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New South Western franchise: Awarded to First/MTR

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infobleep

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So if anyone here thinking of getting the rail replacement bus, seeing as it's the first service of the new franchise? I wonder how popular such a rail replacement bus would be regardless of that?
 
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Mainline421

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Kite159 said:
Depending on the handover time (say 02:00), then the first service operated by First/MTR could be a rail replacement bus from Basingstoke to Southampton :lol:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/bus/Q50831/2017/08/20/advanced

I guess the last train under SWT will be the 01:42 London Waterloo to Surbiton?
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W36908/2017/08/20/advanced
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1B01 reaches it's destinations 1 minute after that one at 02:16, although technically the last SWT service to finish is also a bus http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/bus/Q50718/2017/08/20/advanced (Assuming 02:00 is the handover time).
pdeaves said:
Interestingly, wasn't the first privatised Stagecoach service a bus, too?
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No you're thinking of Great Western, the first SWT service was a train.
 
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Agent_Squash

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AlexNL said:
Why would that be? To update information in the computer systems about who runs the service?
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From what I can remember, there’s some legal bits that means the service technically has to terminate, and then restart.
 
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Matt Taylor said:
I'm booked to work past 0200 on Sunday and have not been advised of any such instruction.
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Technically will the service around then that you'll be working be a SWTs service throughout or will it become a Southwestern Railways service at 02:00?
 
3141

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I recall reading that when National Express took over from GNER, the displays at Kings Cross during the late evening showed arrivals as "East Coast", or possibly "National Express". So in that case the displays were updated shortly before the legal franchise changeover.
 
Matt Taylor

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SpacePhoenix said:
Technically will the service around then that you'll be working be a SWTs service throughout or will it become a Southwestern Railways service at 02:00?
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I'm spare so anything could happen but the final service to arrive in Portsmouth on Saturday night is 0112 so I should be home and dry by 0200!

2K79 0142 Waterloo-Surbiton and 1B01 0105 Waterloo-Southampton are the only two trains booked to run beyond 0200 plus two replacement buses.
 
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SpacePhoenix

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Matt Taylor said:
I'm spare so anything could happen but the final service to arrive in Portsmouth on Saturday night is 0112 so I should be home and dry by 0200!

2K79 0142 Waterloo-Surbiton and 1B01 0105 Waterloo-Southampton are the only two trains booked to run beyond 0200 plus two replacement buses.
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Will there be a special headboard for the final ever Stagecoach South West Trains service?
 
43096

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Agent_Squash said:
From what I can remember, there’s some legal bits that means the service technically has to terminate, and then restart.
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Sounds like utter garbage. Don't forget there are plenty of other things going on on SWT at that time - train movements on depots as one example.
 
spark001uk

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43096 said:
Sounds like utter garbage. Don't forget there are plenty of other things going on on SWT at that time - train movements on depots as one example.
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Sounds right to me. Along with the magic carriage wash that will paint all the units in the new livery.
 
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Adsy125

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Does anyone think a Southampton-Totnes direct service would be popular for the new franchise, seems it's being trialled tonight! It's a pretty good path as well covering 140 miles in 6 minutes, are jet 444's secretly being tested? ;)
 

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SpacePhoenix

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Adsy125 said:
Does anyone think a Southampton-Totnes direct service would be popular for the new franchise, seems it's being trialled tonight! It's a pretty good path as well covering 140 miles in 6 minutes, are jet 444's secretly being tested? ;)
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Nah, they just borrowed the TARDIS from The Doctor:lol:
 
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adamello

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Today stations should be receiving their new stationary / posters etc, without stagecoach swt details on, do you think these will be branded, or brand less for the time being
 
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adamello said:
Today stations should be receiving their new stationary / posters etc, without stagecoach swt details on, do you think these will be branded, or brand less for the time being
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The earlier quote from the staff pages was:

Although you will start to see the new South Western Railway brand from day 1, the full launch of the brand is planned for 4th September.
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Surely the easiest way to achieve that is on printed literature, such as timetables, leaflets, posters etc. The only downside is that next weeks timetable is still the temporary one in use for the blockade. So real paper timetables valid until the December change date won't be needed until the week after next.

Meanwhile, as I noticed yesterday at Fareham, the platform timetable posters were only valid until the day before the blockade, i.e. August the 4th. I was able to explain to a couple of confused women why the Waterloo train they could see in print wan't matched by the PIS displays...
 
bb21

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Rumours flying that SWT are planning an imminent press release with some good news for season ticket holders. No idea what it is.
 
