WMTrains livery and station branding

[dorsetdesiro]

The old Northern livery was horrid but was greatly improved with the brilliant ant Northern Electrics livery and brand. The new Northern brand is a wasted opportunity though.

It’s a shame NWR couldn’t have adapted the London Midland livery as it still looks fresh.

The London Midland livery could work with "midland" swapped for "northwestern" and leaving everything mostly untouched. I'm not sure if Abellio would be permitted to take on an livery that wasn't developed by them but the ScotRail brand was passed to them. Someone on here may have a better understanding with this than I do.

I expect if Govia retained the WM franchise then they would by now running "West Midlands Railway" and "london northwestern" with only WMR getting new branding & livery.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The old Northern livery was horrid but was greatly improved with the brilliant ant Northern Electrics livery and brand. The new Northern brand is a wasted opportunity though.

I don't know - apart from the "sad face" (n) balloons (which would have been avoidable by putting a serif on the N) it is growing on me. I still think it would benefit from a charcoal window band, though, and think the ribbon-glazed Class 170s will suit it best of all.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I expect if Govia retained the WM franchise then they would by now running "West Midlands Railway" and "london northwestern" with only WMR getting new branding & livery.

I think they'd probably have kept London Midland for services not coming under WMR, because it still runs trains between London and the Midlands.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

I think they'd probably have kept London Midland for services not coming under WMR, because it still runs trains between London and the Midlands.

I agree as "london midland" seems less clumsy than "london northwestern".

Say from a marketing view, this may be too similar for both brands to have "Midland" which the West Coast route may pass through WM but also the Home Counties and the NW therefore the "Northwestern" name as WMR is used for around the WM region.

Sometimes people are not so quick at working things out, they could get confused or not listen/read properly when in a hurry then get on the wrong train or buy wrong tickets. One waiting at New Street to catch a LM train but mistakenly gets on a WMR one, they may see the obviously different livery but probably not if they are glued to their smartphone! Ha ha!

We've seen the fuss with Stagecoach using the generic VT brand for both West Coast and East Coast.

I'm surprised how FirstGroup gets away with using similarly named "Great Western Railway" and "South Western Railway" on both neighbouring franchises! Now I understand it may be better for SWR not to appear identical to GWR, this seems less problematic as SWR mostly uses the full wording which GWR would use the acronym.

 

[physics34]

The old Northern livery was horrid but was greatly improved with the brilliant ant Northern Electrics livery and brand. The new Northern brand is a wasted opportunity though.

It’s a shame NWR couldn’t have adapted the London Midland livery as it still looks fresh.

im not really a fan of purple on a livery so didnt like the northern electrics or the previous livery. The new white and blue is good except for the "silly" font.

 

[JordyWM]

I think the main problem with the two new liveries is that they’re very busy. Just need simplifying a bit and they wouldn’t be so bad.

I think they’re better than the Northern livery though, which looks more like a wall in a child’s nursery.

More classy designs like GWR and VTWC would be welcome myself.

 

[Bletchleyite]

More classy designs like GWR and VTWC would be welcome myself.

I must admit I was highly disappointed when I found SWR were using that horribly bland livery with the "Wingdings" logo instead of another classic colour and sWr or gSWr branding.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

This update is not really important if you're not into branding/marketing/product development,

I just noticed on LNR's website, the typeface on the LNR brand now matches WMR bringing the two closer together.

This could be either - there may be plans for both to share the same livery styling, saving costs as the rebranding seems very slow happening, with only the name being different like TL & GN before TL getting its own brand or the website designer mistakenly used the WMR typeface for LNR?

 

[Bletchleyite]

This update is not really important if you're not into branding/marketing/product development,

I just noticed on LNR's website, the typeface on the LNR brand now matches WMR bringing the two closer together.

It always did, didn't it?

 

[dorsetdesiro]

If you compare the LNR brand on their website and their previous one on Wikipedia, the styling is different especially the "y" for example also the dark green now applies to "London Northwestern" when before it was "Northwestern Railway"

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you compare the LNR brand on their website and their previous one on Wikipedia, the styling is different especially the "y" for example also the dark green now applies to "London Northwestern" when before it was "Northwestern Railway"

Yes, very subtly different. Thanks.

 

[DavidGrain]

I was at Birmingham International today (8th April) four months after the franchise change and the public announcement referred to both a WMR train and a LNW train as London Midland services although the departure boards were showing the correct franchise branding.

 

[JordyWM]

If you compare the LNR brand on their website and their previous one on Wikipedia, the styling is different especially the "y" for example also the dark green now applies to "London Northwestern" when before it was "Northwestern Railway"

So it is! So does that mean every sticker applied onto the trains is now out of date?

 

[sd0733]

I was at Birmingham International today (8th April) four months after the franchise change and the public announcement referred to both a WMR train and a LNW train as London Midland services although the departure boards were showing the correct franchise branding.

All the virgin stations seem to have gone back to London Midland. One of the station staff said it was a software update! Even when it announced LNW as the operator if there was a delay it always said London Midland apologise for the delay.

