Abellio wins West Midlands franchise

[pt_mad]

Anyone have any idea if LNR are going to reliver any more trains into the full LNR livery?

 

[Silverlinky]

Anyone have any idea if LNR are going to reliver any more trains into the full LNR livery?

Seems to have gone quiet on the relivery front!!

Some more 319's were meant to be coming to both speed up the 350/2 conversions, and to allow the 350/1 anti-corrosion program to commence. No 350/1's were going to be reliveried until they had been treated.

However, the sub-standard state of the latest 319's has delayed their introduction into service, therefore delaying the other programs!

No 350/2's will be given the full LNW livery......nor will the 319's get it. The way its going the 350/4's will get their new colours first!!

 

[sufian123]

Hi everyone from today 31st May they are 24 hours on twitter. It says on their bio.

 

[Idon'tKnow]

Hi everyone from today 31st May they are 24 hours on twitter. It says on their bio.

That's very useful, thanks for the information!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Good stuff.

 

[JordyWM]

Seems to have gone quiet on the relivery front!!

Some more 319's were meant to be coming to both speed up the 350/2 conversions, and to allow the 350/1 anti-corrosion program to commence. No 350/1's were going to be reliveried until they had been treated.

However, the sub-standard state of the latest 319's has delayed their introduction into service, therefore delaying the other programs!

No 350/2's will be given the full LNW livery......nor will the 319's get it. The way its going the 350/4's will get their new colours first!!

Because there’s been much speculation of a revised WMR livery, are we expecting a revision for LNW too or are West Midlands Trains happy with it? It still looks way too busy for me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Because there’s been much speculation of a revised WMR livery, are we expecting a revision for LNW too or are West Midlands Trains happy with it? It still looks way too busy for me.

It's growing on me but it still looks like a packet of Trebor Mints.

 

[mb]

I spoke too soon. My £6 EUS>LOB weekday afternoon fare has just jumped this week to about £11, same as some Virgin services. Chiltern now cheaper. Shame, but inevitable.

 

[mb]

On a side note, a manual announcement was made the other day on a 323 about not putting pushchairs on the platform and stepping backwards!

What caused that pushchair announcement to appear?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

What caused that pushchair announcement to appear?

Possibly an accident and resultant claim against WMT/LM?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I spoke too soon. My £6 EUS>LOB weekday afternoon fare has just jumped this week to about £11, same as some Virgin services. Chiltern now cheaper. Shame, but inevitable.

The tier is still there in the fares data. You're probably just not booking far enough in advance! Though it is possible they've restricted the number of seats available at that tier.

 

[pt_mad]

• Will it be WMT policy to phase out such fares? There seemed to be a lot of stick towards LM regards overcrowding and six or seven quid London fares were being sold for those same trains .

 

[E_Reeves]

What caused that pushchair announcement to appear?

I've heard the pushchair announcements on the LNR 350s

 

[Silverlink]

6 months in and still only TWO whole units have the new livery. Anyone know any more info on station branding & refurbishments?

 

[DJames]

6 months in and still only TWO whole units have the new livery. Anyone know any more info on station branding & refurbishments?

The West Midlands Railway one isn't the final livery that'll be used for the rest of the fleet, from what I've been told. The rumour was that WMR management weren't happy with the livery way back in December.

 

[12guard4]

What caused that pushchair announcement to appear?

People can't think for themselves

 

[Ibex]

6 months in and still only TWO whole units have the new livery. Anyone know any more info on station branding & refurbishments?

The station rebranding has started on the Coventry - Birmingham corridor, the lamp posts are all bright orange now. easyStation!

 

[ChrisHogan]

6 months in and still only TWO whole units have the new livery. Anyone know any more info on station branding & refurbishments?

As I've said before, WMT has a lot more important things to worry about that repainting trains in any new livery. The cascade of trains into the franchise and the December timetable revision for a start.

 

[sd0733]

The station rebranding has started on the Coventry - Birmingham corridor, the lamp posts are all bright orange now. easyStation!

Stone has also been repainted orange. Thought this would be an LNWR station but obviously not!

 

[TheDavibob]

Stone has also been repainted orange. Thought this would be an LNWR station but obviously not!

With the planned extension of Birmingham - Stafford replacing the Trent Valley semifast between Stafford and Crewe via Stoke [the latter redirected to go directly], Stone will primarily be served by "local" trains (not withstanding extensions through New Street). So Stone will definitely come under the WMR bracket soon, even if it doesn't look like it now.

