Govia get Thameslink Franchise

[LLivery]

Or maybe they won't, because the reason it hasn't been done before is that the NSE branding is a permanent part of the infrastructure, such as tiling or enamelled panels...

I think the NSE branding on the Northern City stations should stay as hertiage branding.

Hmm that is true, but I was more talking about the signage. It would be nice if the NSE branding stayed, GTR have said nothing explicitly about refurbing Northern City, you would imagine them boasting about it in the Inner Great Northern fact sheet if they had plans.

 

[Minstral25]

It will run as southern, southern metro, gat expresss, Thameslink and Great northern

Whichever way it works. Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink will probably remain separate marketing operations as the Franchise requires that fares are to be kept in line with current and how else are they going to keep the "FCC only" fares which are much cheaper than "Southern" fares in tact without making them the normal fare.

Which in turn will fuel discussion on here that "Thameslink only" fares can be used on Southern trains or GatEx trains as they are the same company?

 

[Stats]

Whichever way it works. Gatwick Express, Southern and Thameslink will probably remain separate marketing operations as the Franchise requires that fares are to be kept in line with current and how else are they going to keep the "FCC only" fares which are much cheaper than "Southern" fares in tact without making them the normal fare.

Which in turn will fuel discussion on here that "Thameslink only" fares can be used on Southern trains or GatEx trains as they are the same company?

I wasn't aware that was what the franchise required, and wasn't my interpretation of what was in the ITT which stated "The Department requires a Franchisee who, where possible, will take advantage of the opportunity created by the combination of the two existing franchises to simplify the fares and restrictions which operate on the Franchise and communicate this clearly to passengers"

and

"Bidders must propose to the Department a plan that, at a minimum, will avoid the holders of existing (FCC Only) season tickets commuting on the Brighton Mainline facing hardship due to unexpectedly sharp or unreasonable fare increases in the early years of the franchise. ".

 

[jon0844]

Some pics from yesterday:









(Are you absolutely sure that's first class?)

A bigger concern was the lack of extra trains, or strengthened services, for the music festival at Hatfield AND the football at Arsenal. I Tweeted to FCC who said "Understand, very sorry for any discomfort to your journey.". They weren't running more trains back to London in the evening either, so I wonder how many people leaving the festival won't have made it by train?

Our train to London was crush loaded at around midday. The driver opted to declassify first class and even then we had to squeeze on as lots of people had already gone in first anyway. To be fair, I don't know how packed the slow train would have been afterwards, but FCC must have heard of the Emirates Cup even if I hadn't?

The train back was also unable to pick everyone up at Finsbury Park, but the worst thing is that Arsenal plays again today (it's a two day event) and trains are less frequent!

One staff member on the platform, who shall remain nameless, pointed out that First wouldn't want to spend money on additional services this close to the changeover. If true, it's the poor staff on the platforms having to deal with angry passengers because of it.

 

[hassaanhc]

There are a few extra trains not normally in the timetable, but not sure about number of coaches on those and existing services.
Saturday extras at Hatfield: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...8/02/0200-0159?stp=S&show=passenger&order=wtt
Sunday extras at Finsbury Park: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...8/03/0200-0159?stp=S&show=passenger&order=wtt
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Of course the lack of Moorgate services at weekends doesn't help either

 

[petersi]

The could not lay on extra trains as they did not have the staff to run the trains in a regular time table. In the morning half the all station trains were cancelled and in the evening some of Peterborough stoppers such as the 20:35 from kings cross

 

[Aictos]

All the Inners that WERE running yesterday were all running as 6 car Class 313 sets, that's the ones that were running as there was a few cancellations in the afternoon due to lack of train crew.

I can't comment on what the staff member said but remember that is just their own opinion and not what may be the actual status quo, maybe if they had the available train crew then more trains might have run saying that Hornsey could have a yard full of trains to use but without available drivers it's not much good.

I know it's uncomfortable as more trains should be longer at weekends but sometimes it's not possible especially when you have to consider they are needed on depot for cleaning, repairs etc...

Back to debranding/rebranding, a team is meant to be hitting the stations doing this so will be very busy over the next few weeks.

 

[petersi]

I know it's uncomfortable as more trains should be longer at weekends but sometimes it's not possible especially when you have to consider they are needed on depot for cleaning, repairs etc...

.

Or the station infrastructure IE north of Royston.

FCC do seem to run longer trains at the weekend if they can

 

[Aictos]

Or the station infrastructure IE north of Royston.

FCC do seem to run longer trains at the weekend if they can

Exactly, there's some trains which need to be longer but can't.

 

[jon0844]

The solution for FCC was to run semi-fast trains to KGX from WGC yesterday, a few minutes before the usual 4-car only service from Cambridge. Mind you, the semi fast turned out to be 3 cars only, but it wasn't packed like the train that followed. I know because I waited for the faster service and then rather wished I hadn't. Maybe the faster service should have skipped WGC, Hatfield and Potters Bar completely.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[swt_passenger]

I wasn't aware that was what the franchise required, and wasn't my interpretation of what was in the ITT which stated "The Department requires a Franchisee who, where possible, will take advantage of the opportunity created by the combination of the two existing franchises to simplify the fares and restrictions which operate on the Franchise and communicate this clearly to passengers"

and

"Bidders must propose to the Department a plan that, at a minimum, will avoid the holders of existing (FCC Only) season tickets commuting on the Brighton Mainline facing hardship due to unexpectedly sharp or unreasonable fare increases in the early years of the franchise. ".

Correct. Reworking of the fares into a single basket was discussed in the forums a few times when the ITT came out, I'd have thought it a fairly well known fact by now, as it is covered in both the franchise ITT and the stakeholder briefing. Also, in addition to what you've quoted already bidders were also required to make changes to the concept of 'London Thameslink' as a destination, presumably to make things consistent for journeys into the core area from both north and south.

