Cheshire Advertiser

May 10, 2004

HEADLINE: TV Company Steams in to Film Rival Rail Man

BYLINE: By Harri Aston

A businessman who plans to plans to take on the might of Richard Branson by launching a rival train service is now the subject of a television documentary.

Stephen Howard, of Lower Withington near Holmes Chapel, will feature in Brassed Off Britain – a series based on the public’s gripes.

The episode is due to broadcast on BBC One and features people who are fed up with the rail network in Britain. It highlights the Manchester to London service which Mr Howard plans to run this summer.

Mr Howard says a no-frills service, called SwiftLine, will make its maiden voyage on Saturday, July 17^th – despite initial problems agreeing a date with the company operating the charter license.

A first-class Saturday return will be £70 with SwiftLine, compared with up to £280 with Virgin, while standard-class tickets have been set at £60; against up to £106 with Virgin.

Mr Howard said: "People are tired of being ripped off, that was why they were filming me. They wanted to speak to people who would take on big businesses.

"They asked me whether I hated Richard Branson and I said I admired him. I said that he was number one, but I was number 2, and that he would now have some serious competition.

"But I eventually want to become number one.

The 53-year-old who runs a chimney building and repair company, in Lower Withington, is advertising the train service locally, with the marketing carried out by daughters Claire, aged 21, and 20-year-old Tracy.

Eight more volunteers, all "train enthusiasts," are helping with the operation.

Normally a train can be booked by businesses or charities but any individual is free to charter a journey under the national passenger license held by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway.

Mr Howard says he has already put a deposit of £2000 down on hiring a locomotive and 13 carriageways to run between Manchester and London.

Brassed Off Britain assistant producer Antonia Murly-Gotto said: "We are featuring Steve Howard in one of our programmes which will look into him setting up his alternate Manchester to London route.

Trips by rail are obviously very expensive and Mr Howard is disgusted by all this.

The series looks at the subjects that brass people off and one of the episodes will be about trains.

The series started on BBC1 on May 4.

A spokesman for Virgin Trains said: "We are aware of the plans Mr Howard is making but we are not frightened of competition. It’s our quality, speed and frequency which attracts customers. We offer a range of good-value fares which can see a London-Manchester return cost as little as £22.

GRAPHIC: Steven Howard at Goostrey Station, Cheshire. Picture by Malcolm Hart.