Virgin Trains East Coast launch day

[Segedunum]

The £15 tickets look to be there but only on trains like the 2200 to Newcastle from London. The 0704 Scotsman down to London from Newcastle is now at a pretty daft price too.

 

[SaveECRewards]

The £15 tickets look to be there but only on trains like the 2200 to Newcastle from London. The 0704 Scotsman down to London from Newcastle is now at a pretty daft price too.

So is the view here that Virgin Trains East Coast are limiting availability of the cheapest fares?

I've heard it so many times that even without hard evidence it's looking to be the case.

Of course it's always possible the availability is the same just tickets are selling quicker. I could also imagine people using up rewards tickets would affect the lower fare quotas.

Before launch VTEC promised no changes to the availability of the lowest fares and even hinted at more cheaper fares becoming available.

See their promise from before they started (thanks web archive):

Will the same amount of cheap advance fares still be available?

Yes absolutely. In fact, where we have capacity on trains, we’ll ensure there are even more advance fares available.

Should I add more cheap advance fares to the list of broken promises along with free WiFi, Nectar on Foodbar purchases (not that we're really bothered on that one) and then the things that are just taking way longer than they should such as station WiFi being a year away, the new coffee machines being not ready until August next year. Basically not much happening soon.

 

[Kite159]

Agreed, it does seem the lower tier of advances have had numbers reduced.

Take for example 1st August London to Leeds, only a handful of trains have £13 advances available both ways.

I suppose they can claim they can reduce fares by cutting the lowest tier but also cutting number of tickets available, plus cutting the anytime fare by a nominal amount (and increasing the super off-peak/off-peak fares)

 

[SaveECRewards]

Agreed, it does seem the lower tier of advances have had numbers reduced.

Take for example 1st August London to Leeds, only a handful of trains have £13 advances available both ways.

I suppose they can claim they can reduce fares by cutting the lowest tier but also cutting number of tickets available, plus cutting the anytime fare by a nominal amount (and increasing the super off-peak/off-peak fares)

Have they/are they putting up the (super) off-peak fares or is that just speculation of what they might do?

Have the 10% Anytime discount been implemented yet or is that when the new timetable comes in? Also is it a real 10% discount on the fare (i.e. bookable anywhere) or will it be an online only discount tied to the VTEC site?

 

[westv]

Seating plan for Hull set must be wrong. My seat is marked on the website seat selector as airline style facing when it's actually table backwards.

 

[ainsworth74]

Does the online seat selector differentiate between the usual VTEC HST layout and the EMT HST layout?

 

[westv]

Does the online seat selector differentiate between the usual VTEC HST layout and the EMT HST layout?

It has for a few weeks now I think.

 

[gavin]

VTEC prices have gone up a fair bit since they took over example below for first class with 3 adults and rail cards

Darlington - London Kings - Booked 27/02/2015 for travel w/c May 18th - £87.15

Darlington - London Kings - 12 weeks in advance now £137.70

 

[DEE-DE]

Yeah noticed that, too. The cheapest tier wasn't available from London International to Dundee anymore, even though it was more than 12 weeks in advance (they've quietly increased the booking period for all trains now). But still had the cheapest tier in STD and I wasn't willing to spend £35 each extra. Last time it was something like £12.50 extra (booked before change for afterwards). It took quite a bit of convincing though for the ticket office to sell that to me as they hadn't been notified about the longer booking period.

 

[gavin]

Hmm just looked a bit further into this

Tuesday 15th September

3 adults with rail cards first class from Durham to London kings cross

£88.05 from 07:42

Newcastle to London also has some fares available at £88.05

So why does it cost £137.70 from Darlington when its only £88.05 from Durham and Newcastle?!

 

[life210]

I always find it much cheaper to do a darlington to york, then a york to kings cross. This was the same before virgin took over.

 

[TheBerry]

I think you guys are perhaps missing something very obvious in your ticket checking. Any business is obviously going to price in relation to demand and there are a number of factors which will impact the ticket prices on the dates/periods you are looking at. The Edinburgh festival being one!

 

[Segedunum]

The cheapest tiers (often multiple ones) have been removed from Newcastle/Edinburgh to London flows. It's now impossible for me to get to London before 10am at less than £41, as I opposed to £9.95 previously. With ticket splitting however....

 

[ModernRailways]

43311 has been repainted. What looks to be a full rake has too.

Not my photo. It was in my Facebook feed.

