This is an update of a previous post I did on an old thread. I am not Scottish ( but do have family in Scotland) so please feel free to post criticism or advice on better options!
The first thing to note is that this entire campaign is focused on generating PR and using every opportunity to hammer home the HST service improvements, journey time reductions, improvement in passenger facilities, the “7 cities programme”, Transport Scotland & ScotRail’s planned ‘Revolution in Rail’ and the slogan: Our plan to build the best railway Scotland has ever had. It must be noted this is about PR NOT nice train names.
I have thought about a strategy for naming’s and I will, therefore, suggest 5 categories from which names may be selected:
1) Heritage/ culture
2) Tourism
3) Places
4) Scottish People who have made an outstanding contribution ( or are famous and alive!)
5) Responsibility & reward ( sponsorship & support for charity works)
Clearly any naming cannot be divisive or controversial but I have tried to reflect the whole proposed Scotrail HST route from Edinburgh/ Glasgow to Aberdeen/Inverness. I have also tried to stay away from blanket “city of” type namings as they are a bit dull imho but it is hard as some of the areas dont immediately jump out as exciting places. There is a focus on the more touristy locations in Scotland as I think a big part of this campaign should be publicity and the marketing of leisure travel perhaps coupled with a ticket offer. However limiting the names to the “Scotrail 7” means we can’t include some of the more obvious west coast names ( such as Robbie Burns) and go for the full lochs and glens treatment. There are also some living famous Scots included purely for PR/marketing purposes and I also include a couple of slots for big Scottish companies to “buy” a name and fund the rest of the programme. Scotrail also get one obviously.
I also think it is impossible to avoid suggestions of central belt bias but without having access to the full lochs and glens treatment it is very hard to avoid this. I have tried to treat both cites equally and offer slots to the smaller cities on the routes. I have also tried to keep away from names used by the push/pull trains as I don’t think, in the main, they reflect a modern Scotland. There are also some I had to discount like the Burrell Collection as it is closed until 2020 for renovation or the Glasgow School of Art as the most famous part of it recently burnt down meaning the impact of a tie up would be very limited!
The names should also help to engender in the travelling public a feeling of “togetherness” and connection with the company and with the Scottish nation/ history generally. I have tried to steer away from obvious nationalist touchstones but it is very hard as this view has coalesced around several historic figures/items that should be included as a reference to past history.
The naming campaign may also be used to help create links between local communities/groups and the company, hopefully helping to reduce trespass or rail crime and increasing knowledge and “ownership” of Scotrail and their services perhaps via one of the charity or political slots
There are also a few corporate sops to keep the big wigs happy! Also with an SNP government paying the piper we need some names that they can get behind to get them interested in supporting the scheme. There are a couple of slots for political naming’s and I have tried to angle those towards female names to tempt the SNP leader. I have also chucked in a couple of Royals as they will always generate publicity and newspaper coverage.
1 Edinburgh Castle & Royal Mile
2 Greyfriars Bobby
3 Forth bridge
4 Holyrood (Political slot)
5 Rosslyn Chapel
6 Edinburgh Zoo
7 Old and New Towns of Edinburgh – A UNESCO World Heritage Site
8 Inverness – Gateway to the Highlands
9 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
10 Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park
11 Glasgow Cathedral
12 The Riverside Museum
13 Clyde Shipbuilding – Our industrial heritage (BAE Systems Maritime sponsorship)
14 People Make Glasgow
15 The Scotch Whisky Association
16 Bonnie Prince Charlie
17 The Fair Maid of Perth
18 The Kelpies - Falkirk Wheel
19 Loch Ness- ( A nice Nessie badge also
)
20 St Andrews
21 Oor Woolie - DC Thomson
22 Dundee – The City of Discovery
23 Aberdeen – The Granite City
24 The National Wallace Monument
25 The Stone of Scone - Scone Palace/Abbey
26 Stirling Castle
27 Mary, Queen of Scots
28 Flora MacDonald (Political slot)
29 HM Queen Elizabeth – Scotland’s Queen
30 Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl (1st female Scottish MP – Political slot)
31 J.K.Rowling
32 The Edinburgh Seven (first female undergraduates in a British university)
33 Sir Sean Connery
34 Robert the Bruce
35 Sir Alex Ferguson
36 Charles Rennie Mackintosh
37 Ian Rankin - Inspector Rebus
38 Alexander Graham Bell
39 William Wallace
40 John Logie Baird
41 Alexander Fleming
42 James Watt
43 Charity (Staff & Passenger vote: national ( large RNLI etc)
44 Charity (Staff & Passenger vote : regional ( air ambulance etc )
45 Charity (Staff & Passenger vote : small – local hospice etc)
46 Charity (Scotrail “house charity” of the year)
47 Saint Andrew – Scotland’s patron saint
48 VisitScotland (.com)
49 AG Barr / Iron Bru ( or AN OTHER who will pay the costs of the scheme)
50 Royal Bank of Scotland ( or AN OTHER who will pay the costs of the scheme)
51 Tunnocks ( or AN OTHER who will pay the costs of the scheme)
52 Standard Life ( or AN OTHER who will pay the costs of the scheme)
53 Bank of Scotland ( or AN OTHER who will pay the costs of the scheme)
54 Scotrail – Scotland’s Railway
I appreciate this is fantasy land and that Scotrail are not going to start a vast naming policy. However I do think that a named locomotive, even today, can create feelings of happiness and identity in the travelling public and give Scotrail and Transport Scotland a positive PR boost.
