Abellio wins Greater Anglia franchise

[JamieLei]

News report: http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/general/ ... terim.html

However the franchise will only last 29 months. After that it will be re-let out for 15 years.

I wonder how it will be rebranded? Surely it's not enough time to do a thorough re-branding. The most likely course of action it seems to me, is to knock off the "national express" bit and just call it "East Anglia".

[61653]

I can't see the point of such a short franchise- surely it'd have been better to extend the existing franchise, if there was some reason why the 15-year one can't start yet. Having said that, Abellio (or Nederlandse Spoorwegen, to give them their 'proper' name) have done pretty well with the rather unglamourous Northern and Merseyrail franchises, so maybe they deserve a crack at an Intercity/London Commuter network. Not sure what they'll be able to achieve in less than three years... barely time to get their logo on all their vehicles, and have all the staff in new uniforms- Re-branding doesn't come cheap, hence the 'Scotland's Railways' thing imposed by the Scottish Parliament.

[Kevo00]

How about NS West, to confuse everyone?

Sticking logos on in the form of transfers is mighty cheap, and thats what Abellio should do.

Not really related, but the Scotland's Railways thing is nothing more than a tacky flag waving SNP ploy as far as I can see.

[John]

Not really related, but the Scotland's Railways thing is nothing more than a tacky flag waving SNP ploy as far as I can see.

Probably - but the Germans do do similar things in their public transport networks.

It would be like all London buses, underground, overground and ferries all carrying the TfL logo in a prominent position on all the doors. The point there is to highlight the interconnected nature and where your tickets are valid.

[61653]

Not really related, but the Scotland's Railways thing is nothing more than a tacky flag waving SNP ploy as far as I can see.

Probably true, but it does save the eyesore of WorstGroup livery all over everything. Having said that, if they chose something better than that horrible tacky purple for the inside of their trains, I wouldn't give a monkey's what colour it was on the outside...

[Kevo00]

Not really related, but the Scotland's Railways thing is nothing more than a tacky flag waving SNP ploy as far as I can see.

Probably - but the Germans do do similar things in their public transport networks.

It would be like all London buses, underground, overground and ferries all carrying the TfL logo in a prominent position on all the doors. The point there is to highlight the interconnected nature and where your tickets are valid.

There's a difference between branding and a political exercise though. What the SNP are doing is purely political, as part of their project to get the Saltire everywhere. They are not, to my knowledge repainting Cal Mac ferries or local buses as 'Scotland's Ferries' or 'Scotland's Buses'. If it was about branding, you could do something much more imaginative; and in any case, it's destroying the much stronger SPT and Scotrail brands.

[Ploes]

it's destroying the much stronger SPT and Scotrail brands.

I woudnt agree with that.

Scotrails image is improving with every train they put into their new colours since it wont change when the franchise changes hands.

but it is a shame to loose SPT, but then and the same time things like the Airdrie - Bathgate link wouldnt be possible if people were worrying about train liveries!

[Gord]

Little bits of generic branding can be quite helpful. I find the little Network West Midlands logo with a picture of either a bus, train or tram really handy when I'm using the less well known operators in the evening or on a Sunday. The little sticker on the windscreen tells me that my pass is valid. As far as logos go, its quite a neat little design too, much prefer it to the old Centro one. I notice the 172 trains don't carry it though although the 170's which travel a long way out of the NWM area do!

As for Abellio winning Anglia, it will be interesting to see them operate a busy intercity and commuter line. It's good timing for them because there's already some investment going into the branchlines with the swing bridges on the Wherry Line being modernised and the Beccles passing loop on it's way.

Edit: Have they actually started on the passing loop yet? It's like the A11 at Elvedon...I keep hearing about these improvements but every time I go back over there nothing seems to have happened!

[Ameecher]

The preliminary works on the A11 at Elveden has actually started! Mental, I know.

Beccles loop is meant to happen when the East Suffolk Line is resignalled from RETB gubbins which I believe is due for renewal in Control Period 5 which if I remember rightly is 2013-2014.

I think it's a quite clever ploy by NXEA really, National Express wanted out of rail operations and this way they are out before the olympics which, if it goes wrong in transport terms, a lot of negative press could go the way of NatEx. Just got to be sharpish with the removal of all the NX branding.

[Nawdic]

I wonder if they'll do what they have done to their London bus portion and end up getting second-hand (or preserved) corridor coaching stock and get rid of their rather spacious mk3 EMUs...

Then'll it be the return of 'cattle class'!!