Livery under Great British Railways

[Russel]

Took a bit of artistic licence and tried to make the livery less defined by the profile of the train into more of a "one size fits all", also tried to make it a bit more modern. I know its not perfect, could still do with a bit of tweaking
View attachment 164398

This is more like it, a sleek, modern take on a retro livery!

My only change would be to the cream, I'd go for a much lighter shade of cream, or even just white.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is very impressive. I never liked the swallow livery, which I always felt was a bit ungainly. This is very sleek and fresh.

Brake dust beige? No thanks. The shape is OK but I'd base it on white.

 

[vuzzeho]

Took a bit of artistic licence and tried to make the livery less defined by the profile of the train into more of a "one size fits all", also tried to make it a bit more modern. I know its not perfect, could still do with a bit of tweaking
View attachment 164398

I really like this. I do think that the beige should definitely not stay - I think a silver could work really nicely

 

[azOOOOOma]

Took a bit of artistic licence and tried to make the livery less defined by the profile of the train into more of a "one size fits all", also tried to make it a bit more modern. I know its not perfect, could still do with a bit of tweaking
View attachment 164398

That looks stunning!

 

[A0]

Personally I hope they do nothing that even vaguely harks back to "old" BR. It's bad enough that we're resurrecting something which was a by word for crap service without reminding us of the fact by making the railways look like they haven't moved forward since 1990 (which the industrial relations seem not to have done).

 

[Pete_uk]

I like the above livery but the only thing I would say is you are trying to shoehorn a angular design designed for a angular train onto a train that's more flowing in shape.

 

[Class 800]

I like the above livery but the only thing I would say is you are trying to shoehorn an angular design designed for an angular train onto a train that's more flowing in shape.

You say that but many parts of the train are still quite angular.

And the EMR 810s for example are more angular in design than the other IETs.

 

[L+Y]

Took a bit of artistic licence and tried to make the livery less defined by the profile of the train into more of a "one size fits all", also tried to make it a bit more modern. I know its not perfect, could still do with a bit of tweaking
View attachment 164398

I'd be interested to see this with the black replaced by blue and the beige with white, as a practical "red, white and blue" scheme?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd be interested to see this with the black replaced by blue and the beige with white, as a practical "red, white and blue" scheme?

LNER's scheme with blue doors instead of grey? Or a blue stripe under the windows?

 

[43096]

LNER's scheme with blue doors instead of grey? Or a blue stripe under the windows?

Drop the turd coloured stripe round the windows, though.

 

[L+Y]

LNER's scheme with blue doors instead of grey? Or a blue stripe under the windows?

More like something like swallow, but replacing black with blue. Or alternatively, something not unlike blue/grey, but with a red window band and red doors?

 

[ricj]

Maybe the new Intercity livery could pay homage to Swallow and all other services could give a nod to blue grey but adding a bit of red as mentioned above.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

You can have some harmless fun experimenting with a prompt to an AI image creator and seeing what it comes up with. I quite liked this one, though the large logo is of course wrong and the "BRITISH RAIL" typography pretty grim.

I did find, however, that any use of the phrase "Great British Railways" in the prompt resulted in horrid liveries with the Union Flag all over them...

 

[renegademaster]

If the intention is to evoke the memories of inter City rail at its peak, everything should be painted virgin red.

 

[Uncle Buck]

You can have some harmless fun experimenting with a prompt to an AI image creator and seeing what it comes up with. I quite liked this one, though the large logo is of course wrong and the "BRITISH RAIL" typography pretty grim.

I did find, however, that any use of the phrase "Great British Railways" in the prompt resulted in horrid liveries with the Union Flag all over them...

“Great British Railways” sounds like “Great British Public” or “Great British Bake Off” or “Great British Fish and Chips”- almost a bit of a Mickey-take, whereas “British Rail” or “British Railways” somewhow sounds more serious.

 

[Simon75]

“Great British Railways” sounds like “Great British Public” or “Great British Bake Off” or “Great British Fish and Chips”- almost a bit of a Mickey-take, whereas “British Rail” or “British Railways” somewhow sounds more serious.

