The Lemon Fool

You may have heard on the news this morning, or even seen the RNS, that Virgin trains are being replaced on the West Coast Mainline by a consortium of First Group and the Italian operator Tren Italia.

Well, that's how I spelt/spelled[*] it in my head this morning.

Apparantly it is not Tren Italia, but Trenitalia.

And the new name will be "First Trenitalia". Try reading that without first hearing Tren Italia.

I just wonder how long it will be before the "Tr" is replaced with a "G" in peoples' minds !



[*] Just to stop being shunted off to pedants' corner !

Ah, that one takes me back a bit....

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/1 ... genitalia/



BJ

Which reminds me, gentlemen. It's been six glorious years now since the Chester Literary Festival came up with a Twitter hashtag that would make it seem nicely trendy, and not at all fuddy-duddy.

It isn't entirely clear who came up with #CLitFest, but I trust that they were suitably rewarded for their pains? As for the festival itself, I'm told that attendance that year was rather thin, because nobody could find it.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:
Which reminds me, gentlemen. It's been six glorious years now since the Chester Literary Festival came up with a Twitter hashtag that would make it seem nicely trendy, and not at all fuddy-duddy.

It isn't entirely clear who came up with #CLitFest, but I trust that they were suitably rewarded for their pains? As for the festival itself, I'm told that attendance that year was rather thin, because nobody could find it.

A famous domain name from years back was where someone wanted to help people locate nearby mental-health support -

therapistfinder.com

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Itsallaguess wrote:A famous domain name from years back was where someone wanted to help people locate nearby mental-health support -

therapistfinder.com

Not forgetting Susan Boyle's epic Twitter campaign for her new disc: #susanalbumparty. My goodness, what pure and innocent minds some people have.

BJ

Itsallaguess wrote:therapistfinder.com

It's one word, George.

mike wrote:You may have heard on the news this morning, or even seen the RNS, that Virgin trains are being replaced on the West Coast Mainline by a consortium of First Group and the Italian operator Tren Italia.

Well, that's how I spelt/spelled[*] it in my head this morning.

Apparantly it is not Tren Italia, but Trenitalia.

And the new name will be "First Trenitalia". Try reading that without first hearing Tren Italia.

I just wonder how long it will be before the "Tr" is replaced with a "G" in peoples' minds !

[*] Just to stop being shunted off to pedants' corner !

Hmm, I can't see that happening simply because most people already how to pronounce Italia.

What I look forward to is if people will start calling them 'La Trenitalia'. I still remember when the french company Connex took over another British railway and apparently they thought it good business practice not to emphasise their Anglo-Norman roots, so were pretty pi**ed off when people used to ask them if it was 'Le' or 'La' Connex.

Steve

PS Somehow I won't hold my breath in assuming that Trenitalia will also apply their own italian pricing to the franchise.

mike wrote:And the new name will be "First Trenitalia". Try reading that without first hearing Tren Italia.

They may well call themselves for branding something like "West Coast Railway" or "West Coast Mainline". Legacy names like London Midland and London North Western have already been taken.

Alaric wrote:

mike wrote:And the new name will be "First Trenitalia". Try reading that without first hearing Tren Italia.

They may well call themselves for branding something like "West Coast Railway" or "West Coast Mainline". Legacy names like London Midland and London North Western have already been taken.

I don't think we've seen London Midland and Scottish yet. Well not since 1947, anyway

First Group? The bunch who lost Scotrail and made a £326 million loss last year? The proud owners of First Great Western, which has been known to its passengers as Worst Late Western ever since they were nearly stripped of the franchise for having the worst timekeeping in the country?

The shower who are now charging £11,000 a year for a season ticket from Bath to Paddington, a distance of 94 miles?

The ones who were all set to go all-electric from London to Bristol and Cardiff, but who then decided to suspend the electrification at Didcot so that they had to buy a whole new set of locomotives that could still run on smelly old diesel? ("A stark example of how not to run a major project" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39143416.)

