Following last week's chat about positioning in the rail industry, and the fight between Virgin, London Midland, and Chiltern over the Birmingham-London route, I got this email in my inbox.
It's pretty much exactly what they should be doing. It plays to their strengths - the new trains and the faster journey time, the pictures immediately convey an image of speedy, professional, comfortable travel. Note that it doesn't actually say anything about how the improvements were made - it's all about the journey, about the passenger experience, not about the type of track, or how much the project cost, or the technological advances. Leave that to the trade press. All the customer cares about is: it's quicker, and it's a more pleasant trip.
Now compare London Midland (from their website), who are introducing new trains on the Snow Hill lines. You have to get halfway through the 4th sentence before finding out what this actually means for passengers. I mean, really, who gives a toss about "resignalling", or that the trains are built in the Midlands? Not to mention that admitting to replacing a 25 year old fleet sounds a lot like "better late than never". And as for the photo they lead with - what does that tell you? It looks pretty much the same as any other train to me.
There's only one winner here.
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