 

[yorksrob]

Well that's progress. I watched an EC HST leave Leeds the other day and it had large brown blotches all along the body side of its carriages. There's only so long you can tinker with NXEC's livery. A proper repaint seems urgent.

 

[JaJaWa]

Well that's progress. I watched an EC HST leave Leeds the other day and it had large brown blotches all along the body side of its carriages. There's only so long you can tinker with NXEC's livery. A proper repaint seems urgent.

This is just a vinyling. Wonder if they'll ever see a repaint now...

 

[ARoo21]

Looks great

 

[Failed Unit]

This is just a vinyling. Wonder if they'll ever see a repaint now...

Probably not. They only have 4 years left so will vinyl last their remaining time in service. It is in Aberdeen now, so take a guess on which service it is on tomorrow.

 

[WatcherZero]

Heard Stagecoach last week agreed fare caps with the regulator to avoid a competition inquiry after their winning of East Coast. Anyone heard any details and whether it applied to rail, bus or both?

 

[yorksrob]

This is just a vinyling. Wonder if they'll ever see a repaint now...

I certainly hope they do.

The IC125, the saviour of the Nation's railway deserves to leave this mortal coil with a decent paint job. At the very worst, they've got four to five years, so they should finish with a decent paint job.

Not an amalgam of the past three liveries in a rusting rubbish pit.

 

[Domh245]

I certainly hope they do.

The IC125, the saviour of the Nation's railway deserves to leave this mortal coil with a decent paint job. At the very worst, they've got four to five years, so they should finish with a decent paint job.

Not an amalgam of the past three liveries in a rusting rubbish pit.

Depends if you count Scotrail saltaire livery as a 'decent paint job'

 

[sprinterguy]

Depends if you count Scotrail saltaire livery as a 'decent paint job'

Though that concerns some of the former First Great Western HST sets, rather than East Coasts'.

 

[yorksrob]

Depends if you count Scotrail saltaire livery as a 'decent paint job'

As long as it covers it in paint, rather than applying something over the NXEC, it counts as a decent paint job.

 

[ARoo21]

43 311 departing London Kings Cross yesterday (my photo) - I like the livery, just the yellow front does not suit it.

And also for anyone wondering, the number of the power-car is both on the front and on the side, so no trouble in seeing what power car it is

 

[E-Rail]

So is the view here that Virgin Trains East Coast are limiting availability of the cheapest fares?

I've heard it so many times that even without hard evidence it's looking to be the case.

Of course it's always possible the availability is the same just tickets are selling quicker. I could also imagine people using up rewards tickets would affect the lower fare quotas.

Before launch VTEC promised no changes to the availability of the lowest fares and even hinted at more cheaper fares becoming available.

See their promise from before they started (thanks web archive):


Should I add more cheap advance fares to the list of broken promises along with free WiFi, Nectar on Foodbar purchases (not that we're really bothered on that one) and then the things that are just taking way longer than they should such as station WiFi being a year away, the new coffee machines being not ready until August next year. Basically not much happening soon.

The question answered is not the 'faq' asked. That is how they are getting away with it.

The answer refers to an increase in 'advance' fares. Unlike the qustion, it contains no mention of the word 'cheap'.

The whole franchise PR is nothing more than vacous spin and political double speak covering for service cuts and fares increases. It's Stagecoach through and through, similar to the marketing thry use when launching Gold bus services. Lots of hype about free upgrades to luxury leather seats blah blah blah. Firstly, it's not leather, it E-leather and secondly, e-leather is actually cheaper than moquette fabric at the moment.

 

[gavin]

New HST is running the 09:47 service from Aberdeen to Kings cross currently next stop is Newcastle 1358, Darlington 1428, York 1456 and Kings Cross 1650

Then its on the 1D26 18:05 London King's Cross to Harrogate

 

[gavin]

New uniform for all staff at stations and on board launches this Wednesday

https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.c...-trains-staff-on-its-east-coast-route-1237283

 

[JaJaWa]

Interesting the jackets aren't red. I saw an EU tender by Virgin Trains for a new joint uniform for EC and WC, so West Coast might get it too.

 

[Romilly]

I think the outer jackets may well be red as I think that's what I saw staff wearing on Doncaster station yesterday.

 

[JaJaWa]

I think the outer jackets may well be red as I think that's what I saw staff wearing on Doncaster station yesterday.

I think that's just the (almost disposable) raincoats they got to cover the existing uniform?