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Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Wed 14 Aug, 2019 14.17
by WillPS
Fun fact, the government sold the Pacers to ROSCOs in 1997 for the grand total of Β£0.00, on the grounds they were life expired.

The ROSCOs have since loaned them out for a five-figure per-unit annual rental, with almost 0 investment from them in the fleet during that period.

It's disgraceful.

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Thu 15 Aug, 2019 23.04
by cwathen
bilky asko wrote: ↑Wed 14 Aug, 2019 00.27
all new Phil wrote: ↑Wed 14 Aug, 2019 00.18 They regularly use Pacers on the line that stops near me and, I don’t know, they seem alright to me πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ They get from A to B and are just as reliable than any others, if not more so. Wheelchairs can get on and off. Just.
They make an awful squealing noise when on the slightest curvature or when braking, they're not crash safe, the ride quality is awful, at least one I've been on had some issue with the doors at every station meaning long waits to alight or board... they're significantly worse than Sprinters, and look even worse when they've decided to bring in the Pacers onto our local service, and then add in some Class 170s.

Though, to be honest, the local buses show up the Pacers.
I'm a little bit mixed on them. In 2007 when FGW suddenly got deluged with First North Western liveried 142s which still had the original low backed bench seating it did seem a bit ridiculous that these trains were still in use, especially since this was done so that the 150's could be cascaded back onto services which had been run by 158's, so everything seemed to take a step back from the operation Wessex Trains ran the previous year.

A few years on, the mad diagrams these things ended up on (like the early evening Paignton-Bristol service that was booked to be a Pacer!) also seemed bizarre when much more suitable stock to run these services was often piddling around on short journeys.

But these days when GWR only have a small fleet of 8 143's which have had a refurb and are about as smart as pacers get running largely on modern welded track and now only used on the 'Devon Metro' they don't seem so bad. They are also the only remaining stock on which you can still hear the old Wales & West safety announcement (and still occasionally, 'This is a Wessex Alphaline train. The steward will shortly be making their way through with a trolly service of drinks and light refreshments' if the wrong button gets pressed!) which will be a bit of an end of an era after 20 years of use when they go.

On dodgy maintenance though - anyone else in the south west remember that 143 with a huge crack in the driver's cab partition which for years was 'fixed' with stickers???!!?? I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere.

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Wed 27 Nov, 2019 21.38
by scottishtv
So Virgin Trains will become Avanti West Coast from 8th December.

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Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Wed 27 Nov, 2019 21.45
by scottishtv
A couple more images:

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Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Wed 27 Nov, 2019 22.22
by Critique
That's the idea of using generic TOC names to prevent having to go through a massive rebrand every time the franchise changes out the window then?!

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Thu 28 Nov, 2019 19.16
by WillPS
Critique wrote: ↑Wed 27 Nov, 2019 22.22 That's the idea of using generic TOC names to prevent having to go through a massive rebrand every time the franchise changes out the window then?!
No reason the Avanti brand couldn't stay with the franchise is there? (It wont, of course, but it could, unlike say 'Virgin', 'Arriva' or 'First'.)

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Thu 28 Nov, 2019 22.39
by dosxuk
Critique wrote: ↑Wed 27 Nov, 2019 22.22 That's the idea of using generic TOC names to prevent having to go through a massive rebrand every time the franchise changes out the window then?!
The rules changed so that incoming TOC's had to either sell their brand to the DfT at the end of the franchise, or return all the stock / stations to unbranded/ generic branding at the end of their franchise. Some have gone down the route of implementing a generic brand, but they're not required too (despite what some enthusiasts seem to think).

There was a lot of froth about how this was definitely going to become LMS with a maroon and gold livery, although I have no idea what precedent they were using to predict that, since only GWR has gone down the classic name and livery route.

At least this looks a lot nicer than the no-expense-spent purple we have over on EMR.

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Wed 04 Dec, 2019 21.52
by Alexia
I think LMS or LNWR were out of the window due to the existance of both LNR and Great Northern; plus the former London Midland franchise still being fresh in the memory, and also the mooted open access GNWR effort from Grand Central.

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Tue 14 Jan, 2020 07.18
by thegeek
I feel like someone here will know the answer to this: what defines the way a train ticket gets printed? The machine or the issuer?

I bought a family ticket from the Virgin Trains website, then collected it from a London Overground machine. It came out as two coupons, the first being an old-style ticket with Adult TWO Child TWO on the top line, and the second being four seat reservations.

The other leg of the journey was booked on Avanti's website* and collected from a TfL Rail machine. It's on four coupons; the newer verbose style combining a ticket and seat per person.

Also the ticket booked via Virgin says Avanti on it and vice versa.

* actually by Virgin Trains' aftersales department because I needed to change a date. I'm not sure if their call centre was so terrible before they ceased being a TOC but that was a painful experience.

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Tue 14 Jan, 2020 14.57
by Pete

Re: Public Transport in your particular part of the region

Posted: Tue 14 Jan, 2020 18.12
by Martin Phillp
Talking of TVMs operated by either London Overground, TfL Rail or London Underground operated on National Rail metals.

At my local station which is operated by London Overground, there are two different types of TVM, there are two totem TVMs which aren't linked to sell all TfL products, but can sell a 7 day bus and tram pass and NR tickets. The interface is similar to those used at other NR stations operated by other TOCs.

The other (pic below) seems to be a hybrid of the interface used at London Underground only stations where they sell a full range of TfL products including discounted bus passes and travelcards for those with the relevant Oyster card as well as NR tickets. The TVMs with the full range of products seem to be more busier than those with just the NR ticketing facilities.

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