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Stations rebranded to Great British Railways design / Rail Alphabet 2

JaJaWa

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Design manual (PDF - 23.8MB)


As various Northern stations have begun their rebrand to the Great British Railways design / Rail Alphabet 2, we may need a new thread to keep track of this.

Examples I've found on Twitter of rebranded platform signs so far are (linked):
Paddington is confirmed as the first 'major station' to get the new signs. Northern's new timetable also uses the font.
 

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fgwrich

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It certainly looks somewhat, cheap? Particularly at stations along the S&C - a shame a more heritage style sign couldn't be used in keeping with the colours of the stations.
 

Intercity 225

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I like it - sometimes less is more.

Looking forward to achieving brand consistency across the entire network again, although I would like to see separate brands for different types of services as seen during the sectorisation era again.
 

GALLANTON

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It looks as thoughh it does exactly what it's meant to do, inform people of the name of the station. You don't need fancy colours and graphics to keep people informed.
 

Pit_buzzer

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It's functional, simple, clear, inoffensive, informative, everything an information sign needs to be. The sooner it's rolled out the better as far as I'm concerned
 

Andyh82

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Looks like a temporary sign, like if an outgoing TOC had to remove their branding at the end of a franchise.

Some sort of colour stripe at the bottom would look better, I’m also not sure a white sign will last the test of time, wait until it gets weather beaten and discoloured
 

DanNCL

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Metrocentre has gained this style of signage in the last few weeks. I've seen photos from Birmingham New Street supposedly showing similar new signage, but with white text on a black background rather than black text on a white background.
 

CyrusWuff

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The problem, such as it is, for me isn't the font itself, but the weight they've used.

"Classic" Rail Alphabet signage was always in bold text, whilst the examples shown here clearly aren't.
 

WatcherZero

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The letters are so thin you would struggle to read those signs from a distance.
 

YorksLad12

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None of the West Yorkshire stations yet. I wonder if WYCA will try and keep co-branding?

Probably not, now they're WYCA. WYPTE would have insisted on it... o_O

(And yes, it looks a bit 'weedy' to me as well.)
 

Chiltern006

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would've been better with network rail sans in my opinion... similar to the EMT signs
 

Watershed

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I fail to see why the original Rail Alphabet needed to be updated. It was a model of clarity and (in my mind) projected a strong brand image.

At the very least this new signage should be using the bold version of Rail Alphabet 2. Maybe they'll change their minds once half of all stations have been done :lol:
 

py_megapixel

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I love the new font, though I agree it could do with being in a thicker weight!

I agree though that the decision to just slap some text on a white background and call it a day is a bit uninspiring.
 

crablab

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I fail to see why the original Rail Alphabet needed to be updated.
There isn't a digital version of it (officially), it was only ever designed for print and therefore does not display very well (for technical design reasons I am not qualified to explain) on digital screens.

It needed to be digitised, and therefore redrawn so it could be digitised without looking odd.

It also had a significant number of symbols etc. added for the modern era.

(Turns out, according to the article below, there was a digital version of RA that had been made for producing lineside signage)

A detailed discussion of the redesign: https://thebeautyoftransport.com/20...ayfinding-signage-and-rail-alphabet-2-part-2/
The Wayfinding Design Guidance, which shows all of the graphic elements: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-co...NR_GN_CIV_300_01_Wayfinding-Design-Module.pdf (I'd suggest this is the equivalent of the BR Design Manual)

Here's a rather nice sign using RA2:

1627158642880.png
 

cactustwirly

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Looks so bland, especially compared to the nice signs you get at NR managed stations. They also have a bit of character with each station having it's own logo
 

crablab

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I agree though that the decision to just slap some text on a white background and call it a day is a bit uninspiring.
I'd suggest that these platform signs might not actually be the final signs. They don't seem to match the Design Guidance in either layout, size or logo:

screenshot_2021-07-24-214006.png
 

TT-ONR-NRN

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I noticed New Rail Alphabet at Birmingham New Street the other day. The white and yellow on black looks good (SJ-style). The black on white as seen in earlier posts is so dull.
 

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gingerheid

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How on earth did we get to the stage where, even with everything happening in the world, it's seen as acceptable to waste money like this by replacing signs for absolutely no good reason at all? :(
 

Nym

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How on earth did we get to the stage where, even with everything happening in the world, it's seen as acceptable to waste money like this by replacing signs for absolutely no good reason at all? :(
Because rebranding will fix all the problems.

Network Rail >> Railtrack
Elizabeth Line >> Crossrail
DTuP >> NtFL >> DTP
COP >> COP
Job Centre Plus >> Dole Office

etc. etc.
 

YorksLad12

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There isn't a digital version of it (officially), it was only ever designed for print and therefore does not display very well (for technical design reasons I am not qualified to explain) on digital screens.

It needed to be digitised, and therefore redrawn so it could be digitised without looking odd.

It also had a significant number of symbols etc. added for the modern era.

(Turns out, according to the article below, there was a digital version of RA that had been made for producing lineside signage)

A detailed discussion of the redesign: https://thebeautyoftransport.com/20...ayfinding-signage-and-rail-alphabet-2-part-2/
The Wayfinding Design Guidance, which shows all of the graphic elements: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-co...NR_GN_CIV_300_01_Wayfinding-Design-Module.pdf (I'd suggest this is the equivalent of the BR Design Manual)

Here's a rather nice sign using RA2:

View attachment 100192
That was one thing I wondered about when the new design philosophy was announced; the sample physical signs had a black frame like the one in the photo. Having that border on the new signs would make a difference.
 

HarryL

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Leeds
I don't mind the new designs, it's interesting that Northern have got into using it first, before the London Terminus that it was intended to launch at. Wonder if this is just a trial run given these are vinyl over the top of the existing signs.
 

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