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Giant Chiltern mobile takes in the wonders of new expanded route

A friendly giant mobile phone from Chiltern Railways was taking advantage of the new doubled availability of mobile phone tickets between Banbury and London Marylebone. 

The daily quota of tickets has been increased from 490 to 1010, with an allocation of new ticketing options introduced from Birmingham, Banbury, Bicester North and Great Missenden.  

To meet these new opportunities a new pricing structure will come into place.  Single fares will range from an even lower £4 through to £25 for the morning peak departure.  All the new prices will still offer a significant saving over the equivalent 'walk up' fare.

To get an e-day mobile phone ticket, log on to www.chilternrailways.co.uk/eday and follow the simple instructions.  You will then receive your ticket in the form of a barcode sent directly to their mobile phone by an SMS text message.  Staff on board the train and at London Marylebone station will be able to check the ‘mobile ticket’ with special barcode scanners.

The next stage is mobile phone to mobile phone ticketing and integrating the current print @ home and txt 2 mobile projects to give passengers the choice of how they fulfil their ticket.

Neil Micklethwaite, Commercial Director at Chiltern Railways said: "We continue to be delighted with the popularity of mobile ticketing, both amongst staff and passengers.

“Over 17000 people have now travelled with Chiltern Railways using mobile tickets but the most common request has always been to extend the scheme to more trains.

“With over 1000 tickets available each day, the age of the mobile ticket really is upon us!"

The expansion of the scheme follows the popularity amongst staff and passengers, with over 95% of polled users happy to recommend to a friend. 

Bob Standen, who commutes from Leamington Spa to London Marylebone and is a regular Chiltern E-day passenger said:  “I love purchasing the E-day mobile phone ticket because it is convenient and I don’t have to queue up at the ticket office.

“I'm very pleased to hear about the expansion as it increases the chance of being able to buy an E-day ticket for the trains I prefer.”  

YourRail Director, David Gillick said: “Since January, Chiltern Railways, together with YourRail, has supplied British rail passengers with tickets delivered to their mobile phones. We are the first to do this.

David added:  “In the future we’ll achieve another ‘first’ when Chiltern's customers will also be able to purchase their mobile tickets directly from their phones in addition to the web.”

Cubic Transportation Systems who have supply the gate technology have long been at the forefront of innovation when it comes to fare collection and validation systems across the world, including providing the technology to TranSys that deliver’s Oyster to Transport for London. 

Cubic Transportation Systems Business Development Manager, Rob Hughes said: “We are looking very keenly at the results of this trial as it moves forward into the next stage. It will be very interesting to see how far the technology behind this mobile phone ticket can go into the future.”

ts.com Sales and Marketing Director, David Oates said: “We are delighted to be working with Chiltern Railways on this mobile ticketing innovation. We are continuously working with our clients to provide them with innovative ticketing solutions that meet the needs of their business and improve the service they can offer their own customers.”

Highlights of Expansion:
• Extra trains have been added, including a peak journey at 0745 from Birmingham and 1600 back from London Marylebone. 
• There are new E-Day trains between London Marylebone and Bicester North, enabling people to spend the day at Bicester Village.
• Tickets will be available on the 0915 from Banbury to London, giving an earlier off-peak arrival into London that at present.
• The 2354 London to Banbury also becomes as E-Day train, enabling a later departure from London than is currently available.
• The Aylesbury to London via Amersham route also gets its first allocation of tickets with the introduction of 4 E-Day trains each way between Great Missenden and London Marylebone. 
• A new pricing structure will come into place, with single fares ranging from an even lower £4 through to £25 for the morning peak departure. All these prices still offer a significant saving over the equivalent 'walk up' fare.
• 660 of the 1010 tickets on a weekday will cost £5 or less.
• 3540 out of 5450 tickets (65%) per week will cost £5 or less.
• Current sales of tickets since January have now topped 17000.

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