Red Revolution Overthrown

Although it is the second time that First have finished first in the bidding for the West Coast franchise it does seem that Virgin's reign will finally come to an end by December this year.

Having worked on the Class 390 Pendolino trains since Alstom were awarded the contract in 1998 there are a lot of happy memories from our truly collaborative partnership with Virgin Trains. Without doubt the most exciting was the press launch at Old Dalby in July 2001 where the Pre-Series train was precisely planned to burst out of the tunnel in front of the assembled guests in the grandstand at the same time as a Red Arrow jet passed overhead. The event was dubbed the Red Revolution and the train testing was still at a relatively early stage of the programme. The national press and railway press were on board the train and our relief at delivering them to the celebrations after a fault-free journey was palpable. It is a good job we didn't have blood pressure monitoring apps in those days.

18 years later we can be very proud of what has been achieved on the West Coast route. My autographed programme from the event (Sir Richard Branson's autograph, not mine), remains a treasured memento of a significant day in the history of the UK railway.