On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:20:21 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:

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'm confused. Which sub-brand do the current Silverlink County services
come under? "London Midland Express Lines will provide a distinctive
identity for the longer distance routes outside the West Midlands", but i
don't think Euston to Tring is really 'longer distance'. But "London
Midland City will be a platform for the promotion of integrated transport
across the West Midlands city and region", and i don't think Tring trains
have much to do with the West Midlands either.

You're being overly picky. The route is from London to Birmingham and
Crewe; a few of the trains just happen turn back at Tring.

It's fairly clear to me: one brand for WCML semi-fast services, and
one brand for everything else (i.e. most of what's inherited from
Central Trains). This helps prevent the reputation of the reasonably
good WCML services from being tarnished by the poor frequency, speed,
train lengths, and reliability of most of the ex-CT network, which
will no doubt be subjected to further cuts by the DfT (compare the
ex-Wessex part of FGW).