. In fact, you get LESS leg room than second class.

My last and final point is that a day trip to London from Liverpool is not a good idea with London Midland as the train Journey takes 5hours without any delays (which there was). So we set off from liverpool at 7am and arrived back at 10pm and we spent 5hours in London.

YOU DO THE MATHS !!!

(im going with Virgin next time, it's cheaper with the farefinder !!!)

Axial

But the point of TOC specific tickets is that they are only valid on the TOC they were purchased for?!

I suspect the announcement is made at Liverpool because so many people fail to read the part about being valid on London Midland Only and then complain when they are required to buy replacement full fare tickets on the Virgin trains service.

Given the LM Great Escape promotion is a go anywhere on LM ticket its a fairly good deal.

kingstreet

Could someone do me a favour and confirm I'm not going mad?

I planned a London trip for Thursday 1st November using the LM Great Escape ticket.

Can anyone find a LM train from Euston to Stafford after 7pm on Thursday 1st? All the evening services appear to be run by VT.

Thanks kindly.

Superjohn

The last through London Midland train from Euston to Stafford is at 1546. After 1900 you will have to travel via Birmingham, options are:

Euston 1913
Birmingham New Street 2116
then
Birmingham New Street 2136
Stafford 2209

Or

Euston 1954
Birmingham New Street 2217
then
Birmingham New Street 2236
Stafford 2313

London Midland currently have staff shortage issues that are leading to trains being cancelled. I would recommend checking their website the night before your trip to confirm the trains you plan to get are not affected.

callum9999

The London Midland website has the timetable of every train in the UK bar Eurostar (and maybe Grand Central?)... It doesn't mean you can use any ticket on any train!

thelawnet

I think to be fair, that London Midland list Virgin Trains services in their printed timetables.

http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/timetables/

Not I think helpful given that London Midland shift so many of their seats on the basis of flexible tickets only valid on London Midland trains

zzzLazyDaisy

I traveled to London once with London Midland, never again. Yes the ticket was cheaper, but the journey took twice as long. I also upgraded to 1st class and discovered that it was a complete waste of money. Going out the door was jammed open and going back the first class was de-regulated as the previous train had broken down so those passengers were all crowded onto out train.

So now I look for the best advance fares I can find with Virgin and accept that cheapest is not always best.

kingstreet

callum9999 wrote: »

The London Midland website has the timetable of every train in the UK bar Eurostar (and maybe Grand Central?)... It doesn't mean you can use any ticket on any train!

Yeah, I'd carefully checked all their timetables and search facilities and established the trains out of Euston they were quoting were all Virgin services their Great Escape tickets wouldn't be valid for.

Superjohn is correct in what he says. We'd need to get a train to Birmingham NS and change. It turns a 1.5 hr VT journey into double that.

Looks like we'll be going elsewhere... and driving.

Sharon87

How late were you? You may be able to claim a refund for your train journey. Check the Midland Trains website to see if you meet the requirements for a refund

Jeff_Bridges_hair

dj_ad1200 wrote: »

I bought the great escape London Midland deal to go from Liverpool to London.

I upgraded to First Class for the extra £10.

What a waste of money that was !!

1. The website is VERY misleading as I was under the impression I could use the Virgin train. Obviously I know that the companies are separate but on the London Midland website it gives the Virgin trains timetable.

Yes because the conditions on the first page where you had to go to get the voucher deal were not clear enough for you, so its very far from misleading if you cannt read the information presented you on the screen.

You can visit as many or as few places as you like - the ticket gives you a day's unlimited travel on London Midland trains across our network after the morning peak period.

And for the second part of what I quoted you, if you have used the journey planner there then they have to show all trains which run between the two stations due to having to be impartial when retailing and show all available options. It is possible to get them to show their own services or even use NRE journey planner to also do this.

dj_ad1200 wrote: »

Over all I was very disappointed with the service and I'd like to know if anyone has had a similar problem.

My last and final point is that a day trip to London from Liverpool is not a good idea with London Midland as the train Journey takes 5hours without any delays (which there was). So we set off from liverpool at 7am and arrived back at 10pm and we spent 5hours in London.

(im going with Virgin next time, it's cheaper with the farefinder !!!)

So you didnt research this at all then did you yet you say you are dissapointed and claim Virgin to be cheaper. Id say thats a bit of a misnomer when you paid £10 per person for a return to London from Liverpool. I dont think Virgin have ever done a return fare from Liverpool for £10. And that £10 actually gives you unlimited travel on London Midlands network for a whole day. Thats fantastic value for money and whetehr or not it takes an age to get to London I dont think you can beat that very special price.

Maybe a bit of research and looking at the deals T&Cs wouldve made you better informed about whether or not you should have made the journey at all.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

So now I look for the best advance fares I can find with Virgin and accept that cheapest is not always best.

This is so very true. One look at a timetable to see how long your journey may be if you go for the cheapest ticket could make it a very long trip indeed.

Jnelhams

To be fair London Midland are normally pretty punctual, and are one of the few companies that run an easy Delay Repay claim system
http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/delay-repay/?=

At the moment, they have run out of drivers which is just plain silly, but a lot of their problems stem from having to share the tracks with Virgin who get priority on the platforms at London Euston for some reason, and the stupid time tables that are set by the government.