 

[Bletchleyite]

All the virgin stations seem to have gone back to London Midland. One of the station staff said it was a software update! Even when it announced LNW as the operator if there was a delay it always said London Midland apologise for the delay.

This 350/3 has the wi-fi still called London Midland Wifi

 

[DavidGrain]

The WMR livery would be great for promotion if this was seen outside the WM region as they are using 2for1 adverts for regional attractions stuck on the train carriages. This could bring curiosity & interest at Euston from tourists unfamiliar with the West Midlands.

Back when the West Midlands franchise was held by Central Trains, they had a whole fleet of one class of DMUs painted in the livery of Centro, the then West Midlands Transport Executive. This was done even for those units which did not operate the local services in the West Midlands County. This was to provide standarisation within the class. I remember it looked a little incongruous on the Cambrian Line in North Wales.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

Back when the West Midlands franchise was held by Central Trains, they had a whole fleet of one class of DMUs painted in the livery of Centro, the then West Midlands Transport Executive. This was done even for those units which did not operate the local services in the West Midlands County. This was to provide standarisation within the class. I remember it looked a little incongruous on the Cambrian Line in North Wales.

I suppose it may look strange having WMR operating on the Marston & St Albans Abbey branch lines which are outside the WM region also not starting & ending within WM as Beds/Bucks/Herts are either part of the SE and EofE regions!

Not sure if EMT does run non-intercity services outside the EM region, likewise perhaps would be bit odd to see EMT for example operating from St Pancras to Bedford...

I'm not used to seeing SWR serve Reading & Windsor which I consider this as GWR territory though the trains go to Waterloo instead of Paddington which is understandable, also same with GWR running to Gatwick & Guildford across the North Downs which some posters have suggested this be transferred to SWR, oh well...

 

[sufian123]

Hi has anymore been repainted or it’s still 172339 and 350373?

 

[dorsetdesiro]

Also I believe I read somewhere that LNR branded trains were used on WMR services and probably vice-versa, shame about this inconsistency as it was more straightforward when it was all LM before!

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Also I believe I read somewhere that LNR branded trains were used on WMR services and probably vice-versa, shame about this inconsistency as it was more straightforward when it was all LM before!

Very much still happens. As an example, the 350 that serves the 0820 Wolverhampton - Birmingham - Walsall is often an LNR one.

 

[DavidGrain]

To be fair the present franchisee inherited a unified operating system and it will take sometime if they are to split the service into 2 standalone brands. For example LNW is primarily an electrified service, it makes no sense if they have to keep a handful of diesel units to operate the Marston and St Albans Abbey services and possibly the Nuneaton-Coventry-Leamington service. I don't see an answer to the problem of NWR operating the Walsall-Birmingham-Wolverhampton local service three times a day and then continuing on to Liverpool.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

A possible solution to this is perhaps return to a single brand therefore using the WMR brand throughout?

TfWM may not be keen on the idea of overseeing services somwhere like Hertfordshire, nowhere in the WM region. This current WM franchise is probably a precursor that it may be split into two separate ones in the future that WMR and LNR could each get different operators then the inconsistency likely would end.

Also does anyone reckon that the LNR part may get absorbed into a future West Coast partnership that the TOC may run 3 service modes along the West Coast line - premium (HS2), express (currently VTWC) and commuter (currently LNR)?

 

[xc170]

What a mess.

 

[Silverlink]

This franchise is all a mess. Would be much easier if they just keep the London Midland brand & just change the green stripe to either purple or dark green to represent LN or WM problem solved.

 

[robk23oxf]

This 350/3 has the wi-fi still called London Midland Wifi

I was on a WMR train in January which had the Abellio Greater Anglia logo on the WiFi login screen.

 

[TwinTurbostar]

According to a post on the wmbusphotos forum, the livery on 172339 is going to be a one off, and the new livery will still be purple and orange, but have more orange than the current one. It was apparently confirmed at the Stourbridge Line User Group meeting.

 

[Bletchleyite]

According to a post on the wmbusphotos forum, the livery on 172339 is going to be a one off, and the new livery will still be purple and orange, but have more orange than the current one. It was apparently confirmed at the Stourbridge Line User Group meeting.

Can they also come up with something better than the pig-ugly "Trebor Mints" livery for LNR?

 

[JaJaWa]

According to a post on the wmbusphotos forum, the livery on 172339 is going to be a one off, and the new livery will still be purple and orange, but have more orange than the current one. It was apparently confirmed at the Stourbridge Line User Group meeting.

Not massively surprising as they switched designer(s) and no longer use purple at all. Surely it was a bit of an expense to have paid for a livery design and only used it once though!

 

[sufian123]

According to a post on the wmbusphotos forum, the livery on 172339 is going to be a one off, and the new livery will still be purple and orange, but have more orange than the current one. It was apparently confirmed at the Stourbridge Line User Group meeting.

When we likely to see more new livefy

 

[59CosG95]

When we likely to see more new livefy

More than likely after the May timetable change. When that'll be is anyone's guess.