Metropol

A bit late but on the scotrail rebranding, i think this is out of first's hands. Afaik the scottish parliament have created the new scotrail brand which will be retained even if first loose the franchise. This avoids the need to keep repainting trains and introducing new brands as has happened numerous times since privatisation. Imo this would be a good idea for england and wales too

I must admit I like the way the arrowed ends of the carriage forms the Saltire.



http://up.metropol247.co.uk/Gavin_Scott ... insvid.flv

I heart Stephen Jardine.

cwathen wrote:A bit late but on the scotrail rebranding, i think this is out of first's hands. Afaik the scottish parliament have created the new scotrail brand which will be retained even if first loose the franchise. This avoids the need to keep repainting trains and introducing new brands as has happened numerous times since privatisation. Imo this would be a good idea for england and wales too

Operationally, I agree it's stupid that every company has to rebrand. I think it would have been sensible to leave the BR sectors in place, and a non-corporate livery applied for each as per ScotRail. However, that would mean that this mad train wouldn't exist:

Complete with Regional Railways two-tone luggage racks, Northern Spirit 'big-N' and transpennineexpress colour scheme, the remnants of the First TransPennine Express purple band covering beneath the window line, Central Trains emphasis/noise brackets and East Midlands Trains branding. I know that circumstances dictate that old brands have to be covered over and run in hybrid, but that is something else.

WillPS wrote:

cwathen wrote:A bit late but on the scotrail rebranding, i think this is out of first's hands. Afaik the scottish parliament have created the new scotrail brand which will be retained even if first loose the franchise. This avoids the need to keep repainting trains and introducing new brands as has happened numerous times since privatisation. Imo this would be a good idea for england and wales too

Operationally, I agree it's stupid that every company has to rebrand. I think it would have been sensible to leave the BR sectors in place, and a non-corporate livery applied for each as per ScotRail. However, that would mean that this mad train wouldn't exist:

Complete with Regional Railways two-tone luggage racks, Northern Spirit 'big-N' and transpennineexpress colour scheme, the remnants of the First TransPennine Express purple band covering beneath the window line, Central Trains emphasis/noise brackets and East Midlands Trains branding. I know that circumstances dictate that old brands have to be covered over and run in hybrid, but that is something else.

Ah if it isn't our old friend the class 158 Express Sprinter'. For a while in summer 2006, this 90's creation became the standard-issue DMU throughout Devon & Cornwall, with a combination of ex-Wessex Trains 'Alphaline' units and units borrowed from Transpennine Express running everything from the long haul Bristol-Penzance down to the Falmouth branch line.

Today, you don't see any 158's further down than Taunton, with old and less refined 150s/153s back in charge down here, and of course the dreaded 'Pacer' units are currently working many Devon branchlines for which they have previously been banished due to their unsuitability back in the 1980s.

Love the 'progress' that can happen in only 3 short years.

[/train geek mode]

cwathen wrote:[/train geek mode]

I knew there'd be problems the moment you moved that close to Fusionlad.

cwathen wrote:Love the 'progress' that can happen in only 3 short years.

It's no better in the East Midlands and Yorkshire - we have routes now operated by 1-car Sprinters and 2-car ExpressSprinters which 3 years ago were operated by 2-car and 3-car Sprinters/Turbostars respectively under Central Trains. The demand hasn't decreased in that time!

Nick Harvey wrote:

cwathen wrote:[/train geek mode]

I knew there'd be problems the moment you moved that close to Fusionlad.

Hehe. Would you believe I can't find my usual class 43 picture anywhere?

I have a new favourite train at the moment, the Crosscountry HSTs (class 43 of course).

The common E&W Rolling Stock livery is perhaps a starter but would need to be accompanied by an 'operator branding box' clearly indicated on each carriage so that customers are made aware which Train Operating Company is providing the service they are boarding.

cwathen wrote:A bit late but on the scotrail rebranding, i think this is out of first's hands. Afaik the scottish parliament have created the new scotrail brand which will be retained even if first loose the franchise.

To be slightly pedantic, it was the Scottish Government that brought in the change - as part of an agreement with First that they get the franchise extended. The parliament wasn't consulted - which caused a rather large argument. The argument focused on the decision to extend the contract as opposed the finer details like the branding.

All the operator is now allowed to have is a small badge on the door of the train. See
http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/rai ... guidelines for the details.

A few of the political parties have made clear in their 2007 manifestos that they would look at nationalising the ScotRail franchise, and this presumably does a little bit to help things along should that issue ever want to be reconsidered in the future. The other thing this blue scheme does is push along the phasing out of the "SPT rail" carmine and cream colours in the West of Scotland which are still prominent on the Strathclyde suburban network - despite SPT having been stripped of any rail control years ago.

I thought that SPT just acted like any of the English PTE's does... in which case they certainly do have a hand in rail; West Yorkshire PTE (who trade as Metro) for example actually own a number of the trains that Northern operate, including the last of the 155s which were not chopped in half to form 153s.

Fusionlad, i'm afraid i can't recognise an mtu'd 43 like the fgw and xc units as an hst any more. They're just not the same!