Trivia: Defunct TOC names still used by passengers / media

[birchesgreen]

SWT was a very strong brand and will take time to die out. Similarly with Virgin Trains.

Well to be honest the rather striking livery is only now disappearing, years after the name on the side changed.

 

[Purple Train]

This one is debatable admittedlly as it has never publicly operated under this name. But I absolutely  insist on referring to the TOC that runs purple trains between Reading/Heathrow and Shenfield/Abbey Wood as CrossRail.

To split hairs, this is accepted usage if referring to the route itself, or the trains (similar to how you might refer to an HS1 service or an HS1 train, but you wouldn't say they were operated by HS1) as Crossrail refers to the engineering project to build the core. That being said, in contrast to the prescriptivism on this thread I support your right to the use of a non-standard term, even if I disagree with you!

A tad offtopic, but most people I know call it "the Thameslink", seemingly as a named train instead of a company. I have also heard people say "the c2c".

My grandmother always calls it "the Thames Link", very clearly as two words.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My grandmother always calls it "the Thames Link", very clearly as two words.

The logo does presently, to be fair, show it as ThamesLink (in "camel case") so I can see why someone might see it as two words.

 

[Joshua_Harman]

SWT was a very strong brand and will take time to die out. Similarly with Virgin Trains.

Stagecoach - crap at running trains, brilliant at branding

 

[43096]

Stagecoach - crap at running trains, brilliant at branding

Disagree fundamentally with that. Stagecoach were good at running trains - you only have to look at their successors (SWR, EMR, Avanti) to realise it.

 

[jonathan01n]

Outside of UK. Different parts of Hong Kong MTR is often called by its original names of respective system. Ex-MTR parts is called "地鐵” (Metro) and KCR is 火車 (Train) for the East rail line.

Additionally There were two Mong Kok station on respective system but after merger the KCR one is renamed to Mong Kok East. But people also use the Mong Kok train station for the Mong Kok East and Mong kok MTR station for the metro one.

 

[yorksrob]

Disagree fundamentally with that. Stagecoach were good at running trains - you only have to look at their successors (SWR, EMR, Avanti) to realise it.

True - they did ok after a very iffy start

(Their trains were far better looked after than Connex).

 

[Djgr]

Disagree fundamentally with that. Stagecoach were good at running trains - you only have to look at their successors (SWR, EMR, Avanti) to realise it.

Am I the only one who has always called Stagecoach something similar but a lot ruder?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I still hear British Rail!

 

[Rescars]

I still hear British Rail!

Not too surprising perhaps, seeing their Double Arrow is still doing its stuff for GBR. Is it perhaps rather too soon to know if GBR will live up to its promised "Great"ness?

 

[Lemmy282]

Was listening on the radio to the cricket commentary from near Bristol the other day and they referred to a Virgin Cross Country train going past the ground

 

[brad465]

Didn't realise Class 150207 once used to be part of First Capital Connect:

(Attached image of interior carriage sign showing "First Capital Connect" on it)

 

[devon_belle]

Plenty of my friends from back home in the west country still refer to GWR as First Great Western. Sometimes Great Western Trains, but that's a misnomer rather than referring to the 1997-1999 operator.

Several Southern drivers have announced that we're delayed due to 'South West Trains' on my commute this year alone!

 

[The exile]

Plenty of my friends from back home in the west country still refer to GWR as First Great Western. Sometimes Great Western Trains, but that's a misnomer rather than referring to the 1997-1999 operator.

Several Southern drivers have announced that we're delayed due to 'South West Trains' on my commute this year alone!

Indeed - as an occasional performer of the Mikado’s song about the punishment fitting the crime, I greatly regret the loss of “First” from the tote. To a West Country audience the substitution of “First Great Western Trains” for the original “parliamentary trains” always went down well. It’s still doable (until later this year) with the addition of an “‘s”….

 

[Rescars]

Indeed - as an occasional performer of the Mikado’s song about the punishment fitting the crime, I greatly regret the loss of “First” from the tote. To a West Country audience the substitution of “First Great Western Trains” for the original “parliamentary trains” always went down well. It’s still doable (until later this year) with the addition of an “‘s”….

Looking ahead, may I suggest that "Great British Railway" might substitute quite nicely for "parliamentary". A "source of innocent merriment" anyway!

 

[The exile]

Looking ahead, may I suggest that "Great British Railway" might substitute quite nicely for "parliamentary". A "source of innocent merriment" anyway!

