Metropol

We've started seeing new 'Virgin Trains East Coast' logos at work on some leaflets!

I'll show you a mock-up, and try and take a photo of some of the new leaflets when I return to work on the 28th:

Beep wrote:We've started seeing new 'Virgin Trains East Coast' logos at work on some leaflets!

I'll show you a mock-up, and try and take a photo of some of the new leaflets when I return to work on the 28th:

Nice to see the public transport thread up and running on boxing day...unlike almost all public transport itself of course with every train operator and most bus operators trotting out their usual tired selection of excuses as to why there is no boxing day service.

Anyhoo...a bit of a departure from the last time Virgin had two rail franchises...back when they had Crosscountry they branded and promoted it along with West Coast under one single brand as if it was one single operation. I would assume they would do the same this time around but apparently not.

cwathen wrote:Nice to see the public transport thread up and running on boxing day...unlike almost all public transport itself of course with every train operator and most bus operators trotting out their usual tired selection of excuses as to why there is no boxing day service.

Some of us like to stay at home with our families.

cwathen wrote:

Beep wrote:We've started seeing new 'Virgin Trains East Coast' logos at work on some leaflets!

I'll show you a mock-up, and try and take a photo of some of the new leaflets when I return to work on the 28th:

Nice to see the public transport thread up and running on boxing day...unlike almost all public transport itself of course with every train operator and most bus operators trotting out their usual tired selection of excuses as to why there is no boxing day service.

Anyhoo...a bit of a departure from the last time Virgin had two rail franchises...back when they had Crosscountry they branded and promoted it along with West Coast under one single brand as if it was one single operation. I would assume they would do the same this time around but apparently not.

I was going to suggest that the difference would be that the EC would have the new IEP trains whereas the WC would have the older (albiet newish) trains but then wasn't it always WC had Pendolinos and CC had Voyagers? Or was is a mix between both? I'd look it up on wikipedia but I trust you more.

Pendolinos never made it to XC. Fleet was made up of Voyagers post HST / Mk2 withdrawal. Voyagers (mostly 5-car Class 221 Super Voyagers) are also prevalent on VWC.

Alexia wrote:

cwathen wrote:Nice to see the public transport thread up and running on boxing day...unlike almost all public transport itself of course with every train operator and most bus operators trotting out their usual tired selection of excuses as to why there is no boxing day service.

Some of us like to stay at home with our families.

I appreciate your frankness - it's more refreshing than being told that there is no demand for a boxing day service or that the entire network can't function as all the engineering work under the sun apparently gets done on Christmas day and boxing day due to the 2 day shut down.

However, buses and trains may well be privatised but they are still a public service which exists to fulfil a public need for transport. Boxing day is arguably now one of the busiest public holidays of the year - when most of the high street is open and a full sporting calendar operates, along with people needing to get to work so that the high street can open and a full sporting calendar can operate, it just isn't on any more for there to continue to be no trains and almost no buses.

I also would have liked to be at home with my family on the many years I had to work boxing day when I worked in high street retail - which being an un-unionised industry I had no choice in and usually did it for overtime at single rate and sometimes for no extra money at all with merely an extra day off being given elsewhere.

With something as heavily unionised as public transport, I can only assume that those working on boxing day would be entitled to decent remuneration for it, and that there would surely be people within the workforce who would gladly do it for the money?

There are people within the industry who would be willing to work Boxing Day, that's their prerogative. However Xmas Day and Boxing Day are the only guaranteed days off we get, and I will happily cling on to that than agree to any management-led concessions to take those days away from me in return for financial incentives. It's also the only time of year set aside for big projects such as Reading Viaduct, Bristol TM parcel bridge etc.

Sundays are the same. There is currently no obligation on a person to work a Sunday, rostered or not. Usually most of us will work our rostered turns, or ensure that there are enough volunteers on the overtime sheet to cover your turn should you wish to take it off. However management are always looking to offer us ££ or holiday in return for making Sundays part of the working week. Sorry, but no deal.

Having said that I am currently incredibly disillusioned with the state of the industry, those cranking the handles and dropping us footsoldiers in the shit (can guarantee management were conspicuously absent at KX and Finsbury today) and am currently seeking a route out. So watch this space.

cwathen wrote:

Beep wrote:We've started seeing new 'Virgin Trains East Coast' logos at work on some leaflets!

I'll show you a mock-up, and try and take a photo of some of the new leaflets when I return to work on the 28th:

Nice to see the public transport thread up and running on boxing day...unlike almost all public transport itself of course with every train operator and most bus operators trotting out their usual tired selection of excuses as to why there is no boxing day service.

Anyhoo...a bit of a departure from the last time Virgin had two rail franchises...back when they had Crosscountry they branded and promoted it along with West Coast under one single brand as if it was one single operation. I would assume they would do the same this time around but apparently not.

To be fair, my colleagues work on Boxing Day, and Christmas Day, despite the railways not! Just depends on which bit of the railway you work Not that we're a passenger service!

Alexia wrote: Having said that I am currently incredibly disillusioned with the state of the industry, those cranking the handles and dropping us footsoldiers in the shit (can guarantee management were conspicuously absent at KX and Finsbury today) and am currently seeking a route out. So watch this space.

I can say you were right, BTP were the ones who closed Finsbury for a period due to safety concerns, GTR let too many people in! King's Cross had just GTR staff out, no East Coast staff present. Network Rail security also dotted around.

Over the road at St Pancras the managing director was out in a high visibility vest helping passengers, queues split for Sheffield and Nottingham trains (Sheffield trains crowded due to northern issues with VT WC and a complete lack of EC services from KGX - First Hull trains were also using platform 4 at St Pancras!)

My local area has a limited bus service, with the drivers being paid £30 an hour, and NO I have not mistyped that.

Virgin East Coast seem to have wasted no time in slapping a big Virgin sticker on the locos of the 125s. The carriages still say East Coast.

Interesting they're going to spend £21 million tarting up the 125s and 225s despite the 800s coming in a few years. I wonder if it'll be with a plan of keeping these longer or whether its just a tart up to make it look like they're doing something after "public sector neglect"

A full proper rebranded set (225 I believe) will be unveiled tomorrow at KingsX.

Branding is everything, although if their West Coast operation is anything to go by it will be a base livery (silver, which it already is mostly) with a couple of Virgin vinyled stickers.

Rumour is that the government is keen to move towards a TFL-style branding operation where TOCs have a base livery with basic colours with generic brands with operators as a subtitle / "operated by" secondary logo. Considering there's already a few out there this will be easily achieved: CrossCountry, Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern, SouthEastern, ScotRail, CrossRail, Northern) - FGW will rebrand as GWR in the near future too.