NEXT STOP CHILTERN RAILWAYS

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Manager and Business teacher

The Business Career Academy students have been out and about again, getting first hand knowledge of local business and this week they learnt about the transport industry, and specifically the railways.

The Year 13 students went to visit Moor Street station in Birmingham City Centre. The station is owned by Chiltern Railways and the visit enabled the students to see how the station and the company operates.

Malcolm Holmes, the station manager, welcomed the students and went through the history of Chiltern Railways, who are owned by a German company called Deutsche Bahn.

Chiltern Railways have spent a lot of money in investing in their trains and have recently begun their new service from Birmingham to London, which takes just  90 minutes (down from the 2 hours it took previously). The students heard about how Chiltern Railways came about with the changes.

The talk from Malcolm Holmes also explained how competitive the rail market is, with a total of 13 different train franchisees in the UK. Chiltern Railways are currently re-investing in Solihull station, as a massive 1.5 million passengers pass through this station and Chiltern Railways believe that there is a potential for this number to increase if there were more parking spaces. The new car park is currently being developed and will do so over the next few months.

The students were provided refreshments in tradition train fashion on one of the company’s trolleys, which was full to the brim with snacks they would find on their trains.

The students heard about how a career in the train industry is rewarding and challenging and how quickly it changes. Chiltern have just launch free wifi on their journeys from Birmingham to London to help launch their new faster trains.

It was an interesting visit and we thank Malcolm and Chiltern Railways for hosting us.