My question is this why is the upcoming midland mainline set in East Midlands trains period when on YouTube Joe Dobson does a class 170 in EMR livery to Sheffield which shows the EMR licence exists this puzzles me
EMR is owned by Abelio and from what I heard before based on the release of Cathcart Circle, Abelio didn't want their name on the Scotrail 314 in the game which is why Cathcart is set in 2014. EMT was owned by Stagecoach and therefore may have been easier to gain the licence for.
The emt is a far better livery than the current emr purple so I'm glad they did. It also means there will surely be more HST diagrams and the 158 can easily masquerade for a SWR 158 if you wanted it on BML.
I believe the EMT brand is owned by the DFT, and South West Trains definitely is, hence why it's easier to get a license. I think London Midland is too. Luckily the government seem fine with licensing to DTG which can't be said about other countries.
