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Avanti West Coast rebrand

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omnicity4659

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On an extremely trivial matter I know; but 'Uglies'.
The observant might have noticed that the packaging has changed from blue to orange-red.
The old packaging showed Lily O'Briens as County Kildare but the new ones show Bedfordshire.
An example of a change to British sourced food, perhaps?
The colour changed a while back, whilst it was Virgin.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Well it's been over two weeks & that livery & name is not growing on me. In fact it's doing the complete opposite. Comes close to horror & disappointment of that by National Express with the 'one' launch of 2004.

Modern Railways have picked up on the idiotic A on the outside against the logo which to occasional travellers could be conceived as the coach letter thus causing an own goal of unnecessary confusion.

I genuinely do think it's the only bad thing about the brand, but it's very bad indeed. It looks awful and as you say is confusing. Mind you, this is the same FirstGroup that put First(f) on antimacassars in Standard class, so it is only to be expected.
 

dk1

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I genuinely do think it's the only bad thing about the brand, but it's very bad indeed. It looks awful and as you say is confusing. Mind you, this is the same FirstGroup that put First(f) on antimacassars in Standard class, so it is only to be expected.
Exactly!! Does nobody ever learn?
 

RealTrains07

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I didn't realise that, sorry! Just shows how hard it is to remember what it used to be like, I thought it was new. Always interested how they show Northampton - a Voyager in the early morning and a set d/o Pendo late at night.

As regards the new colours for the routes; Avanti seem to have gone for more 'sober' colours and (apart from C and E route colours being rather similar) this has caused problems in the timetable booklet. For example, look at route A where, in the case of the morning xx43 services from Euston, white or black times are used to cope with the difficulty of having two shades of dark orange. Seems like using red is banned, for some reason... Or green.
I can see why green wasn’t used as it would probably clash with the brand colours but red would fit i’d say.

the 1 issue still with the route map as with virgins was route B which should just be labelled just as a super voyager route since pendos don’t go to shrewsbury :lol:
 

PR1Berske

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The repeated 'Beam' announcements (which often raised an audible grown in the carriage) have gone. Ahhhhh that's better.
I would wager that the loss of the "You can download the BEAM app now..." announcement will be greeted by everyone on Rail UK as the most positive change since Avanti took over :D
 

Karl

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Dare I ask what the BEAM app means? I don't have a mobile phone so I'm not aware of these things.
 

pt_mad

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Update on refurbished/rebrand of the voyagers:

looks like contrary to what we heard before, they have got a refurb programme after all

(if this has been mentioned before, apologies, do tell me)

https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/94523/avanti-west-coast-maintained-bombardier/
Interior refresh rather than refurbishment. Could be a deep clean and new carpets and seat covers? Doubt there will be new seat frames or plastic panels unlike the 390 fleet.

One significant issue is platform staff uniforms. Changed from Virgin red to a dark blue (?). Makes them difficult to identify on platforms.

So they've taken to wearing hi-viz ... but given how many others wear hi-viz ...
Lots of First TOCs have brought hi Vis in for platform staff though. Used to be a thing for them to wear the First branded blue-yellow half one for many years.
 

Grumpy Git

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Lots of First TOCs have brought hi Vis in for platform staff though. Used to be a thing for them to wear the First branded blue-yellow half one for many years.

I dont understand why they have to use hi-vis vests though. They just start to look scruffy after a few days and totally unprofessional (a good reflection of the management in TPE and Northerns case).

Why can't they incorporate reflective strips into the standard uniform?
 

sprunt

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Travelled on 390010 today, and the toilet in coach A still has the Virgin balloon, and a Virgin contact details poster.
 

cactustwirly

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Interior refresh rather than refurbishment. Could be a deep clean and new carpets and seat covers? Doubt there will be new seat frames or plastic panels unlike the 390 fleet.


Lots of First TOCs have brought hi Vis in for platform staff though. Used to be a thing for them to wear the First branded blue-yellow half one for many years.

All TOCs use hi Vis for dispatch staff AFAIK
 

cactustwirly

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Actually South Western Railway only do this during strikes, so that they can be easily spotted when trains are very busy. Out of strikes they don’t.
Interesting! SWT definitely did, I've definitely seen SWT branded hi Vis on EMT dispatch staff after they lost the franchise.
 

The Prisoner

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342BB955-C8BA-4EF2-9853-27B4B8579D2C.jpeg Penrith Avanti-ed on the outside but not the platform signage

btw a Pendolino came through with the sticker name “Alison” on both the front and rear noses - looked really naff. Didn’t get the number, but the name “All Change” on the side somewhere I’m sure.
 

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LNW-GW Joint

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Was on a 390 from Manchester today.
Conductor starts announcing "Welcome to this Virgin..er..sorry, Avanti West Coast service..."
He seemed to be struggling throughout the piece about when to say "Avanti".
The passenger adjacent said "I'm on a Virgin train" into his phone at one point.
Three weeks in and Virgin still won't die...
 

Grumpy Git

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I'd love to be just sat on a "British" train, with a ticket that could be used on any service going and coming back from my destination.

Even better if used a standard coupling present on every coach and locomotove on the network........
 

mmh

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Top quality de-branding on the Voyager I was on yesterday evening. The Virgin logos peeled off and replaced with nothing, leaving... A perfectly readable outline of the Virgin logo.

If only the much predicted national single livery had actually happened this rubbish wouldn't happen with every franchise change.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Three weeks is nowt when waiting for Virgin's brand presence to dissipate. Hell, I know some people whom still refer to fast ECML services as GNER.. that's twelve years and counting.

They are still using VTxxxx train codes on all the external PIS screens on the trains.
Sometimes the industry doesn't help itself.
 

_toommm_

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They are still using VTxxxx train codes on all the external PIS screens on the trains.
Sometimes the industry doesn't help itself.

I'm sure this was already mentioned that the VT code is the operator code. The code for LNER is still GR, and it's been what, 10 years since GNER operated? Greater Anglia is LE - not even sure how long that's been out of use?
 

cheese

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I'd love to be just sat on a "British" train, with a ticket that could be used on any service going and coming back from my destination.

Even better if used a standard coupling present on every coach and locomotove on the network........

Yes, because my journey just isn't as comfortable if there's no buffer and chain.
 
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