From last Sunday a new operator took over the franchise which was London Midland.
The new company is called West Midlands Trains ...
... a consortium owned by Abellio (Dutch State Railway), J R East and Mitsui (both from Japan).
Simple so far? BUT ... the West Midlands Trains business will operate as two separate "companies". These are ...
... running the outer suburban stuff from London Euston to Birmingham via Northampton. It also includes the Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branch ...
... and longer distance services venturing into the dragon-infested North West.
We all know that this split-personality won't actually work in practice and West Midlands Railway branded stock will end up at Bedford or St Albans whilst London Northwester trains will appear at Stourbridge.
So why the split.
West Midans PTE, which took on responsibility for local trains and stuck WM logos on them ...
... rebranded as Centro and repainted its trains.
Then it lost its buses via privatisation to National Express and its trains, also to National Express as Central Trains. The overall PTE publicity was rebranded as Network West Midlands.
But the PTE has now been expunged from the pages of public transport history and been replaced by The West Midlands Combined Authority ...
... which is beginning to call itself TfWM.
Now WMCA (not the most exclusive acronym) and/or TfWM would really like to take charge of its trains a bit like Transport for London has hi-jacked London Overground. But DaFT (The Department for Transport) doesn't want these country bumpkins from Brum to take over completely. So "in readiness" for future UDI, Birmingham Trains will be painted a different colour and "overseen" by West Midlands Rail.
West Midlands Rail is a partnership of 16 local authorities in the West Midlands region of England, responsible for rail transport policy in the region. Along with the Department for Transport, West Midlands Rail has had joint responsibility for overseeing rail services running within the region from December 2017.
They haven't got a logo yet - but, no doubt coming soon ... !!
Oh yes they have - just found it! From their publicity you might think that West Midlands Rail owns and runs the trains ...
A new era of rail travel offering passengers more frequent services, better trains and extra seats was ushered in today (Monday December 11) as management of the West Midlands network was put into local hands.
A new franchise, managed jointly by a consortium of local councils and the government, got underway bringing a near £1 billion investment into the local network over the next eight years.
The new franchise, which runs until March 2026, will see more services and more space for passengers while stimulating and supporting further economic growth and jobs across the region.
... but they don't. The trains are still run by the franchisee under the tight control of DaFT, the Department for Transport.
A new era of rail travel offering passengers more frequent services, better trains and extra seats was ushered in today (Monday December 11) as management of the West Midlands network was put into local hands.
A new franchise, managed jointly by a consortium of local councils and the government, got underway bringing a near £1 billion investment into the local network over the next eight years.
The new franchise, which runs until March 2026, will see more services and more space for passengers while stimulating and supporting further economic growth and jobs across the region.
... but they don't. The trains are still run by the franchisee under the tight control of DaFT, the Department for Transport.
Here is a little challenge for our readers with nothing much to do over the next couple of weeks.
But the good news (????) is that they have unveiled both new liveries; West Midlands Railway (in mock-up a few weeks ago) but now for real ...
... and London Northwestern Railway at a launch at the Kings Heath depot on Monday last. fbb is not sure whether the picture below is for real or a computerised paste up.
Neither paint scheme (vinyl scheme) endears itself to fbb who is, as he keeps being told, old fashioned enough to believe that a livery should enhance the design of the vehicles, not destroy it.
The printed timetables are already available on-line and will soon arrive at stations - another unnecessary re-design cost?
Still it keeps the graphic companies in business.
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ADVENT CALENDAR - 15
However those angels are pictured, they look faintly ridiculous.
Perhaps they were a sort of celestial choir giving a very Holy concert?
What are we to make of Luke's narrative?
There were some shepherds in that part of the country who were spending the night in the fields, taking care of their flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone over them.
They were terribly afraid.
The angel and terrified shepherds?
So let's start with the shepherds ...
... and their fields. The site is marked by a chapel these days ...
... but there is plenty of poor quality grazing around and about.
The site looks about right even after a couple of thousand years.
So what sort of people would work the night shift? Historical research reveals that these "zero hours contract" sheep-carers were very well down the social scale; think rough sleepers who are best avoided.
Would they have fabricated the angel story? And if so, why? Would they even have admitted their fear?
Unless, of course, it was real.
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Next logo collectors blog : Saturday 16th December
On the whole, the two networks use separate rolling stock. LNWR gets all the class 350s and the handful of 319s. WMR gets the 323s and the diesels, so it's only the 150/153s used on Bedford-Bletchley ("Marston Vale") line that might be schizophrenic. Perhaps the livery could be created by hundreds of LEDs, changing colour to the appropriate identity for the line in question....
ReplyDeleteOf course, Sheildsman is right and you would hope the company won't try to run an electric to Stourbridge. But Lichfield train trundling south to the Big Smoke is not too remote a possibility!
ReplyDeleteTime will tell!
I know it is always enjoyable to poke fun, but fbb is being rather two faced when he criticises Abellio reprinting timetables with a new logo (even though the change coincides with the December timetable change) alongside other blogs in which he regularly criticises bus companies and local authorities for not printing timetables
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteMayhap you miss the point TonyW (above). My criticism is that we, the passengers, foot the bill for these identity changes - none of which are necessary.
ReplyDeleteThankfully Scotland (as in many things - including tax rises to fund its public services!!!!) gets it right with a stable brand for its trains irrespective of which country is running them.