CHILTERN RAILWAYS has launched its new Mainline services today, which include four daily trains of loco-hauled stock between London and Birmingham.

These trains, the fastest of which takes 90mins, include a Business Zone in a former First Class vehicle which is available to any passenger for a premium of £20 or £10, depending on which train is used.

The service should have started in May, but Chiltern chairman Adrian Shooter is denying that the ORR had to intervene when infrastructure improvements, part of the Evergreen 3 project, overran.

It had been reported that the Office of Rail Regulation had stepped in when the track upgrade which was being managed, exceptionally, by Chiltern, began to run late. A Network Rail manager took over the project and it has been completed just in time, with some track tamping still being carried out now, although's today's launch trains ran punctually.

But Mr Shooter pointed out that he had sought the advice of Network Rail last December when he began to be concerned about progress, and that even after Network Rail had joined the project its manager still reported to Chiltern as well.

He added: "We took action when problems began to emerge, and I spoke to some Network Rail board members about the best way to proceed. It is not correct to say that the ORR had to 'intervene', and we are certainly not in dispute with the Regulator."

Today's launch also puts Chiltern head to head with Virgin for London/Birmingham traffic, and Chiltern's publicity for its new Mainline service has included the headline: 'Still a Virgin?'.

Mr Shooter said the geography of the Chiltern routes had always put the operator in competition with other TOCs to some extent, and that the DfT was 'perfectly happy' about franchised operators competing with each other for passengers.

Chiltern's launch today may have been helped by slight delays on the West Coast Main Line, with signalling problems reported between Coventry and Rugby. Virgin Trains said a signal cable had been damaged early today during an attempted theft at Brandon, but services had returned to normal by about 09.30.

A spokesman also commented that Chiltern's new marketing drive was expected, and would be met by similar publicity from Virgin. "In the end," he added, "competition is good. It's the passenger who wins."