Virgin Trains East Coast launch day

[Gadget88]

I disagree that the EC colours are worn out. The 91+MKIV's are painted in a base grey colour with EC purple stickers which can be easily removed. I suspect the base grey will form the base of Virgin's livery.

The HST's (with one exception iirc) have the NXEC white as the base.

I just noticed some of there trains need a good clean. Looks like they atleast need a repaint.
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The East Coast fleet will be wholly replaced by a new fleet of trains in 3-4 years time anyway. At which point Sir Richard can step up and claim that he has single handedly “revolutionised” the travelling experience on the East Coast despite it being written into the franchise whoever happened to win it.

Virgin is a strong brand that is (generally) more popularly perceived amongst the general public than Stagecoach.

Will these new trains better than what the West Coast line has? Does he plan to add new trains to that aswell?

 

[sprinterguy]

Will these new trains better than what the West Coast line has? Does he plan to add new trains to that aswell?

“Better” is a very subjective term. We don’t yet know quite how they will measure up from a passenger perspective.

Additional rolling stock within the West Coast franchise will be decided by whoever is awarded the next franchise, not necessarily Virgin/Stagecoach. There’ll be nothing before then.

 

[Joshrowlands]

“Better” is a very subjective term. We don’t yet know quite how they will measure up from a passenger perspective.

Additional rolling stock within the West Coast franchise will be decided by whoever is awarded the next franchise, not necessarily Virgin/Stagecoach. There’ll be nothing before then.

Statistically these Trains should be better having being built 12/14 years later than the Pendolinos and technology has advanced so much however, the pendolinos were a first for the UK and in their own right have become iconic weather you like them or not. Also the Pendolino tilts and I'm aware there isn't as many curves on the ECML as the WCML but it's still a cool feature to have on a train I suppose especially when the train does it as smooth as the pendolinos do.

Also astlom have been building trains/trams for over 50 years and I know they are the first choice for many people wanting to buy high speed trains or city trams I'm not sure of hitachi's reputation but they have built the javilns for hs1 which are brilliant trains I suppose.

Who knows I suppose we should all just be glad that the ECML is getting new rolling stock and a few more seats

 

[Nean]

Also astlom have been building trains/trams for over 50 years and I know they are the first choice for many people wanting to buy high speed trains or city trams I'm not sure of hitachi's reputation but they have built the javilns for hs1 which are brilliant trains I suppose.

Hitachi have had a hand in most (if not all) of the Shinkansen types in Japan as well as exporting their designs and processes to China, Taiwan and other places (like the 395s over here)

 

[JaJaWa]

There appears to be something happening at 11am on Monday 2nd March at London King's Cross https://twitter.com/askvirginec/status/568048441219280896

 

[387star]

Will virgin refurbish the ex EMT grey HST which retains as built interior

 

[Tommy1581]

Will someone tell them to do something in Newcastle, I ain't traveling to London just to see 91103

 

[sprinterguy]

Will someone tell them to do something in Newcastle, I ain't traveling to London just to see 91103

Well if you're not willing to put the effort in (), why should they come to you?

 

[ainsworth74]

Will someone tell them to do something in Newcastle, I ain't traveling to London just to see 91103

Good job it travels around the East Coast network then every day isn't it

 

[Starmill]

I will be at Newcastle at some point on 1st March. Should be interesting...

 

[ash39]

Probably not that interesting, the launch is on the 2nd...

 

[Starmill]

Probably not that interesting, the launch is on the 2nd...

I'm doing Newcastle to Doncaster that day too

 

[Smitham]

The East Coast fleet will be wholly replaced by a new fleet of trains in 3-4 years time anyway. At which point Sir Richard can step up and claim that he has single handedly “revolutionised” the travelling experience on the East Coast despite it being written into the franchise whoever happened to win it.

Virgin is a strong brand that is (generally) more popularly perceived amongst the general public than Stagecoach.

Agreed. I have a group of friends that regularly travel for football. We use East Coast, Virgin, Cross Country, Chiltern etc. When it was thought that Virgin had lost WCML, so many of these friends thought that the Penolinos would be gone too. Like they belonged to Virgin. It is a strong brand.

 

[samuelmorris]

In fairness, I suspect a lot of people probably still think TOCs own the trains they run, it's not just an issue of branding. Easy mistake to make I suppose!

 

[JaJaWa]

There appears to be something happening at 11am on Monday 2nd March at London King's Cross https://twitter.com/askvirginec/status/568048441219280896

Virgin have now confirmed that this will be the first service to run in the new livery.

