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Avanti West Coast rebrand

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I might be travelling from Sandwell and Dudley tomorrow morning - will keep an eye out for any rebranding posters or trains wise (as it’s a WMR managed station there won’t be new signage). Did get a few of the new timetable books there last night.
 
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Elecman

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Sandwell and Dudley is a West Midlands operated station so shouldn’t have any Avanti branding
 

Energy

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Which is an A with the rest of the logo, init. The triangle is the logo.
Lots of people may think that they have just taken the triangle from the logo, I think just the triangle would look better.
 

_toommm_

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I guess this is a part of the rebrand (from the Virgin Traveller scheme), so I'll quote myself below:

Just seen this exchange on the Twittersphere:

Avanti West Coast:
Don’t worry. Any ticket you booked with @VirginTrains for upcoming journeys is still valid with us, subject to the terms and conditions you purchased it under. https://t.co/d0kT2SyQ3t

Twitterer:
What about Traveller cards? Will they remain valid?

Avanti West Coast:
Yes, the scheme is continuing as Avanti Traveller. All existing members will be contacted by email to be asked their consent to remain part of the scheme and to re-register to receive their new membership packs. ^CC

View attachment 71350
 

Bletchleyite

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Lots of people may think that they have just taken the triangle from the logo, I think just the triangle would look better.

Agreed, the "A with triangle" bit of the branding is the only bit that in my view looks amateurish - the rest is quite good.

The only other thing I'd suggest changing is that on the end vehicles the branding appears twice - this is true of SWR too - is it the same agency? This looks poor, it should only appear once, as more than once gives an impression of overbranding. Other occurrences should be stylised elements of the branding, e.g. the large "Ox" broken by the wheelarch on Oxford buses.
 

Energy

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Agreed, the "A with triangle" bit of the branding is the only bit that in my view looks amateurish - the rest is quite good.

The only other thing I'd suggest changing is that on the end vehicles the branding appears twice - this is true of SWR too - is it the same agency? This looks poor, it should only appear once, as more than once gives an impression of overbranding. Other occurrences should be stylised elements of the branding, e.g. the large "Ox" broken by the wheelarch on Oxford buses.
I would suggest removing the logo from the front of the train, its position looks strange, I would put a shield in the shape of the Avanti triangle where the virgin shield was
 

neontrix

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I think they can, but I think the A on its own looks silly. Subjective I know.

Totally agree, the whole brand I’m not a fan of. Particularly the ‘A with a triangle’ device. Also the use of curves on the station signs and literature when the brand is built around angles? Seems inconsistent at best.
 

TRAX

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I would suggest removing the logo from the front of the train, its position looks strange, I would put a shield in the shape of the Avanti triangle where the virgin shield was
There’s always a way of squeezing in a bit of Virgin nostalgia aye ? :rolleyes:
 

CrispyUK

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Also the use of curves on the station signs and literature when the brand is built around angles? Seems inconsistent at best.
Agreed, and hard to be totally sure, but from the promo images they look to have used straight lines on the new livery, which makes the use of curves on the signage a strange choice.
 

Hadders

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Avanti can get signage changed at their stations very quickly as they operate very few of them. Northern, for example, operate hundreds of them which is why you see old branding clinging on for far longer.

I suspect they just hired local contractors to change signage early this morning.
 

neontrix

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Avanti can get signage changed at their stations very quickly as they operate very few of them. Northern, for example, operate hundreds of them which is why you see old branding clinging on for far longer.

I suspect they just hired local contractors to change signage early this morning.

At least the DfT decision not to enforce NR-standard wayfinding signage provides a regular boost to local signwriters.
 

Bungle965

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Avanti can get signage changed at their stations very quickly as they operate very few of them. Northern, for example, operate hundreds of them which is why you see old branding clinging on for far longer.

I suspect they just hired local contractors to change signage early this morning.
Northern haven't even bothered to make an effort though.
Northern could have installed them at the time they installed the new TVM's at stations but chose not to do so.
Sam
 

dosxuk

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I think even the British travelling public can probably discern that coach A would a coach at one end of the train rather than the centre.

On Liverpool to Nottingham coach A can, and does appear at any point in the consist. Front, middle or back, with no consistency to help people predict. In Sheffield you get to add the extra confusion of a reversal so nobody knows whether they even want the front or rear half of the train.
 

Signal Head

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I passed through Crewe Station on Sunday. Rebranding was on-going. Every advertising board (both electronic and paper types) had been taken over by the "hello, we're Avanti" poster.

The platform name boards hadn't been touched, but the Virgin branding is basically just a red stripe at the bottom, did these ever have an actual Virgin logo on them?

The large hanging box-type 'direction' signs also gave a red section at the base, nothing had been done to remove or obscure that.
I also saw the altered Stockport platform name boards, definitely just vinyls, the Virgin red stripe is still visible where it wraps around the end of the sign.
 

Bletchleyite

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The platform name boards hadn't been touched, but the Virgin branding is basically just a red stripe at the bottom, did these ever have an actual Virgin logo on them?

No. They retained the old IC ones for a long time, then when replaced they were just grey with the red stripe. Despite the common view, Virgin Trains was never heavily overbranded.
 

Mathew S

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Staff in new uniforms, and a great many Avanti posters, but no other re-branding in evidence at Wigan NW this morning. The platform signs are all still as they were when I last passed through on Saturday afternoon.

Also - does anyone know whether the re-branded Pendolino is indeed on the service arriving into Manchester at approximately 10am? If so I might make the effort to pop down and see it.
 

TheGarner

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Image of it on here: https://twitter.com/AvantiWestCoast/status/1203977872907669504
 
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Triumph

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390155 First in service working the following:

Oxley CMD 05+23 5R04
Wolvrhptn 05+31 05:45 1R04
New St. 06:04 06:10 1R04
Euston 07:33 08:00 1H11
ManchstrP 10.05 10.35 1A24
Euston 12:39 13.07 1F17
Lime St 15.19 15.47 1A50
Euston 18:03 18:30 1S95
Glas Cen. 23.09 23+35 5S95
PoldieCMD 23+46

390156 SPECIAL LAUNCH AT EUSTON AND BEING NAMED PRIDE AND PROSPERITY THEN WORKING

WembleyID 09+45 5Z17
Euston 10+03 10:33 1Z17
Glas Cen. 17:27 17+56 5Z17
Wolvrhptn 22+52 23+10 5Z17
Oxley CMD 23+17
 
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