Totally agree, also a of a mouthful.
British Rail, is simple , British Railways, a slight mouthful

 

[ricj]

Also agree, and if turns out not to be so 'great' then it's going to sound even more daft...

 

[DJ_K666]

Just paint them all blue and grey with yellow ends and be done with it. Passengers will soon learn

Is there a single country with one livery for *everything*? As far as I'm aware, no. The idea an 800 will be in the same livery as a 377 on the West Coastway feels a bit nonsensical.

GBR will have control of English liveries only, so politically, InterCity services having a single English livery for services to Scotland and Wales is probably a no go - we're a 'union' and all that. It'll most likely be either done by Region (and IC) or sector - Suburban, Regional, Intercity - basically the German/French/Italian model.

There isn't an industry more in love with branding as much as the railways in this country, and the BR Corp Manual is held dearly as an icon; which gives me hope it'll be done well...



Sometimes you need a clean slate. You can't expect the railway to keep c2 flipping c - I don't think it can be anyway as a legal issue. There's too many brands, a unified railway doesn't need Southern, South West, Southeastern and Thameslink - it's all Southern, though I would expect Thameslink to be retained, if not, strengthened.

Regions: thats whats needed. [For those members on here younger than about 25, Prior to Sectorisation you had BR and it's administrative regions, broadly based along the boundaries of the old 'Big Four']

That's the model of de-privatisation I'd go for.

 

[Transilien]

Regions: thats whats needed.

I feel like the regions should reflect real administrative boundaries more the rail based ones than anything to create a more democratic railway. Only if we had regional councils like Scotland used to have.

 

[43096]

Just paint them all blue and grey with yellow ends and be done with it. Passengers will soon learn


Regions: thats whats needed. [For those members on here younger than about 25, Prior to Sectorisation you had BR and it's administrative regions, broadly based along the boundaries of the old 'Big Four']

That's the model of de-privatisation I'd go for.

That rather smacks of rose-tinted nostalgia as opposed to the best way of doing it.

 

[DJ_K666]

I feel like the regions should reflect real administrative boundaries more the rail based ones than anything to create a more democratic railway. Only if we had regional councils like Scotland used to have.

Like an iron marker showing thr boundaries? There was one on the tunnel wall at Farringdon showing the end of the Southern and Midland regions.

Did you have those regional administrations in Scotland before?

 

[Transilien]

Like an iron marker showing thr boundaries? There was one on the tunnel wall at Farringdon showing the end of the Southern and Midland regions.

I was meaning more regional involvement in Railways like how many regions have great control over their railways in countries like France and Germany. However the UK doesn't have anything close to that form of regionalisation. The closest could to that could be the regional councils that were in Scotland between 1974 and 1996 however none (I think) had much involvement in transport other than strathclyde. This could be a model for railways outside of Cities regions too. For example instead of services in Devon/Cornwall being lopped together with commuter services out of London as a part of a 'Western Region' there should be a degree of Local devolution to make sure that the actual passengers needs are meeted under GBR. The old big four regions are archaic ad only exist for the convenience of operation not the passenger.

 

[irish_rail]

I was meaning more regional involvement in Railways like how many regions have great control over their railways in countries like France and Germany. However the UK doesn't have anything close to that form of regionalisation. The closest could to that could be the regional councils that were in Scotland between 1974 and 1996 however none (I think) had much involvement in transport other than strathclyde. This could be a model for railways outside of Cities regions too. For example instead of services in Devon/Cornwall being lopped together with commuter services out of London as a part of a 'Western Region' there should be a degree of Local devolution to make sure that the actual passengers needs are meeted under GBR. The old big four regions are archaic ad only exist for the convenience of operation not the passenger.

The trouble is Devon and Cornwall (right now at least) are heavily entwined with London in that the Turbo fleet is shared between the two areas. By focusing too much on localism , areas like Devon and Cornwall will only end up losing out as larger metropolitan areas shout louder for larger slices of the cake. At least with a large "Western Region" resources can be better shared and deployed where needed.

