Hi There,

It is a good many years since I travelled on the west coast main line up and down to London on the sleeper etc however, even though I would agree that Branson is PR through and through, I think the stock and service on the line now is a vast improvement. I was lucky enough, through a friend who worked with British Rail to travel on one of the test runs for the British Rail tilt train which had an alarming habit of sticking in tilt position and was eventually scrapped !! The virgin version which I have only travelled on once, is a vast improvment, competition is fine, but having been in business for many years, competitive tender is a mine field as there are so many things which have to come together to make a less expensive bid work!

I don't live in the UK now but I will watch what happens with interest, something, in my experience, has always got to give when a lower tender is proposed and accepted especially, against a competitor who has been succesfully operating the contract for a number of years!

All the best

Reemgee

I do hope that 'First' are not simply doing an 'East Coast' by bidding too little. Or should I say, simply buying up all the old Navy Battleship Grey paint for the stock and then trying to run a railway without adequate staff.

Driving to Cockfosters car park is perhaps still the easiest way to the Capital.

No Doubt at all That Virgin is about PR! But wasn't that just what the railways needed? Investment and a bit of 'sexing' up? It got people to use the train more.... Hasn't WCML use has doubled during the franchise? My question is will the projected further increases in rail use materialize if First mess things up by trying to offer a 'cut price' service?