I was heading home through Marylebone yesterday when I saw a train in new GBR branding. That's odd, I thought, I didn't think Chiltern had been nationalised yet. And they haven't quite, they transfer on Sunday and this was the DfT PR launch hullaballoo.
You could tell it was an event because platform 1 had been fenced off, ironically with Chiltern-branded barriers. You could tell it was an official event because attendees were wearing suits, sensible shirts and lanyards. You could tell it was a PR event because dozens of bottles of water were sitting on a wall in case anyone wanted one. You could tell it was carefully choreographed because an old Chiltern class 165 had been parked alongside a new red, white and blue class 68. You could tell it was something to be proud of because everyone was lining up for group photos, right down to the last group of underlings. The smell of aftershave was very strong.
A quick check where we are in the nationalisation timetable...
Pre-nationalised: LNER, TPE, Northern, Southeastern Already GBR: SWR, c2c, Greater Anglia, West Midlands Trains, Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern GBR from Sunday: Chiltern Not yet GBR: GWR, EMR, Avanti, CrossCountry Won't be GBR: ScotRail, TfW, NI Railways, Caledonian Sleeper, Eurostar, Merseyrail, Heathrow Express, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Lumo
I see the word 'Chiltern' is being retained to describe the route out of Marylebone, when they could have chosen Central, South Central, South Midland or all sorts of other alternatives.
As far as I know the full list of GBR sub-brands is as follows...
Compass points: North, Southern, Southeastern, South Western, North West Modified compass: Great Northern, Great Western; West Midlands, East Midlands; West Coast, East Coast Other: Anglia, Chiltern, CrossCountry, Island Line, Thameslink, TransPennine; High Speed, Sleeper
The inconsistency of that first list niggles me.
An hour later the DfT confirmed this was a GBR launch by firing out a press release claiming "people will benefit from 25 more daily services from December alongside cleaner stations, upgraded trains and better on-board wifi". It also says "public ownership provides a fresh opportunity to deliver East West Rail and its benefits for passengers", which suggests the government has no idea how to finally open the line through Winslow either. Expect a half-hourly service between London and Birmingham from December 13th, which is excellent even if I can't work out where all the cheap services have gone. And come Sunday I wonder if the statue of Adrian Shooter at the end of platform 1 will be weeping stone tears as his pet private railway slips silently back into public ownership after 30 years.
