What was Project OMEGA?

[Jorge Da Silva]

In page 92 of the RAIL Issue 840 in an article about the West Coast Modernisation it mentioned a project called ‘Project OMEGA’ which would have seen a series of improvements after the upgrade. This included both CrossCountry and West Coast franchises (then both owned by Virgin) extended to 2017. Virgin CrossCountry would have ran a service from Kings Cross to Teesside via Nottingham and another service from Portsmouth Harbour to Nottingham via Feltham (for Heathrow).
Any more information on these plans?

 

[yorkie]

Never heard of it. Was it someone's idea that never got off the drawing board?

Virgin CrossCountry would have ran a service from Kings Cross to Teesside via Nottingham

This would make no sense.

 

[Masbroughlad]

Don't know about this one particularity. In the early days of privatisation, TOCs had some really innovative ideas.... the SRA scuppered those!

To me, the franchise model if today is prescribed to tightly by DfT (or whatever it is called these days!)

 

[Carlisle]

Never heard of it. Was it someone's idea that never got off the drawing board?

This would make no sense.

I can remember Cross Country services serving Paddington in the past

 

[vlad]

I can remember Cross Country services serving Paddington in the past

True - but that was a fairly short extension of their regular services to Reading.

London KX, Nottingham and Teesside weren't served by XC, so there would have been a far greater distance travelled off their network (I think it'd only be Chesterfield to Northallerton where they'd share tracks with other XC trains).

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

I can remember Cross Country services serving Paddington in the past

I think these ceased in 2003 along with Liverpool and Blackpool. Shame they don’t run now.

 

[Helvellyn]

True - but that was a fairly short extension of their regular services to Reading.

London KX, Nottingham and Teesside weren't served by XC, so there would have been a far greater distance travelled off their network (I think it'd only be Chesterfield to Northallerton where they'd share tracks with other XC trains).

Actually, InterCity CrossCountry served Paddington when some Western Region Paddington - Birmingham services were extended North to Manchester and Glasgow. There was even a Saturday Paddington - Carlisle service in the late 1980s that used a hired in Network SouthEast set, that operated North on a Saturday afternoon and returned South as the first train on a Sunday morning. Was quite a sight formed up of Mark 1 SKs and Mark 2A FKs/BFKs all in NSE livery. If I recall correctly it was 47 hauled throughout as well.

 

[Mag_seven]

I remember travelling XC from Paddington to Glasgow throughout, circa 1998.

 

[Dr Hoo]

[Gross oversimplification alert!]
IIRC correctly OMEGA was part of the Virgin-Railtrack 'Hartwell Agreement' that sought to draw a line under the collapsing 'PUG2' West Coast Main Line upgrade and give Virgin a chance to achieve its expected rail profits by a wider and rather 'privileged' deal taking in Cross Country as well.
The timing couldn't have been worse because the Hatfield derailment happened shortly afterwards (October 2000) and the chaos of the Interim Periodic Review, collapse of Railtrack into administration and the failure/inability of the SRA to 'manage' the situation over the next couple of years made it irrelevant.

 

[swt_passenger]

Given the eventual Op Princess fiasco, I expect the off-piste services mentioned in the first post would have caused chaos as well...