Virgin Trains East Coast

As u all know Stagecoach and Virgin have recently began to takeover the ECML from East Coast Trains. For one thing Virgin is a good company providing clean and quieter trains on their 390 and 221 sets. But what are your views on the East Coast side. And if you have travelled VT East Coast since the takeover. Let me know of your experience.

Jord

Virgintrains61 wrote:As u all know Stagecoach and Virgin have recently began to takeover the ECML from East Coast Trains. For one thing Virgin is a good company providing clean and quieter trains on their 390 and 221 sets. But what are your views on the East Coast side. And if you have travelled VT East Coast since the takeover. Let me know of your experience.

Jord

If I may....  How is a 221 quieter?  It has a thumping great engine under it.  And how are 221s and 390s intrinsically cleaner that what went before?

I don't know British classes all too well (I know class 66 and let's just say it isn't exactly a great example of modern locomotive construction, neither emission- nor noisewise), but a strong engine doesn't necessarily make much noise... Look up Bombardier's TRAXX P160 DE ME. You can hardly hear it at all.

Will Beardie run things better? Well, the ECML could have done a lot worse, and looking at Virgin's track record on the WCML, I'm inclined to think that the service might pick up - but it could also potentially have been run by Eurostar, which is (for the time being) part nationalised as (I think) 15% of it's interests are held by the government...?

Virgin East Coast is actually Stagecoach - it's a 90% holding by Stagecoach. And by all accounts some Class 91+Mk4 are being held, as are HST's even after IEP arrives

Eurostar is being part-privatised by the UK Government, not nationalised (unless another government takes over the shares)

hurricanemk1c wrote:Virgin East Coast is actually Stagecoach - it's a 90% holding by Stagecoach.

It makes you wonder, how much money do Virgin make themselves, and how much money do they make by licencing the brand.
It always seems a bit of a swiz, like Asda paying Heinz to use their name on baked beans