 

[JLH4AC]

I was meaning more regional involvement in Railways like how many regions have great control over their railways in countries like France and Germany. However the UK doesn't have anything close to that form of regionalisation. The closest could to that could be the regional councils that were in Scotland between 1974 and 1996 however none (I think) had much involvement in transport other than strathclyde. This could be a model for railways outside of Cities regions too. For example instead of services in Devon/Cornwall being lopped together with commuter services out of London as a part of a 'Western Region' there should be a degree of Local devolution to make sure that the actual passengers needs are meeted under GBR. The old big four regions are archaic ad only exist for the convenience of operation not the passenger.

There are regional bodies that can take on those transport functions which ones would depend on what would be the ideal size for the regions, there are the larger sub-national transport bodies such as Transport for the North, or there are smaller transport bodies of the local government consultative forums/combined authorities such as Transport for the East Midlands, West Midlands Rail Executive and the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive

 

[DJ_K666]

There are regional bodies that can take on those transport functions which ones would depend on what would be the ideal size for the regions, there are the larger sub-national transport bodies such as Transport for the North, or there are smaller transport bodies of the local government consultative forums/combined authorities such as Transport for the East Midlands, West Midlands Rail Executive and the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive

Yep. I'd be up for that, just rename them as PTEs and get rid of all this 'Transport For...' nonsense
Another thing for me would be the extension of the Network Railcard to Rugby or Coventry so people travelling south aren't restricted to either ticket splitting or slow trains. Or maybe a new railcard for those between 30 and 60.

 

[JLH4AC]

Yep. I'd be up for that, just rename them as PTEs and get rid of all this 'Transport For...' nonsense
Another thing for me would be the extension of the Network Railcard to Rugby or Coventry so people travelling south aren't restricted to either ticket splitting or slow trains. Or maybe a new railcard for those between 30 and 60.

Sub-national transport bodies, and Local Transport Authorities' consultative forums have functions beyond passenger transport so PTE is not a great name for them. I do agree that they should drop " Transport for x" as well as gimmicky names such as "England's Economic Heartland" preferably in favour of a simple "x Transport Executive/Transport" naming scheme.

Yeah, the railcard schemes need reform.

 

[DJ_K666]

That rather smacks of rose-tinted nostalgia as opposed to the best way of doing it.

Nope. No Rose tint here. If you've got one company, have one livery. Or go sectorisation. That worked reasonably well. Really privatisation was a politically idealogical act by the then Tory government, rather than anything that would improve the railways. Trust me, I'd see it not as winding back thr clock, but doing a three point turn and going back to the turning you should have taken in the firsg place. There's a place for nistslgia, however, and that's on thd baseboard of my model railway.

Sub-national transport bodies, and Local Transport Authorities' consultative forums have functions beyond passenger transport so PTE is not a great name for them. I do agree that they should drop " Transport for x" as well as gimmicky names such as "England's Economic Heartland" preferably in favour of a simple "x Transport Executive/Transport" naming scheme.

Yeah, the railcard schemes need reform.

Yep I'd go with that.

 

[Western Lord]

The colour of the trains is absolutely the last thing that any passenger cares about. It would be a scandalous waste of money (of which there will not be much) to re-livery the entire English train fleet (the Scots and Welsh will keep their own liveries). I would expect nothing to change except for double arrows appearing on the sides of trains.

 

[irish_rail]

The colour of the trains is absolutely the last thing that any passenger cares about. It would be a scandalous waste of money (of which there will not be much) to re-livery the entire English train fleet (the Scots and Welsh will keep their own liveries). I would expect nothing to change except for double arrows appearing on the sides of trains.

I can't agree. As a nation we like to take pride in the things that make up Britain, and I tend to think that a railway that doesn't look a multicoloured mish mash mess would be something everyone would be proud of, whether rail users or not. Think of red London buses or black Hackney cabs. A smart and consistent livery, countrywide would give us something to be proud of , and I think it's wrong to assume people don't give a toss what our national infrastructure and transport fleets look like.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

The colour of the trains is absolutely the last thing that any passenger cares about. It would be a scandalous waste of money (of which there will not be much) to re-livery the entire English train fleet (the Scots and Welsh will keep their own liveries). I would expect nothing to change except for double arrows appearing on the sides of trains.

But in the long term (e.g. with new fleets or when a repaint is necessary) a choice will need to be made.