Abellio is bringing a touch of purple to the East Midlands with its new look for East Midlands Railway.
Owned by the Dutch state-owned rail company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), Abellio has won the franchise from Stagecoach, and will take the reins from August 2019.
Abellio will completely replace the existing intercity fleet, which is currently a mix of Bombardier class 222 Meridian diesel-electric units and Paxman-powered HSTs, with a fleet of brand new bi-mode trains.
The rest of the fleet will be overhauled, whilst some of it will be replaced with hydrogen and electric-powered trains, kitted out in a deep purple-based livery.
East Midlands Railway – or EMR, as Abellio have stylised it – will be divided into three segments.
The EMR Intercity identity will be used for long-distance trains between Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester and London on the Midland Mainline, whilst EMR Regional is the new name for east-west routes and regional routes, such as Liverpool – Nottingham – Norwich. EMR Electrics will introduce a new service between London St Pancras, Luton Airport Parkway and Corby.
From the initial designs, each division will have their own subtle adaptation of the purple livery, the doors being a distinguishing feature – Intercity trains will have beige doors, Regional silver, and Electrics a subtle mint green.
It’s a far cry from Stagecoach’s Best Impressions-designed ‘swoops’ livery, which will shortly disappear from the UK rail network altogether once the current franchise ends. The new EMR identity is more aligned to what First have achieved with GWR, with a more ‘classic’ look and feel now in vogue.
What do you think about the new look Abellio will introduce? Will you miss East Midlands Trains? Let us know in the comments below.
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8 Responses
Excellent news! I hope their promise of lower fares from Leicester to London comes to fruition as well!!
Having lived in Lincoln and Nottingham for a number of years travelling up and down the country on east midlands trains and now traveling back home to Lincolnshire on East Midlands Trains I’m going to miss East Midlands Trains Stagecoach massively. Adopting TheCloud WiFi at stations and on trains they felt like pioneers and much better than the services in the West Country where I live now. Its an absolute shame to see East Midlands Trains disappear. I hope only one day they’ll be back.
I really liked the Stagecoach livery on its trains, but even when I did make a facebook group about it being the most colourful livery, nobody ever seemed interested.
I like the fact that Abellio have chosen a purple livery rather then white and grey on their Greater Anglia trains like the old 321s which were just white with blue or red doors although Abellios newer livery is better.
I hate the New South Western Railway livery where colourful trains used to run out of London Waterloo by Stagecoach.
Abellios replacement livery taking over from Stagecoach is much nicer then South Western Railways bleek livery.
I think the Stagecoach livery was the best ever used on a HST, and on the Meridians.
Stagecoach should be happy now there is a new Transport minister replacing the one who expelled them from taking part in any future bids.
Abellio seem keen to invest right away with new trains.
Sometimes it is time to move on.
I think passengers will adore the new purple livery.
Oh no. The East Midland |||||Trains livery on the HST’s was the best ever.
Who knows the trains might actually run on time.
Presuma bly with this logo and scheme harking back to LMS feel we will get steam trains back! This scheme is going backwards. EMT colour scheme was excellent, fresh and modern. Service was excellent too.
Will leicester be be electrified when you’re having the class 800/2 hitachi new trains and will you making new routes for the midland mainline as well to and from London St Pancras international when all the hst and class222 have all gone
I wish East Midlands Railway very well. East Midlands Trains who were run by Stagecoach Group did do very well. But East Midlands Railway should improve rail services in the East Midlands.