Thameslink/ Class 700 Progress

[trainmania100]

Soon. Despite the same question being asked on every page lately, soon is the only date you'll get as nothing is yet 100% confirmed. Much progress has been made and is continuing to be made but everything must be done properly and correctly prior to these units coming into service.

I agree - the best thing to do is remain subscribed to this thread and keep checking back, im sure we will be the first to know when a date is confirmed

 

[168lover]

Any 700s out on test runs/driver training runs today?

 

[agerj001]

Just seen this: http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/about-us/new-thameslink/

 

[AM9]

Just seen this: http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/about-us/new-thameslink/

What a bizarre use of English, apparently 'Straight Forward' is a noun. I wonder who thought of that.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Just seen this: http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/about-us/new-thameslink/

A quick read reveals :-

It says the Thameslink network is vast, complicated and uniquely links people North and South of the river. How does that compare to the Great Western network or the lines out of Waterloo and the Northern line respectively ?. That is not to belittle the challenges of running so many trains on a two track railway.

Then again it is Straight Forward apparently !.

The article is dominated by talk of the new brand and its identity - the bit passengers do not care about I would suggest. All it is explaining is that the identity will be a bit mixed up as they will not prematurely re-paint trains (which I agree with) - Straight Forward Eh ?.

[/Off-Topic]

 

[richa2002]

I see nothing in that article of substance. Just classic corporate BS.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I see nothing in that article of substance. Just classic corporate BS.

Succinctly put .

 

[LLivery]

Until now Thameslink has not had its own identity and has been sharing one with Great Northern

Are they having a laugh? Its the same franchise! If anything I don't understand why they've used pink instead of blue for a route what is named after a river! Also if the 700s will all be in the same livery as GN will anyone even notice?

How I wish the DfT and TfL would just agree to brand Thameslink, "Elizabeth", Crossrail 2 and maybe the ELL & NLL as one cross London RER style system.

 

[talldave]

I see nothing in that article of substance. Just classic corporate BS.

What's more depressing is the amount of money they spend on this twaddle. And yet the morons running the show don't seem to be ashamed that it takes them 20 days to respond to customer emails - and even then only to spout irrelevant crap unrelated to the customer's query .

 

[physics34]

I see nothing in that article of substance. Just classic corporate BS.

the same article was told to staff as well.

thats all we get told!

 

[jon0844]

Just seen this: http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/about-us/new-thameslink/

Until now Thameslink has not had its own identity and has been sharing one with Great Northern, even though the lines are actually very different. Things are changing for both lines but for Thameslink the changes are more noticeable and are starting to happen now.

What a load of crap...? It's already Thameslink and Great Northern, and was under FCC before it. Changing the logo doesn't really change anything at all.

And surely GoVia had plenty of time during its bidding stage to when it got the contract and actually took over to come up with the branding. It's basically admitting it ****ed up in the first place.

What's even more dumb is that with Thameslink trains venturing over to the Great Northern side in the future, you'd think the right thing to do was actually come up with a SINGLE brand and potentially get rid of TL and GN, as well as whatever plans there are for the Moorgate services.

 

[trainmania100]

700109 At Lovers Walk, after working 3T33 Three Bridges to Brighton Thameslink Sidings

 

[AM9]

What a load of crap...? It's already Thameslink and Great Northern, and was under FCC before it. Changing the logo doesn't really change anything at all.

And surely GoVia had plenty of time during its bidding stage to when it got the contract and actually took over to come up with the branding. It's basically admitting it ****ed up in the first place.

What's even more dumb is that with Thameslink trains venturing over to the Great Northern side in the future, you'd think the right thing to do was actually come up with a SINGLE brand and potentially get rid of TL and GN, as well as whatever plans there are for the Moorgate services.

So does this mean that half of the 700s will be branded 'ThamesLink' and the rest will be something else as they will be (notionally) assigned to GN services? That would be a joke. GTR can't even be consistent in running correctly liveried Southern and Thameslink 319/377s at the moment, so how will identical white trains that differ only in small logos help anybody?

 

[Class377/5]

700109 At Lovers Walk, after working 3T33 Three Bridges to Brighton Thameslink Sidings

That's not Lovers Walk. It's Brighton Down Yard. Lovers Walk is operationally completely separate and the other side of the tracks.

