People keep bringing up the already nationalised TOCs but it’s so irrelevant, as these were operators of last resort in a privatised railway. Of course they’re going to look the same. Why would a privatised railway that’s had to take some services in house due to corporate failings want to publicly advertise the fact they’ve had to nationalise it?
To be fair, I don't think many members of the public (and probably some of the media too) would understand any difference in structure, operation and services provided between an operator taken over as last resort, (nationalised by back door). And one nationalised because contract ended or was terminated. Ultimately both are in DfT pending status prior to GBR.
Operator of Last Resort no longer exists. It has been replaced by DfT Operator Ltd. Essentially the same function but it would be odd to continue to have "Last Resort" in the name.
Well I will certainly be raising a glass of bubbly.
They would only have been nationalised by the Tories if a franchise failed (or failed to attract any bids when re-let)
The reason for transfers taking place at 2.00am, as happened with all the privatisations, is to minimise the possibility of having to deal with all the problems that would arise if a crash took place at or very close to the handover time.
That's what I was thinking! The Daily Telegraph presents this news item as if it demonstrates some kind of failure of "nationalisation", either not realising, or probably not knowing, that the engineering works that have led to the replacement bus are the responsibility of NR and not the train operator.
The first substantive change will be hopefully later this year when quasi-vertical integration through an alliance with Network Rail takes place. South Eastern and Greater Anglia are well advanced with similar plans.
SWR is also well-aligned with its current NR Route/Region, but some TOCs are definitely not (eg Northern., TPE and XC, also TfW).
They won't all necessarily be vertically integrated before they're abolished altogether under GBR. It makes sense to get some vertical integration introduced in the meantime for those TOCs where there is a good geographical match.
I think it's all right. I prefer basic, less flashy stuff. We had enough gee-whiz playing with paint-pots under the Tories.
Are you sure? Can’t see it on RTT, are you viewing tomorrows times instead?
Ignore me. I picked up 701046's movement from Bournemouth at 2336 tonight (24th) to Waterloo platform 19 and misread it as last night, then tracked through to the next movement from that platform,
Since that sticker literally includes the words "coming soon" I think it's safe to assume that it's not the permanent version of anything ...
Yes, exactly my point in a complaint to them as well! A very tabloid-ish article (as is increasingly the case with the BBC these days). Also, the so-called first nationalised rail service being a bus is hardly surprising at that time of day.
I doubt if that is even the temporary logo, as the 'coming soon' part is only relevant for a very short time (and I would hope that even a temporary logo would be somewhat more elegant than that!).
Receipts from ticket sales go to the Treasury anyway, not to the individual retailer.
Yes, but until the legislation to create GBR is laid and implemented the legal structure still necessitates that the money is accounted for through the relevant contract structure. Legally, the process being followed is no different to the one used for franchise changes.
It's a shame BR Blue Grey 5868 aka Spanners isn't available to work the first nationalised service.