You can add me as Mandarin Chinese as well, I've had 5 years experience in that. 大家好！

Welcome and enjoy the game! Let us know if you have any questions.

virgin lost, they just need to get over that

It's not that Virgin lost, it's that they and those thousands of people who have signed know that Virgin will provide a better service for the WCML in the future.

Dornier 328 Jet, dunno which airline

Ioh, great work overall - I question the extension to Bolton as that should be more commuter-rail rather than underground. Some of the near-downtown areas seem somewhat underserved too.

I think that religion should be Potato, and politics should be Potato.
Does the Silly Party agree with this standpoint?

Guys, as much as you may not want to admit it, or whatever... girls like that do exist.
I had a two hour dinner conversation with a very hot girl and about half of it was about trains and very technical. If there's someone like that for trains I wouldn't doubt there is someone like that for planes.

Aren't nerdy girls just the best?

Weird s*** happens late at night

Oh, ross, it's more like I happen late at night

Ah, my apologies, in that case.
In answer to that particular question:
It wouldn't be fair to compare the likes of First Capital Connect or the local suburban routes of First Great Western with potential service on the WCML, so for the purposes of this comparison, I'll answer referring only to the long distance high speed services of FGW.

On FGW, the trains themselves are older, but still capable of the same or similar speeds, and are generally much more comfortable (and quieter than the Voyagers) to ride. They experimented with some DMUs, but thankfully they were replaced with older cascaded IC125s. Sadly, when First comes into the WCML, we'll end up stuck with the Pendolinos and Voyagers, rather than proper locomotive hauled trains, but I guess that isn't not really First's fault.

Thinking about service levels in particular: there's not much difference in the main, between First GWML and Virgin WCML services. Picking up what you mentioned:
Thinking about staff: Rail staff are rail staff. You get some good, some bad. Many have been in the job since the nationalised BR days, and nothing much seems to have changed for them. I've found that FGW staff seem to have a higher morale than their counterparts at VT, but that may be limited to the few individuals that I've met. FGW trains seem to have more on-board crew, but then that might be due to the operational requirements of the specific trains, rather than a "customer-minded decision".
Regarding refreshment on board: There's not much difference in prices and services available to standard class. Both FGW and VT have trolleys that move through the carriages, selling cold snacks and hot and cold drinks, and a "buffet" selling a slightly wider range than the trolleys including some hot food. Prices are higher than I'd like, but thats what you expect on a train where you are captive market. From memory, FGW and VT both use the same caterers to provide the food that they sell, and their prices are similar.
Thinking about fares: Most fares are regulated in the UK - set by the government without difference across operators. The difference may be in advance fares that you buy from operators, which limit you to a particular train. I rarely use these, so I can't comment.
Finally, services at stations: The terminal and principle stations are run and managed by Network Rail directly. That won't change with franchise. The intermediate stations are similar across most of the UK network. Obviously, a category E station won't have the same facilities as a category B station, but a First category B station is similar to a EMT, VT or EC category B station, and that applies across all of the categories.

In all honesty - under the current system of franchising, the passenger will rarely see any benefit or change as a result of a new franchisee. The only real changes are at board level management, the colour of the trains and the uniforms of the staff. The benefits and "competition" in our privatised network takes place in the boardrooms of the DfT, when the companies bid for franchises.


The big plus for First, in my view, is that they currently have Pullman services, have at-seat dining in first class (as in a waited meal, rather than snacks from a trolley) and sleeper services. If they could take some of that from FGW and put it onto the WCML, that would be a great improvement.

Thanks for the insights Brit. I think Pullman on the WCML could certainly be interesting. I'm curious, do they do pullman high-speeds, or DMUs or "proper" loco-hauled consists?

Brit, in response to what you said, I meant more the level of service (i.e. refreshment on board, are employees courteous, services offered at stations, prices) etc. I'm aware the Pendos and voyagers will stick with First on the WCML.

Busy routes like SFO-LAX are never good to start off on. Base yourself in small-medium airports and stick to those. Once you grow past say 500mil, you can think about expanding.

This is about Virgin being outbid by First Group for operation of the West Coast Mainline (this is the UK train route between London - Birmingham - Manchester - Glasgow). This means VT will be shutting down.
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-19264614
Honestly, I'm really gutted.. and disgusted. I thought Virgin was a great company to be involved in the UK train environment. I'm curious about what you think. Have any of you ridden First's trains? Can you compare them to VT? What are your thoughts regarding this... and even privatized rail? Here in the US we obviously have 1 national train company (Amtrak) which is okay, but i've always wondered how it would be as they were before the 70s...private companies.. Any thoughts or comments welcome

And I sure as hell hope the Pendo's won't look like this


Edit - Just wanted to add I came across Sir Richard Branson's letter http://www.virgintra...nnouncement.pdf that he wrote to all associated with VT. Touching

Start in medium sized airports with lower gate lease costs. Not JFK, LHR, NRT, ORD, etc.

Also don't use aircraft that are too expensive to lease/buy - try and get older versions of modern planes (so basically, take an 8 year old A320) or just use smaller planes, preferably turboprops (ATR, Q400).

No one has to listen to your requests to not compete with them. It's called competition and is one of the core values of the game..

That sounds like a great idea, but not feasible. In the same way that world peace is a great idea, but not feasible.

Nothing closes in San Francisco on Sunday. If anything, it's open later. Perhaps that has something to do with us being the USA's Atheist Capital.

The boycott they called for really backfired on them, they just made Chick Fil A RICH as hell

It wasn't meant to make CFA poor so much as it was to raise awareness that CFA/Dan Cathy donates exorbitant sums of money to groups which support and encourage anti-LGBT bullying.
CFA is taking the idea of free speech to far as have other extreme-right, extreme-Christian organisations like the Westboro Baptists. I support the idea of free speech and freedom in general in the USA but I think in so many ways we have gone too far with what we feel at liberty to do.
I have no problem with people or corporations who don't agree with me politically - but I have a problem with people or corporations (CFA in this case) who are prejudiced to hate others based on any "preexisting" quality such as race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Hi,
If you set your map from Google Maps to GCMap in the Settings, it will not crash the page.

I much prefer the old gray livery they used to have. It just seemed so poised, understated yet classy.

Here's my entry for today

I'd suggest the Boeing 757 - good range, good capacity, and with Australia it also has the potential to do some routes up to SE Asia and Oceania.

Right as Im the one who started it I'm going to restart this thread with what I deem to be "Proper music".

@Kitty, Yuxi is [censored] years old