Tatty looking bridges should be repainted to advertise the railway service that runs on them

[Envoy]

Moderator note: split from

South Wales 'Metro' updates

I thought it would be worthwhile to start a discussion on the South Wales 'Metro'. Basically, this is the scheme to enhance transport links across south east Wales. One of the key issues that needs to be addressed is what form of transport will be used on the Cardiff Valley lines network -...

www.railforums.co.uk

A number of ‘Metro’ bridges are an eyesore having not been painted for many years. Surely, it does not create a good image to have these tatty bridges carrying the new Metro services - or any train services for that matter?

If they can keep the graffiti yobs off, then surely the bridges could be painted in say light grey and have the word ‘Metro’ written on them to draw attention to the new services?

Below is a photo of the City Line bridge over Cowbridge Road in Cardiff with what looks like a beer advert from the 1950’s.

 

[yorksrob]

I'm intrigued as to what Hancocks beers taste like !

 

[signed]

I'm intrigued as to what Hancocks beers taste like !

They seem to still be a thing though not in stock

HANCOCKS HB - Glamorgan Brewing

HANCOCKS HB - Glamorgan Brewing Company is a family-owned brewery and drinks company from Glamorgan in Wales' South West.

www.glamorganbrewing.co.uk

 

[SynthD]

Who is the they that has found a way to keep graffiti artists off? In your example, there are sprays above the advert, is this acceptable?

 

[CapitalStar378]

The worst bridge is the Newport Road bridge, just after Queen St station. It has a very faded and patchy Valley Lines advert painted on it, must be from the 1990's. Not a great look for Cardiff city centre.

 

[yorksrob]

They seem to still be a thing though not in stock

HANCOCKS HB - Glamorgan Brewing

HANCOCKS HB - Glamorgan Brewing Company is a family-owned brewery and drinks company from Glamorgan in Wales' South West.

www.glamorganbrewing.co.uk

Thanks - interesting !

 

[AlastairFraser]

Moderator note: split from

South Wales 'Metro' updates

I thought it would be worthwhile to start a discussion on the South Wales 'Metro'. Basically, this is the scheme to enhance transport links across south east Wales. One of the key issues that needs to be addressed is what form of transport will be used on the Cardiff Valley lines network -...

www.railforums.co.uk

A number of ‘Metro’ bridges are an eyesore having not been painted for many years. Surely, it does not create a good image to have these tatty bridges carrying the new Metro services - or any train services for that matter?

If they can keep the graffiti yobs off, then surely the bridges could be painted in say light grey and have the word ‘Metro’ written on them to draw attention to the new services?

Below is a photo of the City Line bridge over Cowbridge Road in Cardiff with what looks like a beer advert from the 1950’s.

Perhaps this would be a good idea once all of the Valleys Metro services actually start with new rolling stock.

 

[Envoy]

Perhaps this would be a good idea once all of the Valleys Metro services actually start with new rolling stock.

My understanding is that Class 756 FLIRT trains will start running on the central valley lines (Merthyr & Aberdare) in November with Treherbert not long afterwards. Of course, these routes will be operated by the Class 398 tram-trains hopefully from 2025.

Apart from the south east Wales Metro, there are rail bridges all over Britain that look in a sorry state - many with visible rusting sections and some with vegetation growing on them.

 

[Stewart2887]

Far more important things to spend money on than this. Will just get sprayed over anyway

 

[AlastairFraser]

My understanding is that Class 756 FLIRT trains will start running on the central valley lines (Merthyr & Aberdare) in November with Treherbert not long afterwards. Of course, these routes will be operated by the Class 398 tram-trains hopefully from 2025.

Apart from the south east Wales Metro, there are rail bridges all over Britain that look in a sorry state - many with visible rusting sections and some with vegetation growing on them.

The 398 introduction is what I was thinking of. Maybe do it then.

Far more important things to spend money on than this. Will just get sprayed over anyway

It's a relatively cheap enhancement that could help recover the railway's image a bit.

 

[Spamcan81]

Thanks - interesting !

The Hancock’s of today isn’t the Hancock’s of old though.

 

[yorksrob]

The Hancock’s of today isn’t the Hancock’s of old though.

That signage definitely looked to be "of old".

 

[PeterC]

The Hancock’s of today isn’t the Hancock’s of old though.

Thank goodness for that. When I was at Aber in the early 70s it was so bad that hardened drinkers would add a splash of lemonade.

Returning to the topic British Railways would use bridges by stations to promote their services. Nobody in Romford for example, could have been unaware in the 60s that the GEML offered "frequent electric trains to London".

 

[Topological]

On the assumption that painting could reduce maintenance then why not allow advertisers to paint the bridges? I am assuming here that the cost of painting a bridge is more than the cost of printing and renting billboard space. Though there would be no revenue for the railway, there would be savings on maintenance.

 

[CapitalStar378]

Even better, SELL the advertising space and make some extra income. I'm sure this is what would have happened back in the day.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Even better, SELL the advertising space and make some extra income. I'm sure this is what would have happened back in the day.

Indeed, but get the advertising franchisee to pay for installation of advertisement boards first.

 

[Meerkat]

Indeed, but get the advertising franchisee to pay for installation of advertisement boards first.

They are attached to a live railway - the advertisers will see the quoted costs and laugh.

