Retro rail brands

[Prestige15]

With growing TOC obsession on retro style naming and using the words 'london' 'Great/Greater' and 'Railways' in their brands is already becoming somewhat boring, desperate and pathetic, Its like Audi/Mercedes obsession on fake exhaust.
I wont be surprised if Cross Country change its brand to 'Via Birmingham New Street Railway'

How much do i miss the Modern/simplicity brands such as Central Trains, Silverlink, Scotrail, One, GNER, Wales & Borders etc

 

[yorksrob]

GNER had a certain retro charm to it.

 

[Prestige15]

GNER had a certain retro charm to it.

I will admit it sounds somewhat nicer than LNER

 

[Darandio]

Yet was called Great North Eastern Railway, containing many of the elements you seem to hate.

 

[Prestige15]

Yet was called Great North Eastern Railway, containing many of the elements you seem to hate.

Im less bothered with the 'Great' and 'Railway', Greater more so.

 

[lyndhurst25]

Is including the words "great" and "grand" in the names af railways a peculiar British thing, I wonder? In suspect that it originates from a Victorian marketing ploy to big-up the prospects of a company to investors.

 

[43096]

Is including the words "great" and "grand" in the names af railways a peculiar British thing, I wonder? In suspect that it originates from a Victorian marketing ploy to big-up the prospects of a company to investors.

New York Grand Central station says it is not just a British thing, as do “Great Northern” railway’s of places such as Australia, Canada and the US.

 

[mmh]

Is including the words "great" and "grand" in the names af railways a peculiar British thing, I wonder? In suspect that it originates from a Victorian marketing ploy to big-up the prospects of a company to investors.

Well, there's "Great Britain" itself, which supposedly dates back to Ancient Greece (when it was called Great Britain and Little Britain - Ireland). The Great Western Railway actually pre-dates Victoria by a couple of years. Grand Central took their name from the New York railway station - off hand I can't think of another "Grand" railway, but we have a history of calling lots of things "Grand" of course - particularly hotels.

 

[Ianigsy]

Is including the words "great" and "grand" in the names af railways a peculiar British thing, I wonder? In suspect that it originates from a Victorian marketing ploy to big-up the prospects of a company to investors.

An inheritance from the canals in part, I think - the Grand Junction Railway presumably chose the name because it paralleled the Grand Junction Canal for part of its route.

 

[pt_mad]

It's calling a spade a spade, nothing wrong with that. I'm sure many people got fed up with most long distance services being called Intercity in the 80s. At least there's a little variety and colour now.

 

[xotGD]

Companies who only run trains on somebody else's railway shouldn't have 'Railway' in their name. However the marketing consultants have told them that Railway sounds more sophisticated/appealing/upmarket/etc than Trains so that is what they use.

 

[transmanche]

Im less bothered with the 'Great' and 'Railway', Greater more so.

Isn't Greater Anglia actually the name of the franchise? I was surprised that Abellio chose to use it as the brand name, as opposed to just Anglia or Anglia Railway.

 

[mmh]

One of the original TOCs is Chiltern Railways. 23 years and I don't recall anybody ever criticising their name. Why is that?

 

[krus_aragon]

Is including the words "great" and "grand" in the names af railways a peculiar British thing, I wonder? In suspect that it originates from a Victorian marketing ploy to big-up the prospects of a company to investors.

One of my favourites was the Grand London and Dublin Approximation Railway of 1845. (That's approximation as in making the two places closer (in proximity) to each other by speeding up travel.)

 

[Mikey C]

With growing TOC obsession on retro style naming and using the words 'london' 'Great/Greater' and 'Railways' in their brands is already becoming somewhat boring, desperate and pathetic, Its like Audi/Mercedes obsession on fake exhaust.
I wont be surprised if Cross Country change its brand to 'Via Birmingham New Street Railway'

How much do i miss the Modern/simplicity brands such as Central Trains, Silverlink, Scotrail, One, GNER, Wales & Borders etc

I never liked most of those brands. One in particular was a silly name for a train operator

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Companies who only run trains on somebody else's railway shouldn't have 'Railway' in their name. However the marketing consultants have told them that Railway sounds more sophisticated/appealing/upmarket/etc than Trains so that is what they use.

"[Company name/compass-point] Trains" sounds amateurish and almost juvenile in most cases.
Railway might not be the best descriptor of that company's actual operations, but it does sound more professional. Stagecoach don't run any wild-west style stage coaches but nobody is going to pull them up for it!

 

[306024]

Isn't Greater Anglia actually the name of the franchise? I was surprised that Abellio chose to use it as the brand name, as opposed to just Anglia or Anglia Railway.

Maybe because it’s greater that just Anglia. Just where the boundary of ‘Anglia’ sits is open to discussion, but it’s doubtful you’d consider the Southend line as in Anglia for example.

Of course all argument could be solved by calling it the Great Eastern Railway, or maybe not....

 

[AM9]

Maybe because it’s greater that just Anglia. Just where the boundary of ‘Anglia’ sits is open to discussion, but it’s doubtful you’d consider the Southend line as in Anglia for example.

Of course all argument could be solved by calling it the Great Eastern Railway, or maybe not....

Or Eastern Counties Railway.