You’re right. Sigh of relief….

 

[devon_belle]

Indeed - as an occasional performer of the Mikado’s song about the punishment fitting the crime, I greatly regret the loss of “First” from the tote. To a West Country audience the substitution of “First Great Western Trains” for the original “parliamentary trains” always went down well. It’s still doable (until later this year) with the addition of an “‘s”….

Excellent! Reminds me of the ENO version with 'Transport for London Trains'.

 

[nw1]

True - they did ok after a very iffy start

(Their trains were far better looked after than Connex).

One thing that may influence things is that SWT will perhaps always be associated with the "good old" pre-Covid days, while SWR have, to date, mostly been associated with the post-Covid hard times (after a brief promising start in the form of the 2019 timetable featuring additional peak and shoulder-peak services, and the attempted re-introduction of the 442s).

I have to admit I did like the SWT branding, and the different colour schemes for different units.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I still say First Great western, First Great Eastern, SWT and a few others. Certainly saw a flat listing in the last few years refer to being close to the “British Rail” station.

 

[yorksrob]

One thing that may influence things is that SWT will perhaps always be associated with the "good old" pre-Covid days, while SWR have, to date, mostly been associated with the post-Covid hard times (after a brief promising start in the form of the 2019 timetable featuring additional peak and shoulder-peak services, and the attempted re-introduction of the 442s).

I have to admit I did like the SWT branding, and the different colour schemes for different units.

I have to say, I've only really had good experiences with SWR - I've done a fair bit of longish distance travel with them over the years.

 

[nw1]

I have to say, I've only really had good experiences with SWR - I've done a fair bit of longish distance travel with them over the years.

To be fair I wasn't thinking of reliabilty etc, but the fact that certain features of the pre-Covid timetable are missing, including off-peak as well as peak.

I acknowledge that this isn't the fault of SWR but of a difficult environment - even still, it's easy to see why people would look back on the SWT days as the good old days.

 

[devon_belle]

I have to say, I've only really had good experiences with SWR - I've done a fair bit of longish distance travel with them over the years.

I think the failure to reintroduce services, coupled with endemic skip-stopping and inability to recover from disruption have really smeared them in the minds of commuters. Plus the whole Arterio introduction fiasco can't have helped, although now they're in that's a big win. Much will be fault of DfT but the SWR brand is still the face of it.

 

[Ted633]

Didn't realise Class 150207 once used to be part of First Capital Connect:

(Attached image of interior carriage sign showing "First Capital Connect" on it)

FCC had an all electric fleet (except for an 03 shunter)
Could this be a result of a ‘box swap’ relating to the PIS from one of FCCs old units?

 

[Dr_Paul]

My dad, born 1925, always called the BR Southern Region 'the Southern', presumably because it was the Southern Railway when he was growing up, and it was still 'the Southern' for him after privatisation, regardless of what company was actually running the services.

 

[Snow1964]

GTR, still being used by some members of this forum, now TSGNL

Operations are now run by a new public sector operator – Thameslink Southern Great Northern Limited (TSGNL) – a subsidiary of public corporation DfT Operator Limited (DFTO).

Transfer of Govia Thameslink Railway’s services into public ownership

Confirming the transfer of Govia Thameslink Railway's services into public ownership.

www.gov.uk

 

[LowLevel]

GTR, still being used by some members of this forum, now TSGNL

Transfer of Govia Thameslink Railway’s services into public ownership

Confirming the transfer of Govia Thameslink Railway's services into public ownership.

www.gov.uk

GTR is still the trading name.

About us - GTR

About us - GTR

gtrailway.com

GTR includes Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express. GTR is a trading name of Thameslink Southern Great Northern Limited (TSGNL).

 

[Sealink]

Deleted as forgotten I had already posted same thing in this thread.

 

[Kite159]

FCC had an all electric fleet (except for an 03 shunter)
Could this be a result of a ‘box swap’ relating to the PIS from one of FCCs old units?

Or an old message programmed into the PIS system from the days GWR ran to Brighton?

"Change here for First Capital Connect services"

 

[Recessio]

I once had to call the police about incident outside Vauxhall station, and the location on the later paperwork was listed as "Vauxhall BR station". This was 2022!

 

[Merle Haggard]

Some freight train schedules on RTT show some very out-of-date operator names, e.g. 'RfD Channel Tunnel Contract Services' nearly 30 years after Freightliner were taken out of RfD, let alone all the other subsequent changes. (RfD > EWS > DB Shenker)