On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:50:21 +0100, Michael Hoffman
wrote:

Paul Corfield wrote:

http://www.londonmidland.com/index.html

is the new website for the winning company and has details of what will
be done in the franchise.

How exiting! They are going to introduce "sub-brands!" Truly they
understand what is important to the common passenger.

To be fair it is no different to the current policy used by Silverlink
with respect to "metro" and "county". I actually think the provision of
new Desiros and new diesels is a good step forward. From comments from
others the Desiros seem to be decent trains and provided there are no
nonsenses with the timetable (in which case blame the DfT) then this
doesn't seem a bad deal to me. If the transfer of Metro services to TfL
allows the management team to concentrate on running the core services
at least as well as now, and hopefully better, then that should also be
a plus. Silverlink don't seem to attract much by way of bad press these
days which tends to suggest the service simply works well.

The real test is whether they can get the West Midlands local services
up to scratch and keep them there. There seems to be little enthusiasm
for Central Trains' performance and huge complaints about overcrowding
and reliability. My very limited experience of WM local services has
not been too bad at all to be fair but then I don't have to use them
every day.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!