Arriva-derci: "New" and "Improved" Service

On Saturday, Virgin trains lost the "Cross-Country" franchise, which is now taken over by Arriva. This means, basically, the trains that go from Bournemouth to Manchester, Glasgow or Edinburgh- via both Southampton and Basingstoke, which means that I will often travel on them to and from work.

I hate the term "Cross-Country." It just reminds me of cross-country runs in PE (Physical Education) at school, when we would go running in one of the Enclosures in the New Forest. At the time I was one of those weak, slow boys, and by midway, I would have lost sight of the second slowest boy and would be having to find the sort of old lady out walking her dog (not helped by the fact that I was terrified of dogs at the time) and ask her whether she had seen a group of boys out running. And at the end I'd be yelled at by teachers for not trying.

So, what is the "new" "improved" service like? About 40 minutes late (nothing new).

Had anything changed? Well, if it walks like a Virgin Train, waddles like a Virgin Train and quacks like a Virgin Train (OK, they don't walk, waddle or quack, but you know what I mean. Or maybe you don't. It's been a long day) then it is a Virgin Train. Nothing to indicate that they were owned by a new company. They even had copies of Hotline, the Virgin trains magazine available.