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Abellio wins West Midlands franchise

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pt_mad

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Yes, a refurb is planned. I'd expect the seats to be retained (nothing wrong with them) but for new base foams and covers on the /1s, and new covers only on the /3s and /4s.

Also new stickers on the vestibule/corridor doors would be nice as last time I traveled on a 350 they still had ex silver link decals on the interior doors.

Also vinyl flooring as they have on the similar Scotrail 380s would be nice, and would likely keep so much cleaner and smarter than dirty carpets over time.

Not sure whether it would be worth adding luggage racks to 350s? Again they have them on 380s. But I suppose the 350/1s do have wide aisles anyway.

Also some sort of automatic food and bottled drinks vending machines on board like Scotrail are planning might be a good idea on long distance routes.

And the arm rests in first need replacing for rubber/vinyl ones rather than hard plastic coated with velour.
 
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Bletchleyite

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The First Class seats need replacing to a 2+1 layout. As they are they are inferior in both comfort and legroom to the Standard ones, particularly the priority seats.

Re flooring, I'd be OK with "coffee shop style" vinyl i.e. wood effect, but the typical flecked "hospital style" vinyl makes them look too Spartan for me.
 

pt_mad

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The First Class seats need replacing to a 2+1 layout. As they are they are inferior in both comfort and legroom to the Standard ones, particularly the priority seats.

Re flooring, I'd be OK with "coffee shop style" vinyl i.e. wood effect, but the typical flecked "hospital style" vinyl makes them look too Spartan for me.

Good suggestion about coffee shop style vinyl in the 350s. Suppliers do now manufacturer wide ranges of wood effect safety flooring.

Saying that, see below picture of the class 380 interior from Scotrail. Safety floor seems to work quite well. And spillages won't simply be penetrated into the carpets for the next 5 years.
It is more of a long term solution to keep the units smart.

Not my image:

380.jpg
 
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JordyWM

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I’m not so sure on the new liveries for the the both services. I think it’s a shame that TfWM didn’t use the opportunity to use a Network West Midlands livery for the trains, similar to the trams for the local services. Would make it look more cohesive.

Will be strange to see West Midlands services without green for sure.

Also not sure on how the London Northwestern brand ignores the fact that all the services run through the Midlands, which is an oddity for me. Northwestern does not mean Midlands and it’s unfortunate they’re ignoring the main central part of the service in the name, and indeed the franchise itself.
 

pemma

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Also not sure on how the London Northwestern brand ignores the fact that all the services run through the Midlands, which is an oddity for me. Northwestern does not mean Midlands and it’s unfortunate they’re ignoring the main central part of the service in the name, and indeed the franchise itself.

To me if you take the current trading name of London Midland it's sounds like it belongs to an operator who runs trains between London and the Midlands when that is only part of what the franchise does. The legal name of London & Birmingham railway more accurately describes what the franchise operates - OK that name doesn't suggest Bedford to Bletchley is included but the vast majority of the services they operate do serve London and/or Birmingham.
 

class387

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The First Class seats need replacing to a 2+1 layout. As they are they are inferior in both comfort and legroom to the Standard ones, particularly the priority seats.

Re flooring, I'd be OK with "coffee shop style" vinyl i.e. wood effect, but the typical flecked "hospital style" vinyl makes them look too Spartan for me.
I have always thought this, though never brought it up. I think this should get more criticism than the identical first classes on Southern etc. They are in the same layout and configuration as the standard seats, but who thought it would be a good idea to use a worse seat?
 

pemma

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Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde is to leave Merseyrail to become MD of the new West Midlands franchise. With Alex Hynes recently moving from Northern to Scotrail, it looks like Abellio prefer to have MDs that they've worked with before, opposed to keeping the MD from the old franchise or bringing in someone brand new.
 

HH

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Who'll be the lucky person picking up MR I wonder.
 

pt_mad

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Are London Midland Only tickets still being sold for January with 'London Midland Only' printed on then?
 

HH

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Perhaps more importantly, it's when the new franchise starts (or perhaps the day after). ;)
If that is the case, and I were the new MD, I'd want to start a little before the new franchise did...
 

pt_mad

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They’ll be valid with the new operator. They’ve been sold cuz of the system wont update till start of 10th December.

Oh right. Will that cause confusion if customers are turning up to Euston with London Midland Only tickets and all they can see is Virgin and London Northwestern services?


Also do we anticipate the new operator will keep the £8 midlands to London advances as I assume LM are still selling them for Jan and Feb regardless of whether LNW want to continue with bargain fares going forward? Could we anticipate they may have a different marketing strategy and may want to remove the £6 / £8 midlands to London fares?
 
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sufian123

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Oh right. Will that cause confusion if customers are turning up to Euston with London Midland Only tickets and all they can see is Virgin and London Northwestern services?


Also do we anticipate the new operator will keep the £8 midlands to London advances as I assume LM are still selling them for Jan and Feb regardless of whether LNW want to continue with bargain fares going forward? Could we anticipate they may have a different marketing strategy and may want to remove the £6 / £8 midlands to London fares?

Good question. I'm not to sure about that. i'm sure they'll keep it reasonable. Besides LM will fade away slowly. Till then LM name will exist on the train. confusion will be on the rebranded train.
 

XCTurbostar

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I haven’t noticed any de-branding at all at this point and I don’t think we will until the night before.
 

Thedispatcher

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Speaking about de-branding, a lot of stations in the Worcester area have had the London Midland logo on the bottom of station signs covered over.
 

Mordac

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Saw a double decker bus decked in wmtrains livery outside Northampton station this evening. I even thought it was a rail replacement bus for a second, before remembering wmtrains wasn't a thing yet. :lol:

Then I saw it had something about a road show, so I ran happily towards it, hoping to find out more about the plans. Turns out it was for LM staff only, but I still managed to swipe this leaflet:





Actually surprised that Northampton ends up in wmtrains rather than London North Western. It's not even in the West Midlands!
 

XCTurbostar

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I've seen some of the new timetables.. and theyve got London Midland on them..
 

BantamMenace

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Does that map in the leaflet shared a few posts ago suggest Stratford to Leamington locals will become wmtrains?
 

Class 170101

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Also do we anticipate the new operator will keep the £8 midlands to London advances as I assume LM are still selling them for Jan and Feb regardless of whether LNW want to continue with bargain fares going forward? Could we anticipate they may have a different marketing strategy and may want to remove the £6 / £8 midlands to London fares?

I imagine LM are selling tickets as far as the T - 12 window will allow in the hope of taking money from the next operator. I believe most do it and in any event it is neccessary to ensure continuity for passengers who would want to book tickets after 10 December changeover date today.
 
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