mjkerr

This was the whole point of privitisation, be innovative The Scotland - Plymouth sleeper would serve a very limited Scottish market, so can't see TS even offering 50% of the capital cost Equally, the experimental service as part of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise would not be included in the next franchise Serco would then have to decide whether to include it in one of their other franchises, sell it to the next franchisee, or end the service Can of worms...

It is very rare for additional shunting to take place at Edinburgh, in order to get a defective vehicle to Inverness Usually the consists are swapped at Wembley, a defective vehicle will then be at the rear of the Fort William / Aberdeen / Inverness (as it leaves Euston) The main issue comes if it is an ETH related fault, this then requires the faulty vehicle to be swapped at Edinburgh from the rear as it arrives, to the rear as it departs

No they don't, the sets are on an eight day cycle, they see each destination equally This results in Inverness seeing a different set every day, and can then plan maintenance accordingly Wembley and Polmadie don't do anything other than clear minor faults Faults can end up being carried for up to 7 days until the set gets back to Inverness The only exception are the two coaches allocated to the Edinburgh - Fort William service, which can spend up to 6 months without seeing Inverness This has since been resolved by swapping out with the Inverness set (detached with the loco at Edinburgh)

Odd, as the sleepers are currently maintained on an eight day cycle around Inverness, plus all the maintenance spares are moved to/from Inverness

The Fort William sleeper was merged into the Aberdeen and Inverness portions, at that was the only way to retain the service Prior to this it was a separate service in the summer and merged with the Inverness service in winter The main issue is that InterCity was not permitted to promote reduced / advance fares on the Fort William service As a result many passengers travelled to/from Glasgow and then on reduced fares Equally, even sales staff advised passengers of this I can remember a Fort William sleeper leaving Euston with just ONE passenger in the winter Even when I travelled in June 2010 there were just four of us leaving Euston

There was a proposal to cut the sleepers back even further just before privitisation This would have seen an end to the Aberdeen and Inverness sleepers, with connections via Edinburgh The proposal to cut the Fort William sleeper nearly succeeded It was one of the government proposals at the time, for privitisation, that services which were deemed socially necessary would not be withdrawn Sadly this has been twisted slightly since as some routes have changed since privitisation

The Caledonian Sleeper livery is going to be used, details are already on the Serco website and TS documents However, unlike the ScotRail livery it has not been specified in any part of the ITT The two liveries are quite different

These don't compare very well based on the Fare Basket (as it is known) Virgin Trains can offer a whole variety of fares, from £20 right up to £550 (First Class Single for illustration) Equally, each seat can be empty, reused or used once The sleeper cannot offer this wide range as a berth can only be used once As a result there is a Berth Supplement, and this offsets the one only use The base fare is also higher The other remaining overall operational costs aren't that much higher As a result it may be possible to purchase a minimum fare in First Class : Virgin Trains Glasgow - Euston for £70 Sleeper Glasgow - Euston for £120 Equally, a passenger can present an Open ticket and pay the supplement

The paths for four sleepers in each direction still remain The franchisee is free to vary the number and types of services if they see fit, however any changes must be approved in advance TS was suggesting in the ITT to ending the Glasgow sleeper and operating from Edinburgh only It would appear this suggestion has been discounted by Serco and they would retain the Glasgow sleeper Equally, in the same way as Virgin Trains extended the Class 390 units, if expansion is required then it would be much easier now as new rolling stock will be in place Sourcing older sleepers would be quite difficult now However, once the new trains come into service, that's going to be a lot of spare Sleepers (assuming the Mark 2 coaches are binned) I can see some of those going straight to Great Western, some for spares The remaining Sleepers could easily operate one additional service in each direction until further new rolling stock arrives It had also been suggested from 2018 : the Fort William sleeper would operate via Glasgow the Edinburgh sleeper separate the Aberdeen and Inverness sleeper via Edinburgh

As an aside, I can't find anything that specifies the livery So when the franchise comes up for renewal in 2030 the next franchisee could change the livery That's odd when you compare it to the ScotRail franchise