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pompeyfan

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10 free void days

http://m.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2017/2017-08-18.aspx

18 August 2017
Stagecoach pays tribute to South West Trains employees as it prepares to complete franchise contract
Group marks 21 years of progress and investment at one of Europe's biggest rail networks
Investment continues until end of franchise with two new trains introduced into service this week
Improvement work ongoing at London Waterloo with Stagecoach announcing two weeks of free travel for season ticket holders
Responsibility for franchise to transfer to First/MTR on 20 August 2017
Stagecoach Group has paid tribute to its team of 5,000 South West Trains employees as the company prepares to complete its contract with the Department for Transport to run one of Europe's biggest rail networks.
Major work to improve the railway is continuing right up to the end of the contract. Just this week, Stagecoach has introduced two brand new trains into service as part of a £210million investment.
The continuing multi-million-pound upgrade of London Waterloo station and associated rail infrastructure will deliver thousands of extra seats and help to increase overall capacity by 30%.
Stagecoach has also today confirmed that it will be giving two weeks’ worth of free travel to its South West Trains monthly and longer season ticket holders for the inconvenience caused as a result of the Waterloo Upgrade work.
All 10 weekdays of the upgrade works so far (Monday 7 August to Friday 11 August; and Monday 14 August to Friday 18 August) have now been declared ‘void days’. As a result, all passengers with South West Trains monthly and longer season tickets are eligible for a full refund for those 10 days. Normal Passengers Charter compensation arrangements will apply for all other tickets. For more information visit https://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/t...ly-or-longer-including-annual-season-tickets/
Billions of pounds have been invested in train service improvements under Stagecoach's stewardship of the South West Trains franchise over the past 21 years, as well as contributing more to the taxpayer than any other operator and playing a critical role in the UK economy.
With responsibility for the South Western franchise due to pass to new operator First/MTR at 01:59 on Sunday 20 August, Stagecoach has thanked staff, industry partners and other stakeholders who have helped transform rail services for customers.
Martin Griffiths, Chief Executive of Stagecoach Group, said: “I am very proud of the huge amount of work that's been done over the past two decades to improve rail services for customers travelling with South West Trains.
"This is testament to the commitment of our 5,000-strong team of employees and the great partnership we have with Network Rail and other key suppliers. Collectively, they work hard day in, day out as one railway to deliver a great service to customers.
“The South West Trains network today has more rail services than ever before, one of the most reliable train fleets in the country and is carrying double the number of passengers than in 1996 when we took over from nationalised British Rail. We've made huge investment to benefit customers and delivered hundreds of millions of pounds in payments to the taxpayer to reinvest in public services.
“It's been a privilege to serve the millions of customers who travel with us every year and I'm very confident we’re handing over the network in a good shape to the new operators. We have been working closely with First/MTR for several months to make sure they have everything they need and we wish them all the best for the future.”
Tim Shoveller, Managing Director for Stagecoach Rail, added: “We’ve done a huge amount over the last two decades to improve things for our customers with massive investment in every single area of our service.
“Our team will remain focussed on delivering the best service for passengers right up to the very last minute of our franchise, from our ongoing major contribution to the Waterloo development project through to ensuring a smooth handover to the new franchise owner.
“We would like to take the opportunity to thank our customers for the last 21 years, and more recently for their patience during Waterloo works. We know that our regular season ticket holders in particular have been significantly disrupted over the past two weeks and had changes to their normal journeys, and we hope that two weeks of free travel will be helpful for those passengers."
The last South West Trains service to run under the existing franchise will be the 01:42 from London Waterloo to Surbiton.
ENDS
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nlogax

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BestWestern said:
A genuinely sad day! Let's hope standards are maintained...
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Amen to that. As a regular passenger for 14 of their 21 years, I'm going to miss them. I think they've done a great job and I've really found little to complain about through the years. Here's hoping that SWR do just as good a job - seems to me they'll be inheriting great staff.
 
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nlogax said:
Amen to that. As a regular passenger for 14 of their 21 years, I'm going to miss them. I think they've done a great job and I've really found little to complain about through the years. Here's hoping that SWR do just as good a job - seems to me they'll be inheriting great staff.
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Yes a brilliant well respected TOC with a high standard of train presentation and mostly very comfortable trains
 
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