And Two Come Along At Once
At the "big" launch of Great British Railways a while back, the cathedral to rail travel that is London Bridge station was thronged with a few people anxious to enjoy (?) the new livery. It was shown on a Hornby class 800 four car set (above) and an electronically contrived video of a similar train.
How excited the crowds were!
But we had yet to see the magnificence of the new livery (?) on a real train.
But that was resolved a few days ago when a Southern train, resplendent in a slightly different version of the new livery ...
... pulled gracefully into Brighton station. But, don't tell anyone, this was not originally a 'Southern' train. It used to be with Great Western operating out of Paddington.
Later in life it lost its GWR labels and moved south ...
.. pictured still in dark green at Ore.
A picture taken at Brighton shows the livery variation.
The red "flash" disappears more quickly into the bodywork tumblehome.
Heidi was there, remarkably still Transport Minister, to bathe in the adulation of the small crowd admiring the design.
She revealed four significant news bites.
Firstly; the livery was "designed" in-house by DaFT DepArtment For Transport). So that explains everything.
Two : there would be no mass repainting, stock would get its new paint job as vehicles were due for major refurbishment. So fbb will certainly not live long enough to see the job finished! By that time a different set of politicians will probably have come up with a whole new idea for reforming the ailing rail network.
Three : Existing company names will be part of the new scheme ...
... thus ensuring that GBR will be a weak and confusing brand.
But DaFT don't just want to give you that ...
... as, a day or two later, a class 701 rolled into Waterloo station. Despite Heidi's announced livery policy of "festina lente", Waterloo saw a nearly new class 701 bedecked in the new paint job.
Train 701 006 would have looked like this until very recently.
fbb does concede that GBR livery looks better than First's!
Of course the 701s are nearly new but much delayed in their introduction.
The fleet name is, as expected, long!
Heidi tells us that these names are the brands we all know (and love??) so they need to be shown on the trains.
To fbb, that sounds very much like nothing changes except the paint job!
Surely we want something better from GBR?
The Return Of An Old Friend?
Open top buses along the Exmoor coast of the Bristol Channel have had a variety of manifestations. Here is long gone Quantock ...
... and a rather fine Bristol, showing route 301.
First Bus operated a route 300, but usually as a normal bus route.
And here is 'Sir Humphrey Davy' ...
Yes, it is YDV 753 again!
In more recent years, First Bus arrived with high class publicity ...
... fully branded vehicles ...
... but not always fully branded reliability. fbb remembers a Roger French review of the Exmoor Coaster in which he bemoans the fact that one of the scheduled open toppers was a very closed top single decker, chosen for its inability to fully reveal the gorgeous views!
And we all know what happened to First' open top services.
Correspondent David, who dwells at Minehead, tells fbb of the return if the 300, now in the hands of Stagecoach and operated from their Barnstaple depot.
Publicity is plentiful and printed ...
The timetable is somewhat reduced from the heady over-optimistic days of First's Coaster ...
Two buses are required for the service which now runs until the end of August.
There was a smattering if eager passengers from Minehead Butlins, even on the first day.
Now we need some visionary entrepreneur to reinstate some if the glorious Cornwall topless rides, notably those running the mega circular from Penzance.
Definitely missing views, exciting narrow roads and an opportunity to make a bob or two.
Puzzle Pictures
No 1, Where?
And No 2, Where?
And No 3, Who?
And No 2, Where?
And No 3, Who?
To win the non existent prize, we need his original nomenclature and his later rebranding
Answers tomorrow.
Next Bank Holiday variety : Mon 25th May
The picture of 387172 described as being at Ore is actually at Eastbourne.
ReplyDeleteThe 300 is running in two separate sections; the open top only goes as far as Lynmouth, with passengers required to change for a single deck onwards to Ilfracombe,
The brands need to be shown on the trains up until the point train operator specific tickets are retired. Retiring these tickets has fallen down, along with other fares reform, as the change is either requires additional subsidy or involves some passengers paying more.
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