3 LSL ScotRail livery Mk3s, DBSO 9709, loco 37409 on rear supplying ETS. Load 4 total.
Shortened by two, so the ETS index is within the capabilities of a 37/4.
Very interesting. It will be interesting to see how many Jacobite passengers take up a 37 set with no steam locomotive or Harry Potter marketing.
Or the Thrash-obiteAka ‘The Fake-obite’
I’m not sure it will, they don’t have the brand, mailing list, a steam loco or the ‘Harry Potter-style’ compartment stock. The Friday Charter and Staycation Express both failed to strike a chord and were quietly discontinued when they tried to operate away from their traditional spheres of operations. The Intercity brand is withering on the vine. Their previous booking policies are off-putting for many.
That was a fantastic value tour, in a great location and I’m glad it was successful, but it isn’t representative: previously advertised tours were cancelled (presumably) due to low bookings and they have subsequently withdrawn from offering a full season of tours, leaving Intercity as the poor relation in the LSL stable of brands.
I can see what you're saying, but some of the Jacobite passengers will decide not to travel to the area at all as they will not view the experience as the same with diesel traction. Others may decline to travel on the day if the weather is inclement (which it often is) since they will no longer have a costly pre-booking to incentivise them to travel regardless, others may naturally spread out across the other timetabled services (yes, I know it's not many but it would still dilute numbers). If extra capacity were needed and it was being supplied at taxpayer expense, I'd fully expect a longer train to run in the path of an existing Scotrail service, at Scotrail fares. I see no reason why an outside company should compete against Scotrail's own farebox revenue, paid for at Scotrail's own (and the taxpayers) expense. That would be a ridiculous situation, that would be difficult for anyone to justify.
LSL are commercially quite switched on in my experience, they wouldn't have waited to be asked if there were potential passengers in the offing.
WCRC only offer half a carriage of compartments on the Jacobite, to be fair.
They'll even think it's Scotrail's own heritage train, given it has Scotrail all over it.
Also, to be fair at least one of the films does show some open saloon carriages.
It would be interesting to know what ScotRail think of LSL using their brand, and in their operating area where they provide the regular service trains.
Probably breathing a sigh of relief that LSL are going to partly solve their overcrowding issue that’s forthcoming. There’s no spare sets or crew to do anything about it, so LSL will be doing them a favour to avoid bad press etc.