 

[Tomos y Tanc]

How much do i miss the Modern/simplicity brands such as Central Trains, Silverlink, Scotrail, One, GNER, Wales & Borders etc

The 'Wales & Borders' brand is being used for TfW services oustide the south Wales Valleys where 'Metro' branding will be used instead.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I think it’s a sign of the times. Go into Waterstones and many books of mainly crime genres seem to have neo-1930s art for covering. Then there’s the whole “A Very British X”, “The Great British X” programmes on TV. It’s a change from the post-war era of forget the past with hands over ears.

In terms of the railways...I don’t know I don’t really like the privatisation era anyway. There’s nothing particularly exciting like a Train Operating Company. It’s just a legal entity with no trains or tracks just a ton of leasing and orders from government with a marketing department. The late 80s is my favourite Railway era but yes I can see how endless Intercity could be a bit suffocating.

 

[LAX54]

Or Eastern Counties Railway.

and of course the actual line name, well one of them , is the 'GREAT Eastern Main Line'

 

[Mikey C]

I think it’s a sign of the times. Go into Waterstones and many books of mainly crime genres seem to have neo-1930s art for covering. Then there’s the whole “A Very British X”, “The Great British X” programmes on TV. It’s a change from the post-war era of forget the past with hands over ears.

In terms of the railways...I don’t know I don’t really like the privatisation era anyway. There’s nothing particularly exciting like a Train Operating Company. It’s just a legal entity with no trains or tracks just a ton of leasing and orders from government with a marketing department. The late 80s is my favourite Railway era but yes I can see how endless Intercity could be a bit suffocating.

Of the private rail companies, Virgin is the only one with a clearly definable image. Whether you like it or not, VTWC and VTCC have a very distinctive look and ethos, you know that somebody is trying to do something with the franchises as opposed to just making minor alternations and running the same service.

 

[transmanche]

Maybe because it’s greater that just Anglia. Just where the boundary of ‘Anglia’ sits is open to discussion, but it’s doubtful you’d consider the Southend line as in Anglia for example.

One could make the same point about other TOCs:

• Manchester is hardly in the East Midlands or part of Wales and the Borders.
• Transpennine Express operate many services which don't go near the Pennines, let alone cross them.
• Reading is not in the South West.
• Neither Norwich nor Liverpool are in the East Midlands.

 

[NoOnesFool]

Midland Mainline was quite catchy and a great use of alliteration.

Regiojal Railways was a poor attempt at one size fits all, as you had Sprinters on long distance services, i.e. Cardiff to Nottingham in regional branding.

Alphaline was a funny one...I never quite knew the logic behind that.

 

[MarkWiles]

I think "Greater Anglia" could be a useful marketing tool when they have all their new trains in service. If the infrastructure can keep up in reliability it gives the marketing wonks a superb opportunity to use phrases plying on making travel across Anglia greater. It can't be any worse than First's "Transforming Travel" which begged the question into what. A chore? Torture? A very long wait?

As a bit of a TV anorak I loved the old Anglia Railways logo typeface which had bit of a passing resemblance to Anglia Television of the 60's and 70s although the dull teal livery on the mainline stock was awful. "Anglia Railways" had a nice ring to it which felt it had some heritage even though it was effectively a new brand.

Personally I don't mind the use of "Great" if the service lives up to the name, but it is a bit of a hostage to fortune if it doesn't.

 

[bramling]

Midland Mainline was quite catchy and a great use of alliteration.

Regiojal Railways was a poor attempt at one size fits all, as you had Sprinters on long distance services, i.e. Cardiff to Nottingham
in regional branding.

Alphaline was a funny one...I never quite knew the logic behind that.

ISTR Alphaline was supposed to be a way of drawing attention to higher-notch services, mainly those operated by 158s, which had luxuries like air conditioning, trolley service, reservable seats, and which may even have been more limited-stop! Presumably Alpha was supposed to signify top-link.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Could the railways have been inspired by some of the names used by the regions canals (e.g. Shropshire Union Canal) and/or Britain's seafaring history (e.g. Great Eastern Railway, could the name have come from The Great Eastern that Brunel built?) Its plausable.

 

[Bletchleyite]

ISTR Alphaline was supposed to be a way of drawing attention to higher-notch services, mainly those operated by 158s, which had luxuries like air conditioning, trolley service, reservable seats, and which may even have been more limited-stop! Presumably Alpha was supposed to signify top-link.

Yep, there was also TransPennine Express (158) and NorthWest Express (dedicated tarted-up 156s in the green stripe livery, which is basically being brought back as Northern Connect if they ever get round to it).

 

[PaxVobiscum]

One of my favourites was the Grand London and Dublin Approximation Railway of 1845. (That's approximation as in making the two places closer (in proximity) to each other by speeding up travel.)

‘Grand overnight London and Scotch (sic) Approximation Railway’ anyone?

*That’s not fair - most of it made it all the way up and down last night on time, and only the Fort William part northbound was ‘approximate’.

 

[westv]

Isn't Greater Anglia actually the name of the franchise? I was surprised that Abellio chose to use it as the brand name, as opposed to just Anglia or Anglia Railway.

Maybe because there was already an Anglian Railways until relatively recently?