So it’s good bye to Virgin Trains East Coast and hello LNER. VTEC only managed just over 3 years looking after the franchise, and it’s been obvious from the trade press and latterly the broadsheets that some sort of government bailout for the franchise was inevitable. I confess to being a little surprised that Chris Grayling was willing to nationalise a franchise – at one time it seemed he was belligerently sticking to his guns and avoiding doing so in order to ensure no one thought he might listen to Labour, the public, or sense. There are good accounts of why the numbers didn’t work for the franchise out there already, alongside some thought-provoking pieces on the choice of brand for the new state operator. (I can’t help but wonder why East Coast Trains wasn’t revived – it was popular with the public and already has ample brand recognition). However, I thought I’d briefly reflect on how the change in franchise holder might impact my own travel patterns…
Points
The East Coast Trains loyalty scheme was tremendously popular, and when VTEC proposed closing it there was an outcry. It elicited a campaign blog and a large petition, but to no avail. It has since been possible to earn Nectar points or Virgin Flying Club points on transactions made through VTEC. I’ve tended towards collecting Nectar points (Virgin don’t fly to Edinburgh, so I prefer not to have orphan points lingering in my account), but earnings have been unremarkable. In terms of redemptions, it remains true that nothing lives up to East Coast Rewards, but there have been a couple of Nectar promotions over the last three years that have been most generous. On one occasion, we were able to secure £100 of credit to spend with Virgin for just £50 of Nectar points. It’ll be interesting to see what the LNER approach to points and loyalty is – they’re almost certainly going to drop Nectar and will obviously lose Virgin Flying Club.
Promotions
Virgin have been throwing the kitchen sink at getting people to ditch air travel in favour of the train on the east coast – supposedly with some success. The marketing budget has gone on all sorts, including a mass of TV spots, multiple huge billboards around Edinburgh, taxi wraps, etc. There has also been a concerted effort to run more sales and drive people to make advance bookings – seemingly with some success. One of the most interesting promotions was in the autumn of 2016, where anyone who could demonstrate they had flown to London in the previous three months was provided with a voucher to book a first class round trip from Edinburgh to London for £60 – an absolute steal given that availability was excellent. More recently, as the franchise began to hit the rocks, it felt like these had dried up. Perhaps, with a new operator on the scene, we can expect to see more marketing money thrown at passengers… We can but hope.
Other
Schedules are more or less fixed – we’re unlikely to get a later last service north from London to Scotland as a result of the change to LNER. Likewise, the new Azuma trains (already rolled out in green for GWR) are coming whether we like it or not. (Reports of quite how uncomfortable these trains can be make me wary). The change in franchise holder won’t change the crews on board, and service has typically been good over the last few years on the east coast. In catering terms, it’s been a long time since there was a restaurant car on the east coast (time to bring it back?), but the current first class catering concept was largely introduced by East Coast and retained (with tweaks) by VTEC. Presumably, LNER has no intention of rocking the service boat when it takes over.
My travel plans
Having had a hiatus in 2017 where I did not travel to London by rail on any one occasion, I have done so a couple of times so far this year. It remains the case that I am reluctant to travel down during the day, as it takes up so much time (and at premium rates if leaving Edinburgh early), while departing the night before adds a night of accommodation to the bill. The return is made tricky by the early departure of the final train of the night to Scotland – I have come to prefer the sleeper for this. What is likeliest to persuade me to change my habits that is within LNER’s control? Cheaper 1st class fares.
Let’s see what lies in wait for us with this new operator…
TransportIan 