King's Cross: 11:00
York: 12:53
Darlington: 13:21
Newcastle: 13:52
Berwick: 14:37
Edinburgh 15:20

 

[Stats]

Isn't the 1100 formed from the Flying Scotsman arrival?

 

[Hadders]

Isn't the 1100 formed from the Flying Scotsman arrival?

I doubt it will be on 2nd March!

 

[sor]

Bit surprised they want Virgin branding or Virgin would want to

The Virgin brand has value.

Look at Virgin Media as the classic example. It's actually what was NTL & Telewest, and during its period as a publicly traded company had no real link to Virgin Group and Beardy (although both did have small shareholdings as a result of the deal). They paid Virgin for the right to use the brand. But it didn't stop people thinking that Branson really ran the show (especially when he was wheeled out by VM during the Virgin/Sky channel dispute years ago). VM today is now fully owned by a large American media conglomerate, and has said that they don't plan to rebrand it into UPC like they use in Ireland and in Europe

Stagecoach would probably prefer to use Virgin brand over their own - since Stagecoach are typically associated with buses (and there's the whole Brian Souter thing) for the same reason that EMT/SWT aren't obviously Stagecoach except for the colours

 

[jon0844]

I was at the launch party of Virgin Media at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square, with SRB in attendance when it was of course nothing to do with Virgin anymore.

They got Blondie in to perform and it was funny as I was at one of the upstairs bars and didn't even realise she was actually on stage.

I hope most people in the room itself knew the score, but Joe Public certainly didn't and probably still don't.

 

[387star]

Am I right East Ciast branding isn't being removed and will be covered over gradually with the new Virgin East coast branding from 1st March?

Not aware of any trains minus branding

 

[ASharpe]

Will that then form the 16:30 back to Kings Cross?

I'm passing though Kings Cross shortly before that arrives so I might stick around for a bit.

 

[tomoufc]

East Coast's re-branding from NXEC cost £634, 842. This was considered 'minimal' by industry standards (http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/general/2010/03/18-minimal-east-costrebranding-
cost.html). I wonder how much Virgin will spend.

 

[Suraggu]

91103 is not in VTEC colours just yet contary to popular belief.

 

[whhistle]

I would expect a logo/DVT and coach to be done, if not a whole set for the launch day.

As has already been said, Virgin is a big brand now, so they would want press shots showing a Virgin Train - the whole point in having the brand instead of Stagecoach.

 

[dk1]

I would expect a logo/DVT and coach to be done, if not a whole set for the launch day.

As has already been said, Virgin is a big brand now, so they would want press shots showing a Virgin Train - the whole point in having the brand instead of Stagecoach.

I'm expecting a set to be stood down in the next few days to prepare if one hasn't been already.

 

[JaJaWa]

The first fully relivered set will launch on the 2nd of March at King's Cross and will form the 11:00 service to Edinburgh.

The Twiiter account just posted this: "We will apply a Virgin logo to all driver cars over the first 3 days & applying full Virgin livery over first 4 months."

 

[Hadders]

Normally at a franchise change the out going TOC starts to de-brand 4-6 weeks before the change.

I haven't seen any East Coast trains, ticket machines, ticket offices etc. de-branded yet.

I suspect this is because technically it's not a franchise change as we usually get but a share sale so there's probably no obligation on East Coast to de-brand.

 

[43367]

Normally at a franchise change the out going TOC starts to de-brand 4-6 weeks before the change.

I haven't seen any East Coast trains, ticket machines, ticket offices etc. de-branded yet.

I suspect this is because technically it's not a franchise change as we usually get but a share sale so there's probably no obligation on East Coast to de-brand.

Also East Coast is a unique name, no other company uses it, so no rush to have to cover it as there was when Cross Country took over from Virgin, also its part of the name so no real rush to change it, especailly as staff wont have new uniforms until may 2016 and will only receive new name badges and lanyards on the 1st march so the purple east coast will be around for a good while yet the ties and uniforms and delay repy and taimetables will be on show for a while

 

[JaJaWa]

New pic attached of what is / isn't 91103. As previously mentioned no trains will be branded like this on March 1, this will form the 11:00 from KGX on March 2.

Also Virgin have confirmed that materials like timetables won't be replaced / rebranded until they expire so May.

 

[West Ruislip]

Isn't the 1100 formed from the Flying Scotsman arrival?

Stock for the 11.00 is coming into King's Cross ECS from Bounds Green.