This was one of the reasons why the current franchise was split, as people wanted to know the actual finances of the sleeper service, part of which is hidden and absorbed within the current franchise There are two capital contributions The first is the £50m for rolling stock, increased to £60m if the bidder could show service enhancements The second is the £6m for stations (improvements), funded from Network Rail There are then the annual SQUIRE performance bonuses For every 1 point above 70, they receive £1m For every 1 point below 70, they are fined £1m (with an option to deduct from subsidy) The subsidy is loaded at 33% of revenue and the franchisee is free to apply any fare scheme (but must accept through tickets) In years 1 to 7 this represents 7% and in years 8 to 15 at 15% Therefore if the sleeper doesn't carry any passengers, they don't receive any subsidy This formula is intended to make up the additional cost between the number of actual passengers and the maximum capacity It is expected this could be any where between £187m and £320m (over the initial 15 year life of franchise, without extension) Serco are not expected to return a profit in years 1 and 2, returning to profit in years 2 and 3

All the ones I have (in Blue / Grey livery) have B1 bogies, except as below I am still waiting for those with B4 or Commonwealth bogies, or missed the original releases (last minute swap for my WHL rakes) 374-013 SO B4 bogies 374-013B SO B1 bogies 374-085 BCK B4 bogies 374-085A BCK B4 bogies 374-110 RMB Commonwealth bogies 374-112 RU B1 bogies 374-258B CK B1 bogies

This is actually correct, just a shame the details appear to imply the Sealink livery was applied by Provincial, but that is incorrect On 04 January 1982 Bob Reid implemented the BR Business Sectors (Sectorisation) London & South East (which eventually became Network SouthEast) InterCity Provincial Freight & Parcels The InterCity livery was launched at the end of 1982, with one Class 86, one Class 87, the Lakeland Pullman set and one entire HST completed This initial livery was slightly modified and applied to one Class 47 before the end of the year but it wasn't until the beginning of 1983 that this livery was fully introduced By this time two HSTs had been completed, but they were hastily corrected The Freight livery was also launched the same day, by using a brand new Class 58 The Parcels services used mainly locos hired for passenger duties and so a livery for this was deferred until the Royal Mail contract was renewed, and on completion the livery was applied from 1988 As a result locos that were likely to be transferred in the near future had Large Logo Blue applied The LSE livery was also launched but was not well received by the travelling public Just prior to this Sealink wanted their own livery (as the then Director knew sectorisation was coming) and the livery was applied just BEFORE sectorisation The coaches were then allocated to Provincial, which a few days later was split into two with the subsidiary becoming ScotRail Sadly an assessment of the rolling stock was already underway at ScotRail (and Provincial) in preparation for Sprinterisation As a result it was decided not to immediately launch a livery, which in turn created its own issue ScotRail was about to launch and so a modified version of the InterCity livery was used, which was intended to ease transfer of rolling stock once the Sprinters had been introduced (as the remaining stock would be withdrawn) Sadly this didn't match any of the planned Sprinter liveries As a consequence of the late delivery of Sprinters and impending maintenance the TransPennine coaches received this livery

This is an early Mark 2 or Mark 2A coach Basically it is just an updated Mark 1 coach, hence why it retained the centre door Later versions of the Mark 2 coach saw an end to the centre door in order to increase seating and storage space and improve air conditioning suitability It would have been possible to see Mark 1 coaches mixed with Mark 2 coaches, but it would depend on the braking systems fitted to each coach and to a small degree the heating system In order to simplify this issue many Mark 1 coaches were converted from Vacuum braking to Dual Braking, whilst others from Vacuum to Air Braking

Excellent list, and shows how the pairs swapped between the routes However, could you pass on the message that the header is slightly incorrect : 1M16 2010 Inverness - Euston Between Edinburgh - Aberdeen Should read : 1M16 2010 Inverness - Euston Between Inverness - Edinburgh

Glasgow Queen Street will be closed for a minimum of 4 months in 2018 So initially 5 coach HSTs can be used Once Glasgow Queen Street reopens 6 coach HSTs can be used

This goes against DfT policy, as these services are provided by other franchises (anti-competitive, but that's another discussion) Overall the amount of intercity services departing Kings Cross will increase, thus the capacity increases, plus the frequency too However, with no major infrastructure changes or improvements the route will be operating at capacity and any failure of the route will pretty much impact it for the remainder of the day, and most likely the next day (hmm, does that sound familiar)

