First Trenitalia (Avanti!) WCML branding, naming and livery

Journeyman · 26 Nov 2019

PR1Berske said:
There's nothing childish about having a sense of humour.

...but there is a time and a place for it, and I find a lot of Virgin's false bonhomie to be extremely obnoxious. I want a peaceful atmosphere on board trains, it's not a bloody comedy club.

RailUK Forums

py_megapixel · 26 Nov 2019

TT-ONR-NRN said:
There is of course, the chance that Virgin have licenced the brand to First Trenitalia, which would be a nice surprise, and that the vinyls are being removed in favour of paint or a new Virgin vinyl which says “A First Trenitalia operation” underneath?

but then surely Virgin Trains wouldn’t have made such a song and dance about their tragic exit on Dec 7th

That would be interesting! So it could be branded as Virgin-Stagecoach-First-Trenitalia West Coast then.

Scotrail314209 · 26 Nov 2019

I find Virgin to be relatively peaceful when onboard. It's mainly their stuff in the toilets, at stations and on their website. I enjoy travelling on them.

aleandrail · 26 Nov 2019

221107 lost its virgin name today, also, 221109 has lost its vinyls but not sure when

Paul’s · 26 Nov 2019

While at Stockport Station today, I noticed that a few Virgin Class 390, have lost there Virgin branding. Is this in readiness for the take over.

FrodshamJnct · 26 Nov 2019

Paul’s said:
While at Stockport Station today, I noticed that a few Virgin Class 390, have lost there Virgin branding. Is this in readiness for the take over.

Yes, it is.

PR1Berske · 26 Nov 2019

Journeyman said:
...but there is a time and a place for it, and I find a lot of Virgin's false bonhomie to be extremely obnoxious. I want a peaceful atmosphere on board trains, it's not a bloody comedy club.

Nothing - nothing at all - provided by Virgin could possibly be described as being akin to "a comedy club".

Doomotron · 26 Nov 2019

Journeyman said:
See, that's exactly the problem. I don't need to be told how to have fun by a bunch of adults acting like children. I'm not grumpy or miserable, I just can't stand Virgin's weapons-grade Gorgonzola levels of cheesiness. It would be quite nice if the WCML could be run by a proper grown-up TOC again.

Says somebody, grumpily.

hexagon789 said:
As long as they don't go for Barbie colors on the 390s, I'm not too bothered!

Is it bad that I think it would look good?

Tom Maddox said:
I never want anyone to talk to me or disturb me on a train, so if people are more likely to do it on a Virgin service, that isn’t a good thing for me.

Journeyman · 26 Nov 2019

Doomotron said:
Says somebody, grumpily.

I'm an introvert. I find excessive human contact exhausting, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that I'm not constantly jollied along into interactions I don't want.

It doesn't make me grumpy or miserable. It just means I find Virgin's rather brash culture to be excessively over-familiar and a bit intrusive, therefore it's a bit stressful. I'd appreciate the new franchise toning it down a bit.

xc170 · 27 Nov 2019

Journeyman said:
I'm an introvert. I find excessive human contact exhausting, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that I'm not constantly jollied along into interactions I don't want.

It doesn't make me grumpy or miserable. It just means I find Virgin's rather brash culture to be excessively over-familiar and a bit intrusive, therefore it's a bit stressful. I'd appreciate the new franchise toning it down a bit.

In what way are Virgin intrusive?

FrodshamJnct · 27 Nov 2019

Doomotron said:
Says somebody, grumpily.

Is it bad that I think it would look good?

Haha! I am in fact Northern myself. It’s Virgin’s try-too-hard attempts to be wacky and zany that are really irritating.

ScottGallagher · 27 Nov 2019

At today's reveal will it just be the name revealed or will they show off interior designs for the refurbishment of the pendolino and other on board changes such as catering?

pt_mad · 27 Nov 2019

Scotrail314209 said:
I find Virgin to be relatively peaceful when onboard. It's mainly their stuff in the toilets, at stations and on their website. I enjoy travelling on them.