You're right, I don't think they've thought this through.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:The shower who are now charging £11,000 a year for a season ticket from Bath to Paddington, a distance of 94 miles?

Crikey. I'm guessing folk might be using that as a commute? (Otherwise why have a season ticket?) 30quid a day after discounts (more if you only count working days)? That seems mental.

I remember it seemed like a very balanced game to get the right season ticket when I lived in the UK (e.g. commuting Edinburgh to Dunfermline), so much so that getting a lift home one day a week messed up the calculation.

As a pragmatist I'm bloody shocked; but unfortunately not really surprised

- sd

bungeejumper wrote:The ones who were all set to go all-electric from London to Bristol and Cardiff, but who then decided to suspend the electrification at Didcot so that they had to buy a whole new set of locomotives that could still run on smelly old diesel?

The intention is still to complete the electrification to Cardiff, but Bristol and Oxford are not immediately going to be connected. That would have been a Government decision as it's Network Rail doing the electrification rather than First. They were always going to buy trains that ran both on electric and diesel so as to get to the west country, they had to change some of their order from electric only to electric and diesel when they were told the wires weren't going as far as they had planned for.

servodude wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:The shower who are now charging £11,000 a year for a season ticket from Bath to Paddington, a distance of 94 miles?

Crikey. I'm guessing folk might be using that as a commute? (Otherwise why have a season ticket?) 30quid a day after discounts (more if you only count working days)? That seems mental.
- sd

Isn't the £11k for London (zones 1-6?) rather than just Paddington? I expect the London part of the ticket is a fair chunk of the fare!

Still, it reminds me of the only time in my life I had an annual season ticket. That was Bath-Swindon, and about £850 for the year. Since it was shortly after I ceased to qualify for a young persons railcard, I welcomed the alternative of a season ticket holder's railcard.

But why would anyone want a Bath to Paddington season ticket? Bath is a pleasant place to be - so what's wrong with staying in Bath with a good communication link to London? I have carried out video conversations with my grandchildren from many areas of the UK - so surely Bath and London also have such a facility. I don't think they've thought this through!

Alaric wrote:The intention is still to complete the electrification to Cardiff, but Bristol and Oxford are not immediately going to be connected. That would have been a Government decision as it's Network Rail doing the electrification rather than First. They were always going to buy trains that ran both on electric and diesel so as to get to the west country, they had to change some of their order from electric only to electric and diesel when they were told the wires weren't going as far as they had planned for.

Fair point, thanks Alaric, I didn't know that. And yes, you're right, it's NotWork Rail who I really ought to be chastising about the suspension of the electric link from Didcot.

( Did I say suspended? I believe electrification was due to have reached Bristol and Oxford by 2016, and they're currently saying they "hope" to get it ready by 2024....)

Mind you, we have a couple of other reasons for not loving our Firstgroup service. Such as when the chief executive complained that the reason his trains were so full was that too many people were using the railway. And that it was their fault that the railway had just had to hike prices to pay for new rolling stock.

The chief executive has gone, but the memory still rankles. That's the company culture. The north west is welcome to it.

BJ

scotia wrote:But why would anyone want a Bath to Paddington season ticket? Bath is a pleasant place to be - so what's wrong with staying in Bath with a good communication link to London?

Having lived around Bath for forty years, I can only agree with you! But a goodly proportion of Bath residents suffer the 90 minute train journey every morning because London is where the jobs are. And the Bath area's a nice place to bring up your kids, and the hills are green, and you'll never need to worry about getting your organic quinoa, so who cares if a two up, two down terraced house costs you the thick end of £400K?

I am lucky enough to have a line of work that can be teleworked from anywhere, but other poor souls are not so fortunate. I visit London only rarely, and on sufferance. The transport scene in town is getting more brutal with every passing year. I did four years in the smoke, and that was all the incentive I needed to get out and find a better life. They tell me you can run quite a nice car on £11K a year.

BJ