It depends on your view of the Pendolino The IEP is almost identical, except for the tilting feature Once the Virgin Trains East Coast livery is applied the general travelling public won't be able to tell the difference (almost similar to those that couldn't tell the difference between a Voyager and Pendolino)

If you read the eMail, does it not actually state that Virgin East Coast will be the first train company on which you can both collent and SPEND Nectar Points (at the moment you can only collect) The East Coast Rewards Points page certainly says this

The DfT have already advised that it is up to the franchisee what level of on-train service to provide DfT provide a rolling stock template, but the franchisee does not have to follow it (only provide it as a minumum service level) FGW have already advised they will not be changing the template, and this is where the confusion is occuring Virgin Rail have already advised they will be installing a buffet towards the middle of the train, at the sacrafice of 32 standard seats and one luggage bay, with NO at-seat trolley service on some services

I am of the opposite opinion, but have yet to see details The changes are being made due to the changes with external franchises, and is to ensure that primary connections are retained There are always pros and cons with such changes What really gets me is that once the final Inter City East Coast timetable commences in December 2018, the external franchise timetables will NOT be reviewed

In the summer of 2015 the HSTs will undergo (yet another) refurbishment, which will see them in use until 2018 This is really ironic as every new franchisee has had to perform this as soon as they have taken over the franchise The current lease ends on 31 March 2015 and has been extended to December 2018 There will be a major timetable change in December 2016 (external franchises), December 2018 (route changes) and December 2020 (Full IEP) IEP is due to be introduced throughout 2018 in a rolling program, on a like-for-like replacement basis, and will allow the HSTs to be returned to RoSCo (which suggests priority is being given to completing and introducing the Bi-Mode version) Once the HSTs have been replaced the remaining IEP will be allocated to known under capacity services, which will release some IC225 sets From December 2018 additional services will be introduced Although full IEP availability should be completed late in 2020 the first full timetable won't be applied until December 2020 The biggest initial change will be in 2019 when several non-stop long distance services will be introduced, due to the increase in fleet size It is expected these services will be operated by the retained short formation IC225 sets Kings Cross - Leeds (two in each direction on weekdays) Kings Cross - Edinburgh (two) Kings Cross - Newcastle (three) Ironically, InterCity used to operate similar services which GNER continued, and these were then passed over to HSTs There isn't much journey time saving, but in the same way as the 16:30 Euston - Glasgow can be used to promote a specific route journey time

The nectar fulfillment team are still awaiting details of how to import the third party (East Coast DOR) points into nectar However, spending nectar points will be available from 02 March at a rate of 200 points per £1 and will only apply to online ticket purchases Collecting nectar points will not change, apart from the change of routes (in the same way as Cross Country was integrated into Virgin Trains) The East Coast website (and Domain Name) will transfer straight to Virgin Trains There is already duplicate content, but this page is (as yet) not directly linked http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/virgintrainseastcoast/

Are you sure it was 47674, and not 47604? As an Inverness based engine in modified BR Blue it was very reliable (the same could pretty much be said for any Inverness based loco at the time) Towards the end of its Inverness allocation it had this livery updated with correct Large Logo, but smaller Class 37 sized numbers, but certainly better than the previous attempt It's transfer to Eastfield was inevitable, and as with all their other locos at the time heavily neglected It is possible on evaluation by Eastfield there were a number of faults and so was restricted in use, and programmed for overhaul There were other locos that were restricted in their use, and most were overhauled It was overhauled roughly June 1988, and finally painted properly into Large Logo Blue (along with curly 7) It was selected for conversion as it was the best of the remaining Inverness based locos

A little bit of history about this specific loco,47604, to see if it ties in with your use The loco was originally BR Blue but had the yellow ends filled in making easy to recognise allocated Inverness between July 1985 and May 1988 It was Eastfield based, repainted fully in Large Logo Blue and named on 03 August 1998 Note that on repainting the curly 7 were used It made many appearances on the sleepers prior to March 1991 It then returned to Inverness It was modified to a Class 47/6 in July 1991, primarily for use on sleepers, which resulted on both types of 7 being used! With the introduction of Class 37 on sleepers it was allocated to Crewe from September 1992 As you can see from the above, as 47674 it would most definitely be seen on the sleepers between July 1991 and May 1992 I can certainly remember it appearing in Aberdeen a few times