Having travelled on a 390 and an LNER MK4 in the same day not long ago it now feels like the 390 is really really showing its age inside. Even the interior plastics with everything being round, feel like something that was trying to be space age futuristic at the time for the sake of being ultra modern. Since then classic comfort has come back during some refurbishments particularly coaching stock. I only hope during refurb that things are made a little more contemporary and the plasticy millennium space age feel to things disappears.

py_megapixel · 27 Nov 2019

Journeyman said:
I find Virgin's rather brash culture to be excessively over-familiar and a bit intrusive, therefore it's a bit stressful. I'd appreciate the new franchise toning it down a bit.

I agree; I don't mind staff being friendly and helpful (they should be, of course) - but when you try to make inanimate objects helpful and friendly is where I draw the line. I constantly think "I see that they've tried to do something nice there, but in reality it's just an irritation."

Doomotron · 27 Nov 2019

ScottGallagher said:
At today's reveal will it just be the name revealed or will they show off interior designs for the refurbishment of the pendolino and other on board changes such as catering?

I think if it was just the name it would be a terrible event...

pt_mad · 27 Nov 2019

py_megapixel said:
I agree; I don't mind staff being friendly and helpful (they should be, of course) - but when you try to make inanimate objects helpful and friendly is where I draw the line.

You didn't mean an avocado did you?

SteveM70 · 27 Nov 2019

py_megapixel said:
I agree; I don't mind staff being friendly and helpful (they should be, of course) - but when you try to make inanimate objects helpful and friendly is where I draw the line. I constantly think "I see that they've tried to do something nice there, but in reality it's just an irritation."

One of the many irritations of modern life. At my work if something is broken it invariably has a sign on it beginning “Hi! I’m feeling a bit poorly” or similar. No, it’s a broken photocopier

Ridiculous

(Although I gather some people do like this sort of thing)

ScottGallagher · 27 Nov 2019

Doomotron said:
I think if it was just the name it would be a terrible event...

Unless there's enough drink laid on to counteract the boredom, imagine being subjected to a PowerPoint containing a picture of a skewed triangle and it's deeper meaning for an hour or two

py_megapixel · 27 Nov 2019

ScottGallagher said:
Unless there's enough drink laid on to counteract the boredom, imagine being subjected to a PowerPoint containing a picture of a skewed triangle and it's deeper meaning for an hour or two

I've never really been to a "brand launch" event, but I assume they take great pride in explaining what the new logo and name encompasses. Possibly with someone accidentally exiting the slideshow, and revealing the filename "[brand name] Launch.ppt"

Presumably the information will get out fairly quickly after the launch. I hope so, as it appears that the launch will be private, and in any case I wouldn't travel to Birmingham for it!

Journeyman · 27 Nov 2019

SteveM70 said:
One of the many irritations of modern life. At my work if something is broken it invariably has a sign on it beginning “Hi! I’m feeling a bit poorly” or similar. No, it’s a broken photocopier

Ridiculous

(Although I gather some people do like this sort of thing)

It just fills me with rage!

Journeyman · 27 Nov 2019

Tom Maddox said:
Haha! I am in fact Northern myself. It’s Virgin’s try-too-hard attempts to be wacky and zany that are really irritating.

Haha! Perfect choice of sketch. I find constant jokey chumminess of the sort Virgin seem to love to be extremely grating, about as subtle and sophisticated as our friend Colin there. It seems that Virgin employ a lot of Colin Hunts.

HOOVER29 · 27 Nov 2019

Don’t think I’ve ever been on a Virgin trains service when it was like that. if I had & a person had presented himself to me in that manner I’d be doing time at one of her majesty’s hotels.
I’m all for a laugh, ask my nieces, nephews & family members but there’s a time and a place.
Having said that there’s a few on here I wouldn’t like to be stuck in a broken lift with.
Some are very informative
Others have me chewing through my lip.

coradiafan2000 · 27 Nov 2019

Journeyman said:
I'm an introvert. I find excessive human contact exhausting, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that I'm not constantly jollied along into interactions I don't want.