 

[Minstral25]

What a load of crap...? It's already Thameslink and Great Northern, and was under FCC before it. Changing the logo doesn't really change anything at all.

And surely GoVia had plenty of time during its bidding stage to when it got the contract and actually took over to come up with the branding. It's basically admitting it ****ed up in the first place.

What's even more dumb is that with Thameslink trains venturing over to the Great Northern side in the future, you'd think the right thing to do was actually come up with a SINGLE brand and potentially get rid of TL and GN, as well as whatever plans there are for the Moorgate services.

It's the same problem south of the river. Redhill is now served by Thameslink and Southern trains but train information and service information is split. Meaning you need to look at several sources to get information about train services especially for weekend engineering. Needs to be covered by a single Brighton Main Line information hub for all services

 

[hello]

That's not Lovers Walk. It's Brighton Down Yard. Lovers Walk is operationally completely separate and the other side of the tracks.

top yard

 

[trainmania100]

That's not Lovers Walk. It's Brighton Down Yard. Lovers Walk is operationally completely separate and the other side of the tracks.

Okay thanks

If anyone is interested my video of the 700 at preston park is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPZlLNxJCKg

 

[Class377/5]

top yard

Not according to what was briefed to staff. However it does have a few other 'official' names as well.

 

[jopsuk]

So does this mean that half of the 700s will be branded 'ThamesLink' and the rest will be something else as they will be (notionally) assigned to GN services? That would be a joke. GTR can't even be consistent in running correctly liveried Southern and Thameslink 319/377s at the moment, so how will identical white trains that differ only in small logos help anybody?

I'd have thought that the GN Thameslink services will simply be branded "Thameslink" whilst the Cambridge Express will be "Great Northern". But then christ knows which brand the Peterborough peak-hour extras will use!

 

[Minstral25]

I'd have thought that the GN Thameslink services will simply be branded "Thameslink" whilst the Cambridge Express will be "Great Northern". But then christ knows which brand the Peterborough peak-hour extras will use!

As the peak hour extras will not be 700's but Class 365's (or 377's potentially) they could be branded as GN or Thameslink - but presumably GN to match any that are working to Cambridge.

 

[387star]

When are the first 377s heading to the gn side ?

 

[LBSCR Times]

When are the first 377s heading to the gn side ?

Drivers are undergoing training at present.

 

[jopsuk]

Presumably though no 377s will actually move until enough 700s are reliably in operation on the current TL side? And have the 377s been on testing runs up the GN routes?

 

[physics34]

any thing that runs throught the core will be Thameslink. Anything that doesnt will be GN.

Peak trains from KX will be 365s or 377s so will be GN.

Quite looking forward to seeing a 377 in Grey/white livery with the blue doors to be honest. Think it'll look smart on them.

 

[neilm]

any thing that runs throught the core will be Thameslink. Anything that doesnt will be GN.

Peak trains from KX will be 365s or 377s so will be GN.

Quite looking forward to seeing a 377 in Grey/white livery with the blue doors to be honest. Think it'll look smart on them.

But that is not what GTR are saying now are they with this "new Thameslink" brand are they?

 

[physics34]

But that is not what GTR are saying now are they with this "new Thameslink" brand are they?

must have missed that lol

Ive seen the logo and the generic staff/public brief but thats it.

 

[neilm]

Lol I don't know but that rubbish PR release confuses things by saying Thameslink is a sub brand of gn so who knows :-/

 

[asylumxl]

Govia really should just stop with their pointless rebrand or PR exercises and get on with actually improving things such as their communication during disruption.

 

[southern442]

Govia really should just stop with their pointless rebrand or PR exercises and get on with actually improving things such as their communication during disruption.

Indeed. Forget about a little font change to 'mean something new' because the hard truth is, almost all passengers won't care or even notice! They have things that they actually need to sort out, like communication and problems with the timetable. GTR is beginning to look like the National Government of the late 20's/early 30's recession!

 

[jon0844]

Is changing Thameslink to ThamesLink/ really going to change anything?

What next, Great Northern becomes GreatNorthern/ or, to be edgy, maybe GreatNorthern\ ?

Seriously - I don't actually understand why it can even be considered anything more than a late logo change, that will cost the company money by having to reproduce posters/signs and other material (ID badges, internal forms etc).