I'm pretty sure anyone familiar with Stagecoach buses would know immediately upon looking at one of their trains that they are under common ownership.Alexia wrote:Should follow the TfL model I think. Generic brands with operator logos in monochrome underneath a la London Buses. If First, Virgin and Arriva removed their brands from their trains, we'd have something close to it, given that nearly every other TOC has a geographical name. Of course, asking Branson, Souter or any of the others to debrand would be like turkeys asking for Christmas.
Another High Street Rebrand
and then some smartarse comes along with the exception to the rule...WillPS wrote:I'm pretty sure anyone familiar with Stagecoach buses would know immediately upon looking at one of their trains that they are under common ownership.Alexia wrote:Should follow the TfL model I think. Generic brands with operator logos in monochrome underneath a la London Buses. If First, Virgin and Arriva removed their brands from their trains, we'd have something close to it, given that nearly every other TOC has a geographical name. Of course, asking Branson, Souter or any of the others to debrand would be like turkeys asking for Christmas.
Island Line Train by Peter G Trimming, on Flickr
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scottishtv
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Many of the Rebranded trains I mentioned call at High Street.thegeek wrote:This is waaaay off topic. Don't we have any moderators here?
It seems to depend awfully on the operator. When you look at the two oldest TOCs, South West Trains and (First) Great Western, there is a distinct mismatch between the number of repaints their trains have had. The still current South West Trains livery first starting being rolled out in 1998, it's now lasted almost 16 years on some stock, and has been on all stock for almost 12 years. In the same time period (First) Great Western's HSTs have sported 4 different liveries.WillPS wrote:It's hugely wasteful; but not a jot on how expensive privatisation has caused the railways to become.james2001 wrote:Does anyone else think all this changing livery and whatever's a bit wasteful? God knows how much it costs to repaint all the trains, and change the signage at stations every few years, whenever a franchise changes or rebrands. East Midlands Trains went round replacing the old BR-style signs at the stations round here a couple of years back, even though there was nothing really wrong with them (a style that had worked well for 40-odd years until the TOCs started with their own styles over the past decade or so, and didn't really look dated in my opinion), but I can see them being replaced again in a few years if the franchise changes, as I imagine the new franchisee won't want signs in another franchisee's corporate style, surely that's money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Virgin's 221s and 390s are also still running around in the same livery they were delivered in well over a decade ago with no sign of a change coming any time soon.
When it comes to repaints through changes of operator, again it seems to depend on the individual operator as to whether they go for a modification of the existing livery, or feel the need to completely repaint. At the start of privatisation South West Trains's very first livery was simply an extra vinyl on top of the existing NSE livery they inherited the stock in, whilst Great Westerns and GNER's were complete repaints. When it comes to newer franchises, Crosscountry's 220s/221s were simply rebranded by modifications to the Virgin Trains livery already on them and still have that livery now (to this day you can still see the fade marks at the front of the trains where the Virgin Trains shield used to be) whilst London MIdland went for a complete rebrand.
With station signage, many TOCs are still using BR-era signs with just a small vinyl with the TOC's name on. There is a new national scheme being rolled out of white on dark blue with no TOC branding, however it's entirely voluntary and some TOCs are staying firmly away from it (most notably FGW who are favouring replacing BR signs with sponsored signage styled similar to the branding of the sponsor).
I agree though that it's all a bit wasteful to continually rebrand trains, particularly when the branding identifies the TOC but not necessarily the type of service that train will provide. I think the Scotrail idea is the best way forward (possibly expanded to late-BR era thinking where long distance services were branded 'Intercity', local services 'Regional Railways' etc)
The SWT 1998 livery is actually different - the most notable difference being the doors which are now high contrast to suit DDA regs. [/pedant]
OK if we're properly pedanting the SWT logo is also now larger too. Still seems to be only these two details mods that have changed though rather than any repaint happening - most of the 159's now have the TOPs numbers wearing off the front after all these years!WillPS wrote:The SWT 1998 livery is actually different - the most notable difference being the doors which are now high contrast to suit DDA regs. [/pedant]