It doesn't make me grumpy or miserable. It just means I find Virgin's rather brash culture to be excessively over-familiar and a bit intrusive, therefore it's a bit stressful. I'd appreciate the new franchise toning it down a bit.

I'm a very introverted person too, but I still prefer a TOC with an actual personality that enjoys fun.

coradiafan2000 · 27 Nov 2019

I'm staggered at how miserable some people are. If you want a quiet journey, the quiet carriage exists ,which in my experience is more respected than on other TOCs.

What happened to service with a smile? That's what Virgin gives, yet somehow people hate the idea of people being friendly these days.

theshillito · 27 Nov 2019

I've never been that annoyed by Virgin's personality, except when they have literal adverts played over the PA and in the toilets. Some film like Daddy's Home 2 or something like that had full on adverts played over the speakers, and that's not on. I didn't mind the Anchorman 2 ones because they didn't mention the film at all, except the announcements were in-character as "Ron Burgundy", but the other one was all "you're on the toilet and can't escape, go see this film we're forcing you to hear an advert to".

Also the "use Beam to watch films and tv shows" ad being played after every station sure is grating between Crewe and Carlisle when the stations are way more frequent.

coradiafan2000 · 27 Nov 2019

theshillito said:
I've never been that annoyed by Virgin's personality, except when they have literal adverts played over the PA and in the toilets. Some film like Daddy's Home 2 or something like that had full on adverts played over the speakers, and that's not on. I didn't mind the Anchorman 2 ones because they didn't mention the film at all, except the announcements were in-character as "Ron Burgundy", but the other one was all "you're on the toilet and can't escape, go see this film we're forcing you to hear an advert to".

Also the "use Beam to watch films and tv shows" ad being played after every station sure is grating between Crewe and Carlisle when the stations are way more frequent.

The beam announcement is admittedly repetitive, especially on stations. Although that's mostly because the PA system's voice is emotionless.

The Prisoner · 27 Nov 2019

Sure I read that Virgin had released a unit to be branded (390156?). Where is this being hidden or is it still at Widnes Alstom? Would have thought one of the trains would be branded for today's "launch"?

ashkeba · 27 Nov 2019

The Prisoner said:
Sure I read that Virgin had released a unit to be branded (390156?). Where is this being hidden or is it still at Widnes Alstom? Would have thought one of the trains would be branded for today's "launch"?

No. Train branding launch next month, says post #779. How would they get a train to today's central Brimingham venue anyway? Tram drag?

Karl · 27 Nov 2019

Doomotron said:
Says somebody, grumpily.

Is it bad that I think it would look good?

Absolutely fantastic! I can't believe I've never seen this before. I think it sums up the difference between the North and the South. Thanks for sharing

EE Andy b1 · 27 Nov 2019

The Prisoner said:
Sure I read that Virgin had released a unit to be branded (390156?). Where is this being hidden or is it still at Widnes Alstom? Would have thought one of the trains would be branded for today's "launch"?

EE Andy b1 said:
It's Wed 27th November at a Central Birmingham location from 1730 - 1830.
The official train branding will be unveiled on Monday 09 December at Euston,.

390156 is still as Alstom Widnes until Tuesday 03 December, i presume it will go elsewhere (Oxley depot) for re-branding for a VIP special on Monday 09 Dec, departing London Euston at 1033, also another 390 re-branded for a service train to either Manchester (1040) or Liverpool (1107).

390157 the last to be re-painted white is due at Widnes on Wed 04 December. Should imagine this will be released on Tue 17 December in full First Trenitalias new livery.

First Trenitalia (Avanti!) WCML branding, naming and livery

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