 

[AlastairFraser]

They are attached to a live railway - the advertisers will see the quoted costs and laugh.

A lot of them are in a very good position for maximum views though!
The installation of live advertisement screens along the M4 near Chiswick can't have been cheap either.

 

[Meerkat]

A lot of them are in a very good position for maximum views though!
The installation of live advertisement screens along the M4 near Chiswick can't have been cheap either.

If it breaks you need to arrange access with the railway and possibly close the road - I'm not sure its viable to be attached to the bridge.
Could be used to fund sacrificial beams for low bridges suffering lorry strikes - separate from the active railway and could have a service gantry behind, just needing a ladder up at the sides.
There are also road safety distraction issues. Not sure if you would be allowed to have a changing one, in which case a simple wire system to have a longer lasting vinyl banner might be easier and cheaper.

 

[AlastairFraser]

If it breaks you need to arrange access with the railway and possibly close the road - I'm not sure its viable to be attached to the bridge.
Could be used to fund sacrificial beams for low bridges suffering lorry strikes - separate from the active railway and could have a service gantry behind, just needing a ladder up at the sides.
There are also road safety distraction issues. Not sure if you would be allowed to have a changing one, in which case a simple wire system to have a longer lasting vinyl banner might be easier and cheaper.

Maybe the wire system is a better idea - with still a decent amount of rent going to the railway.
The sacrificial beams are a good idea, but shouldn't be funded by the railway. They should be funded by a small levy on insurance for large vehicles, the proceeds of which should be split into two components - 1) for the sacrificial beam project (30%) and 2) a rolling low bridge rebuilding project (70%).

 

[BazingaTribe]

There's a very very old example of Network South East branding on the bridge down by Reading West station. Even if they can't simply retouch it because of the older branding style, they could allow community artists to revamp it for the present day.

 

[AlastairFraser]

There's a very very old example of Network South East branding on the bridge down by Reading West station. Even if they can't simply retouch it because of the older branding style, they could allow community artists to revamp it for the present day.

I think it was Thames Trains originally, rather than NSE.

 

[BazingaTribe]

Good point. I only started using that station well after the branding was illegible.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Good point. I only started using that station well after the branding was illegible.

I used to pass under the bridge on a bike or bus a lot, and it was faded by then too!
Edit: here's the original paint job in a photo! Ox Road bridge

 

[BazingaTribe]

Thanks! Looks like the late 1990s/early 2000s based on the number plate of that dented pick up truck. Post-privatisation, I assume?

And pretty doves as well.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Thanks! Looks like the late 1990s/early 2000s based on the number plate of that dented pick up truck. Post-privatisation, I assume?

And pretty doves as well.

Luckily I'm in a Reading Transport Enthusiast Club group on FB, and the Reading Buses CEO recently announced an event to celebrate 20 years of coloured route branding.
That puts this around mid to late noughties, or maybe early 2010s then.

 

[AM9]

Luckily I'm in a Reading Transport Enthusiast Club group on FB, and the Reading Buses CEO recently announced an event to celebrate 20 years of coloured route branding.
That puts this around mid to late noughties, or maybe early 2010s then.

Maybe there could be a TOC branded as 'Helch'.

 

[BazingaTribe]

Interesting. Yes, I rode the 17 to and from Cemetery Junction for work in 2004 and that really was the beginning of the coloured routes.

For reference I started commuting by rail in 2014 but it was only at the beginning of 2015 that I started using Reading West more often because I was fit enough to climb Western Elms Avenue. I never used any Thames Trains service, though -- by that time it had become First Great Western with the bus-like logos, and the GWR rebrand happened within a year of that -- although it is only since the pandemic that the rebrand reached that BSK-RDG shuttle service in terms of fully-refurbished green and grey Sprinters...and only since I stopped commuting every day that the power sockets actually work consistently...

I'm a silly nerdy train-girl some distance along the autistic spectrum but I can't help humming Casey Junior's Coming Down The Track from Dumbo when the Sprinters pull in to Basingstoke. Like, it never got old! There's definitely a trick to getting people excited about trains like me having the London Underground to memorise when I was 7 and they shouldn't discount the potential for these places to act as advertising in the same way SWR has their anthropomorphic bird mascots that are at the more engaging end of marketing ideas. GWR had a railway fun day earlier in the year and I walked past a new station platform sign this evening on my way to Windsor for a work trip with the letters coloured in by local kids which was really cute. Corporate branding is one thing (I'd buy plushies of those birds) but authentic community engagement could be so much more, particularly under nationalised ownership.

They've put so much effort into making Reading Station itself a nice place to travel from I really hope they could put something fun on that bridge to get people back onto the railways properly, I really do.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Maybe there could be a TOC branded as 'Helch'.

Hahahahahaha.
Would it mean peace(s) is given a chance on the Oxy Road?!

 

[Envoy]

Many thanks everyone for your input thus far.

The railway bridge over Newport Road in Cardiff carrying what is now called ‘Metro’ for the network of lines between the valleys, Cardiff and the coast is a complete mess. It was done years ago and certainly does not create a good image of the modernised railway. Furthermore, this eyesore is a blot on the city scape and creates the impression of something you would expect in the Third World. See my 2 photos of this bridge below:>