East Coast, the InterCity East Coast franchise holder after National (Failure) Express, finally comes to an end in 8 days, the franchise is to be take over by Virgin Trains under the name Virgin Trains East Coast. to last until about 2023 unless Virgin suffer the same fate as GNER and National Express, which is doubtful.
What this means for us, the railway passenger.
Virgin Trains East Coast plan to introduce new services to places like Sunderland and Middlesbrough, the former is currently on the Tyne and Wear Metro so would likely only see long-distance travellers, the latter is currently served by Northern and First TransPennine Express services, again more than likely attracting long-distance travellers.
They also plan to take part in the programme to replace the ageing British Rail and Metro-Cammell built stock with the Hitachi class 800/801 which is being built at Newton Aycliffe, meaning new trains, but these will come as they are ready.
East Coast also acquired a loyalty scheme from National Express East Coast, this is to end with East Coast and will be replaced by the Nectar loyalty scheme, which many people have a card for, myself included.
East Coast have said that all tickets bought before the 1st of March for travel after will remain valid so no one will lose out, it's just a new company taking over and there is work to be done to move from one to the next.
So, to sum up, in 2009 I was VERY critical of East Coast, however they've proven themselves in service, got themselves onto television, and got all the trains repainted in very good time, they also appeared at Railfest 2012 with a Class 91 that was named in honour of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, they promoted a British icon, James Bond, and the last movie, Skyfall using locomotive 91107 as it's original number was 91007, and with their television appearance they promoted UK television channel Sky 1 on one of the Class 91 locomotives, they initially stripped all the 91s of names but they did something very special to resume the practice, they named 91109 after Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle Central Station.
Well done East Coast, you turned around the troubled InterCity East Coast franchise and made it better than ever, Virgin Trains, in a week it will be your turn to try your hand at what East Coast have done before you.
Happy journeys on well-run railways
Friday 20 February 2015
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