Steddenm
Member
The 390 I was on today had debranded antimacastas, a plain silver slip mat on the table, unbranded sugar, salt and pepper, different water bottles and a VT-free first class menu.
No more Pendolino’s left in the original livery now! 390157 is now in Widnes for a repaint . I was hoping they’d keep this until the very end
On a train this morning, coach G had a lot of anti-maccassors (sorry don't know how to spell it) missing, no way of telling whether this was the result of theft or removal due to becoming dirty and no replacements.
But the grey and red wavy lines are still on waiting room windows.
Previously discussed, heavy rumours going around that is 390156 and 157.Any idea which unit will be the first in the new livery?
Either way, not long until we find out...Previously discussed, heavy rumours going around that is 390156 and 157.
Yes they will and adding one at Stockport and possibly Preston if the station ever gets a full revamp.Might be the wrong place to post this but will Avanti Trains be retaining and obviously rebranding all the Virgin Trains 1st Class Lounges at various stations?
£350m deal for @HitachiRailEU to build 23 trains at Newton Aycliffe for @avantiwestcoast. The trains will be a mix of ten seven-carriage electric trains and 13 five-carriage bi-mode trains. They will enter traffic from 2022.
Nice to see some confirmation of unit lengths there. 7-carriage EMUs probably won't be working in multiple, but the 5-carriage bi-modes will be able to continue splitting on the North Wales services (etc).looks like Avanti are getting some 80Xs https://twitter.com/Clinnick1/status/1202847640851034112
I must admit, the Avanti West Coast livery looks stunning on an IET
The seven-carriage version of the electric trains will have similar numbers of seats to a nine-carriage Pendolino, owing to the longer 26 metre carriages of the Hitachi trains.
805 and 806?
If there wasn’t any white you wouldn’t have the green and blue you like stand out so easily.The livery would look better without the white areas as that just looks bland and lazy and doesnt in my opinion fit well with the green and blue which both complement eachother nicely
Other than a change of branding, I doubt you'll see any changes by next Thursday. Certainly, there won't have been any significant alterations to things like the lounges, or to the trains. I mean, First Trenitalia will only have had the franchise for 5 days at that point, they'll barely have had time to "move in".Apologies, an amateur poster here so maybe this is very well covered.
Have been using Virgin maybe 10-15 times a year the last 10 years or so for First trips from Telford/Wolverhampton to Euston... very happily in fairness save for Wolverhampton lounge closing a year or so back.
I booked a Euston First return for this coming Friday many weeks back. Two things I did not realise; 1. that we'd be in central London the day of the election results and 2. that Virgin would no longer be Virgin on this day!!!. In fact there was a third thing .... that there would be an election at all!
Just to ask more knowledge folk what we might expect to see different on the day? From what I gather very little. Read a lot of pages on the thread but could not gather so much. What I did learn ... is what an Antimacassar was
I ask just out of enthusiastic curiosity rather than any huge concern or technical study and as someone who still enjoys that particular service if no great fan of the Euston lounge which I always felt very utility like (generous in fact). Has that had any form of revamp?
Appreciate any information you may have,
I'm with you on this, the blue and green with orange accent and no white would look lovelyThe livery would look better without the white areas as that just looks bland and lazy and doesnt in my opinion fit well with the green and blue which both complement eachother nicely
Other than a change of branding, I doubt you'll see any changes by next Thursday. Certainly, there won't have been any significant alterations to things like the lounges, or to the trains. I mean, First Trenitalia will only have had the franchise for 5 days at that point, they'll barely have had time to "move in".
You will, I'm sure, see what you've called "soft stuff" there change. Things like branding on water bottles, antimacassars, etc.Thanks Mathew I sort of imagined that might be the answer.
And yet when an airline takes over a routing or airport or a hotel takes over a franchise, they always do this stuff up front. (speaks a man who who has spent far too much of the last 30 years in airports and hotels) ... the soft stuff that is, not the heavy lift and complex refit. You might have thought that very simple catering aspects, and the soft product could be added in and branded within days? Not seat refits and new hardware or software, just marketing impact stuff. And indeed even the lounges are so small and limited in scope that it's hard to see how any of them could take more than 5 days to implement from an F&P point of view.
And also parallel to the airline and hotel world, the intro phase usually has enhanced product even if the first few days. Like BA adding their first A380 to LHR-HKG ... they gave branded A380 sleep suits out in F. Childish stuff but very very common in those worlds and product.
Am I over simplifying the rail world? Just comparing to the one I work within. Either way I think you are right. Maybe the marketing machine is a little more old school.
Maybe it is my colourblind eyes, but i am sure I have seen a very similar colour scheme before......looks like Avanti are getting some 80Xs https://twitter.com/Clinnick1/status/1202847640851034112
I must admit, the Avanti West Coast livery looks stunning on an IET
And also parallel to the airline and hotel world, the intro phase usually has enhanced product even if the first few days. Like BA adding their first A380 to LHR-HKG ... they gave branded A380 sleep suits out in F. Childish stuff but very very common in those worlds and product.