 

[Bletchleyite]

With the planned extension of Birmingham - Stafford replacing the Trent Valley semifast between Stafford and Crewe via Stoke [the latter redirected to go directly], Stone will primarily be served by "local" trains (not withstanding extensions through New Street). So Stone will definitely come under the WMR bracket soon, even if it doesn't look like it now.

The extensions through New St will be LNR-branded Class 350s. I think they haven't quite got a handle on the split, and it is confusing people.

 

[TheDavibob]

The extensions through New St will be LNR-branded Class 350s. I think they haven't quite got a handle on the split, and it is confusing people.

Yeah, I realised that as I was typing it: the split was reasonably clear when the franchise was announced, but the extra through running has somewhat muddled it. What fraction of the services are being extended?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yeah, I realised that as I was typing it: the split was reasonably clear when the franchise was announced, but the extra through running has somewhat muddled it. What fraction of the services are being extended?

1tph of Euston-New St will go through to Crewe via Stone I believe. There won't be any services from Stone to New St that don't go through to Euston, other than *possibly* early morning/late evening.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Similarly to Stone, Penkridge has acquired West Midlands Railway branded posters - this makes no sense, as currently only London Northwestern Railway services call there. When I pointed this out to them back when the posters were first installed, they blanked me.

Seems they're having a corporate identity crisis.

 

[TheDavibob]

Similarly to Stone, Penkridge has acquired West Midlands Railway branded posters - this makes no sense, as currently only London Northwestern Railway services call there. When I pointed this out to them back when the posters were first installed, they blanked me.

Seems they're having a corporate identity crisis.

Both seem to be a hangover from the original plans. This is from Centro in 2016, clearly showing both Stone and Penkridge as WMR stations, though under the assumption that they would only be served by WMR trains. Essentially, it paints only the Trent Valley stations and everything south of Rugby as LNR (or here, WCSBU) stations and everything else as WMR. This doesn't fit the current setup.

It's a little reminiscent of the Water Orton/Wilnecote/Coleshill Parkway problem, all of which were LM stations and will be (based on the map) WMR stations, despite being served purely by a longer distance operator (in this case Cross Country), though of course this is explained by XC not operating any stations.

Edit: of note, on the linked map, Tile Hill, Canley et al. are WMR (well, WMSBU) stations despite not being served by WMR. There seems to be a clear differentiation between LNR services *not* serving Brum and those serving Brum (and extending through, as recently). If a station is only on a route that serves Birmingham, it's a WMR station, even if the trains that serve it aren't WMR services. Bleh.

 

[Silverlink]

As I've said before, WMT has a lot more important things to worry about that repainting trains in any new livery. The cascade of trains into the franchise and the December timetable revision for a start.

Sorry I never seen you say that before that’s why I asked the question. Thanks

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Both seem to be a hangover from the original plans. This is from Centro in 2016, clearly showing both Stone and Penkridge as WMR stations, though under the assumption that they would only be served by WMR trains. Essentially, it paints only the Trent Valley stations and everything south of Rugby as LNR (or here, WCSBU) stations and everything else as WMR. This doesn't fit the current setup.

It's a little reminiscent of the Water Orton/Wilnecote/Coleshill Parkway problem, all of which were LM stations and will be (based on the map) WMR stations, despite being served purely by a longer distance operator (in this case Cross Country), though of course this is explained by XC not operating any stations.

If there were ever any candidates for stations which XC should operate, surely these would be those? It seems ludicrious to have one company (WMT), which doesn't actually have run trains from the station, running the ticket office and maintaining the station. And then another (XC) actually running the trains.

 

[DJames]

The station rebranding has started on the Coventry - Birmingham corridor, the lamp posts are all bright orange now. easyStation!

I noticed that on Saturday, they haven't painted other parts of the station yet though, so you've got orange and grey lampposts clashing with green elsewhere. Wolverhampton's a little similar, as they've only painted half way up some of the lampposts, so they're still half red. However, that station's getting redeveloped in the near future so I guess it's not that much of an issue there.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

As I've said before, WMT has a lot more important things to worry about that repainting trains in any new livery. The cascade of trains into the franchise and the December timetable revision for a start.

Good words, who cares what the livery is. The train service has to be the priority.

 

[3270]

The track access application for the Dec 2018 timetable explains the changes in some detail: http://archive.nr.co.uk/browse docu... - closes 06 july 2018/wmt new tac form p.pdf