Will be interesting to see what they come up with for that - as London Thameslink reaches as far south as Elephant and Castle from the north, but there's no obvious equivalent for northbound fares off the 'Southern'...

 

[Aictos]

Correct. Reworking of the fares into a single basket was discussed in the forums a few times when the ITT came out, I'd have thought it a fairly well known fact by now, as it is covered in both the franchise ITT and the stakeholder briefing. Also, in addition to what you've quoted already bidders were also required to make changes to the concept of 'London Thameslink' as a destination, presumably to make things consistent for journeys into the core area from both north and south.

Will be interesting to see what they come up with for that - as London Thameslink reaches as far south as Elephant and Castle from the north, but there's no obvious equivalent for northbound fares off the 'Southern'...

Maybe West Hampstead Thameslink would be the equivalent for northbound fares?

 

[swt_passenger]

Maybe West Hampstead Thameslink would be the equivalent for northbound fares?

I think it is more likely that any coverage will be balanced, so possibly increased one way and reduced the other, IYSWIM.

But whatever they do they need to get it right first time, because something very similar will be required for through ticketing when Crossrail starts up, and all that interchanging at Farringdon becomes a regular occurrence.

London Terminals as far as existing 'terminals' and London Central for anything reachable within the zone 1 boundary would be my preference, but I'm sure there will be other potential solutions.

 

[JaJaWa]

The new website has launched at http://www.gtrailway.com/.

There's lots of new information on there - and I believe this is an image of the new uniform:

 

[Aictos]

The new uniform hasn't been agreed yet as it has still got to go out to consultation with the various parties that are involved in the process, it's a six month turnaround so won't be launched until April 2015 at the earliest.

The existing FCC uniform will be used temporarily although debranded where possible.

 

[jopsuk]

That website even spells out the uniform situation

Presumably, whilst it may be at the same URL, there's another website nearing deployment to go live on (or a day or two before) the changeover with everything you'd expect of a TOC site- journey planner, tickers, timetables, disruption etc.

 

[Stats]

Presumably, whilst it may be at the same URL, there's another website nearing deployment to go live on (or a day or two before) the changeover with everything you'd expect of a TOC site- journey planner, tickers, timetables, disruption etc.

This is the corporate website. GTR have URLs for each of the 4 customer facing brands.

 

[ert47]

The new website has launched at http://www.gtrailway.com/.

There's lots of new information on there - and I believe this is an image of the new uniform:

Its a close approximation of what the new uniform will look like, its NOT the final design.

 

[greatkingrat]

I think red and blue striped T-shirts are a bit too casual for a uniform really.

 

[Fincra5]

I think red and blue striped T-shirts are a bit too casual for a uniform really.

Well played.

"It all adds up to a better journey.." Thats more cringe-worthy than "Making every journey better".

 

[grid56126]

Sent to Southern staff on 23/08. Apologies if posted elsewhere.

Subject: Govia Travel Arrangements from Sunday 14 September

We're pleased to let you know that from Sunday 14 September 2014 your Govia rail travel passes will permit you to travel on GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) Great Northern and Thameslink services. This is in addition to the free travel you already have on Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express and London Midland services.

GTR staff will be briefed to accept your existing Govia rail travel passes and, in November, when they're re-issued they will also have the Thameslink and Great Northern logos printed on them alongside those of Southern, Gatwick Express, Southeastern and London Midland.

GTR employees will be issued with new passes with all services printed on them when they join Govia this September.

 

[Manchester77]

If GoVia win the northern franchise staff will be able to go from Brighton all the way up to Carlisle on their passes! I know this is off topic but do stagecoach employees get to use their passes on virgin trains services?

 

[Bishopstone]

The new Twitter accounts appear to be:

@TLRailUK

@GNRailUK

Go on: be the first to moan about the 'appalling' service and 'rude' staff!

 

[387star]

Would make sense for 377/5s to be de-vinyled as southern livery beneath

 

[drbdrb]

Go on: be the first to moan about the 'appalling' service and 'rude' staff!

Same staff, same trains, same "service".

 

[Manchester77]

Would make sense for 377/5s to be de-vinyled as southern livery beneath

No it's not, beneath the FCC dynamic lines is plain purple and pink paint. They ran around with no vinyls for a while when introduced.

 

[swt_passenger]

Would make sense for 377/5s to be de-vinyled as southern livery beneath

You must be confusing 'GoVia' with Southern. TSGN has not been taken over by Southern. Hence it makes no sense to use the Southern livery on Thameslink, because under GTR Thameslink and Southern will have different liveries; this is clearly stated in the FAQ linked a few posts ago by jopsuk:

The customer facing brands will be Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink. The stations and other livery colours will reflect the brands, designs and colourways as much as possible. Therefore Gatwick Express and Southern will stay very much as they are. For current FCC branded elements GTR will be reintroducing Great Northern and Thameslink as lead brands and they will have new colours.

(Although it is stated in an answer to a question about station colours...)

 

[ModernRailways]

That website is very bright and colourful! Makes a change from the usual bland corporate sites!

 

[physics34]

You must be confusing 'GoVia' with Southern. TSGN has not been taken over by Southern. Hence it makes no sense to use the Southern livery on Thameslink, because under GTR Thameslink and Southern will have different liveries; this is clearly stated in the FAQ linked a few posts ago by jopsuk:



(Although it is stated in an answer to a question about station colours...)

we shall see if anything happens to the southern liveried 377/2s on TL services too....or will they run around like that til 2018.

 

[Class377/5]

we shall see if anything happens to the southern liveried 377/2s on TL services too....or will they run around like that til 2018.

Expect a new logo and little else. After all they'll be off Thameslink duties in 2017.