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

[Agent_Squash]

I don’t get all the sadness about Virgin coming to an end. The East coast line is brilliant under LNER I expect the West coast line will improve greatly.

It's the same management and same staff, but it's fair to say VTEC never developed the same love amongst staff teams that the West Coast operation did. An entire generation of new railway employees have started under them, and often went to VT because of their culture.

It's also fair to say West Coast was the flagship operation; East Coast was sort of a 'yeah we do this too!'

 

[Kite159]

New platform signage vinyls have started to appear at Stockport

 

[RealTrains07]

New platform signage vinyls have started to appear at Stockport

View attachment 71301

Thats quick, First must really be on the ball then. Compared to EMR whose station signage has still failed to appear.

Doesn’t have as nostalgic appeal as virgins did

 

[RealTrains07]

After midnight meaning Avanti has now officially begun. Nothing seems to have changed. Guess we will wait till morning..

 

[PG]

After midnight meaning Avanti has now officially begun. Nothing seems to have changed. Guess we will wait till morning..

No doubt the media will be quick to pounce if there are any cancellations...

 

[Hadders]

After midnight meaning Avanti has now officially begun. Nothing seems to have changed. Guess we will wait till morning..

I believe the official handover is at 02:00

 

[Winthorpe]

I believe the official handover is at 02:00

So there is another 90 minutes until the sky falls in...

 

[transmanche]

After midnight meaning Avanti has now officially begun.

I believe that the changeover technically happens at 02:00, not midnight.

The most recent Virgin Trains franchise agreement stated that the expiry date would be "no earlier than 0159 on 10 November 2019".

 

[Kite159]

So there is another 90 minutes until the sky falls in...

Felt like it was falling in at Stockport, that was some heavy rain!

 

[PG]

I believe the official handover is at 02:00

I'd have thought 04:30 would be more appropriate given tickets for the previous day don't expire until 04:29 IIRC

 

[Class455]

The final Manchester (1H76) service seems to have given up at Stockport.
"Due to a problem with the train".

The final two Wolverhamptons (9G47, 1T47) are on the last lap from Birmingham.
I shall miss Virgin Trains.

Yep I was onboard 1H76, operated by 390132 there was a problem with the wipers which prevented us from going any further than Stockport! The fault was discovered at Stafford but we managed to keep going until heavy rain fell at Stockport. Was a shame to end my final Virgin Trains journey so suddenly but nonetheless I will miss travelling with them

 

[djpontrack]

Just noticed this on Tyrell. Goodbye VT.

 

[transmanche]

I'd have thought 04:30 would be more appropriate given tickets for the previous day don't expire until 04:29 IIRC

But if there are no trains running at 02:00, why wait until 04:30?

 

[ainsworth74]

As the new Franchise has begun the Forum Staff in line with long standing tradition have decided to draw the current thread to an end at this stage as it's time for more specific threads to be started rather than having 'master' threads.