National Express East Coast

[AlistairW]

Launches tomorrow morning at 4am apparently and the BBC is happy to write a report on it. Now either I've missed something of they've got something quite wrong:

The group, which also operates the Gatwick and Stansted Express and the inter-city services between Yorkshire, the east Midlands and London through Midland Mainline, has pledged a new fleet of extra trains by the end of 2010 - delivering 14,000 extra seats a day.

They no-longer operate MML which the BBC should know as they reported on EMT winning the franchise on many occasions.
I don't remember any promises of new stock either, only refurbished MK3's and 90's.

Oh well, the first NXEC liveried train will be the 9:30 Edinburgh - London KX so if you're nearby can go check the livery out first hand.

Cheers,
Ali

[BR7MT]

I don't remember any promises of new stock either, only refurbished MK3's and 90's.

To them that is a 'new fleet'

I will be sorry to see GNER go, as I think they did an excellent job with the franchise. It is just a pity that events surrounding the premium payments did not go their way

I shall be interested to see the new livery that they are rolling out as well. If the preview shots on RMWeb are anything to go by it will look a bit boring compared to the GNER livery it replaces.

Regards,

Dan

[martinhodgson]

http://calum-hepplewhite.fotopic.net/p47106625.html

Allegedly not finished.

[395025]

I love the new livery on the 90.
I can not wait until the HST and the class 91 go into the new livery

[photons66]

http://calum-hepplewhite.fotopic.net/p47106625.html

Allegedly not finished.

Hang on though, that class 90 is allocated to Norwich Crown Point so therefore the livery is that of the forthcoming National Express East Anglia rather than National Express East Coast.

[BR7MT]

http://calum-hepplewhite.fotopic.net/p47106625.html

Allegedly not finished.

Hang on though, that class 90 is allocated to Norwich Crown Point so therefore the livery is that of the forthcoming National Express East Anglia rather than National Express East Coast.

The National Express livery is being rolled out across all their franchises, therefore that is what will appear on the 125's and 225's.

My personal opinion is that it looks bland and un-imaginative, but whatever floats your boat...

Regards,

Dan

[martinhodgson]

I would imagine that they will be almost exactly the same, though!

[photons66]

OK, thanks for clarifying. Bland and unimaginative would certainly fit in with their modus operandi (one, c2c etc).

[JSReeves86]

what an BR Blue wasnt?

[photons66]

BR blue reflected the pride in our railways. But as the saying goes. Pride before a fall and now we have to contend with unimaginative TOC names like one and c2c (which, to this day, I still don't know whether it stands for city 2 coast or coast 2 coast). But at least NXEC is much better than two or d3d. , just not the livery.

[AlistairW]

BR blue reflected the pride in our railways. But as the saying goes. Pride before a fall and now we have to contend with unimaginative TOC names like one and c2c (which, to this day, I still don't know whether it stands for city 2 coast or coast 2 coast). But at least NXEC is much better than two or d3d. , just not the livery.

I was told c2c stood for commitment to customers although City to Coast sounds slightly better.

I'm not quite sure how BR Blue reflects pride?

Cheers,
Ali

[arabiandisco]

http://calum-hepplewhite.fotopic.net/p47106625.html

Allegedly not finished.

Hang on though, that class 90 is allocated to Norwich Crown Point so therefore the livery is that of the forthcoming National Express East Anglia rather than National Express East Coast.

The National Express livery is being rolled out across all their franchises, therefore that is what will appear on the 125's and 225's.

My personal opinion is that it looks bland and un-imaginative, but whatever floats your boat...

Regards,

Dan

Since it's allegedly only half-done, I'm not going to judge. Just add a band of a dark colour (dark grey?) at window level (as on a mk3) that seems to go "behind" the diagonal white bit and you'll have a very smart colour scheme.

If it's "finished" though, it's a bit pants, and wouldn't work at all when applied to coaches/ units.

[BR7MT]

The National Express livery is being rolled out across all their franchises, therefore that is what will appear on the 125's and 225's.

My personal opinion is that it looks bland and un-imaginative, but whatever floats your boat...

Regards,

Dan

Since it's allegedly only half-done, I'm not going to judge. Just add a band of a dark colour (dark grey?) at window level (as on a mk3) that seems to go "behind" the diagonal white bit and you'll have a very smart colour scheme.

If it's "finished" though, it's a bit pants, and wouldn't work at all when applied to coaches/ units.

There are some picture on the following link that show the proposed livery, based on graphics given to the press:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=75

So it does appear that the Class 90 is finished. The coaches could have looked a lot worse though.

Regards,

Dan

[JonathonAG]

It's ashame to see GNER go......although they had their faults, it was a great company which provided a great service. Now we're stuck with NE and the name gives nothing to it's heydays of steam when the ECML was a racecourse to the north....and the livery does nothing to help it either.

I used to love popping into Waverley station to see GNER HST and Virgin Voyagers..... now that it's going to be NEEC and AXC, in what I think are ugly liveries to say the least, I may avoid the station now!

[nwallace]

Having seen the XC unit (158 I think) that has replaced the morning Aberdeen to Edinburgh Voyager I actually quite like their livery.