Stations rebranded to Great British Railways design / Rail Alphabet 2 & 3

[domcoop7]

That is so happy clappy, it's not true.

GBR so far is a whim, not a plan. It's just a case of a not very good rebranding rather than an attempt to build a functioning rail system.

Honestly, who cares if a crap system is forced to use a particular font or a brand? They might actually prefer to hide their **** behind an 'England and bits of Wales but definitely not Scotland or Northern Ireland pretending it's British' idenity.

By definition Great Britain does not intend to encompass Northern Ireland, so GBR wouldn't have anything to do with Northern Ireland rail.

As for definitely not Scotland, I'm sure Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley are both there? Not to mention the permanent way itself, and all associated infra, level-crossings, signal boxes, bridges, etc., which are all owned and maintained by (and signed / branded) by what will become GBR.

It may work out, it may well not. But it's wrong to say there's not a plan or that it will be crap. Nobody can know that yet.

 

[Sprinter158]

As this is getting a bit off topic nobody has mentioned the great northern moorgate branch which has recently be refurbished with new platform signs which I assume are in RA2

 

[Bletchleyite]

As this is getting a bit off topic nobody has mentioned the great northern moorgate branch which has recently be refurbished with new platform signs which I assume are in RA2

No, they're original RA.

Looks better with the blue than plain white would though!

 

[londonmidland]

Several Hope Valley stations now feature this rebranding.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Several Hope Valley stations now feature this rebranding.

[Edit: Photograph taken by myself shows newly re-vinyled station name sign at Hope. It is evident that this 'bulges' over previous lettering and Northern branding. Sign is on a post also bearing an ageing digit 1 platform indication, probably of rather greater vintage.]

 

[Bletchleyite]

Wow, that looks cheap and nasty. Could they not at least have used thicker vinyl?

 

[YorksLad12]

Wow, that looks cheap and nasty. Could they not at least have used thicker vinyl?

The thin vinyl also shows that the station sign hadn't been updated since early 2016. There is a certain amount of... cheapness on show, isn't there?

You'd have thought Northern would finish reliverying the trains before starting on the stations. I would, anyway.

 

[nlogax]

Aren't these signs temporary? I mean.. right now that's very obviously still a Northern station!

 

[XAM2175]

The thin vinyl also shows that the station sign hadn't been updated since early 2016. There is a certain amount of... cheapness on show, isn't there?

The platform number is the original BR sign!

 

[LowLevel]

I see someone has taken the trouble to go out on a limb and do Braystones and Nethertown

 

[Bletchleyite]

I see someone has taken the trouble to go out on a limb and do Braystones and Nethertown

One of the earliest stations to get Northern branding was if I recall Denton. It does seem some people have a sense of humour

 

[HarryL]

Really can't imagine that any of these early Northern attempts with the dodgy vinyl will pass GBR standards when they finally arrive, can only hope not anyway. Not sure why the DfT/Northern management is having them do all this in a way that'll only have to be redone again properly.

The Network Rail attempt at Paddington that should be happening somewhat soon should be done entirely from scratch in the proper standards so hopefully they'll learn that simply pasting vinyl over existing doesn't cut it and they need to do better.

 

[Gathursty]

One of the earliest stations to get Northern branding was if I recall Denton. It does seem some people have a sense of humour

Waiting on our Scottish friends to post a rebranded Altnabreac or Corrour now.

 

[skyhigh]

Not sure why the DfT/Northern management is having them do all this in a way that'll only have to be redone again properly.

I wouldn't be so sure on that - given the way things always seem to go, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this is the finished article.

You'd have thought Northern would finish reliverying the trains before starting on the stations. I would, anyw

Which trains still need reliverying then?

 

[Meerkat]

View attachment 101618
[Edit: Photograph taken by myself shows newly re-vinyled station name sign at Hope. It is evident that this 'bulges' over previous lettering and Northern branding. Sign is on a post also bearing an ageing digit 1 platform indication, probably of rather greater vintage.]

That is awful! Bland and soulless. And no way is that going to stand out better than white on blue in a busy station with a background of adverts and shopfronts.

 

[YorksLad12]

The platform number is the original BR sign!

That too! But if it ain't broke...

Which trains still need reliverying then?

170456 says (n) northern instead of (n) NORTHERN (or did the other week). There's also a 2-car 158 that just says (n) - no northerm NORTHERN or Northern alongside it. Am wondering if they just under-ordered NORTHERN vinyls! Both spotted at Leeds.

 

[vlad]

The thin vinyl also shows that the station sign hadn't been updated since early 2016. There is a certain amount of... cheapness on show, isn't there?

Apart from one sign at Heaton Chapel, I don't know of any signs at Northern-run stations that have been updated with the name of the new provider since 2016, apart from the old Northern logo being covered with tape. In many of these places the tape is starting to fall off....

 

[py_megapixel]

Apart from one sign at Heaton Chapel, I don't know of any signs at Northern-run stations that have been updated with the name of the new provider since 2016, apart from the old Northern logo being covered with tape. In many of these places the tape is starting to fall off....

At the average smallish Northern-run station, I would be entirely unsurprised to learn you'll now find more visible copies of the pre-2016 logo than the modern one.

 

[Darandio]

Apart from one sign at Heaton Chapel, I don't know of any signs at Northern-run stations that have been updated with the name of the new provider since 2016, apart from the old Northern logo being covered with tape. In many of these places the tape is starting to fall off....

Hope certainly had tape covering the old logo. Whether it's fallen off or they removed it in a vain attempt to make this vinyl wrap work better is another question!

 

[Hadders]

As this is getting a bit off topic nobody has mentioned the great northern moorgate branch which has recently be refurbished with new platform signs which I assume are in RA2

Having seen the relatively recent re-branding at the Northern City Line stations in the flesh I think it looks much better than the RA2 attempt in Northern-land.

It did, of course, look better with NSE stripes rather than the blue strip beneath

 

[Bletchleyite]

Having seen the relatively recent re-branding at the Northern City Line stations in the flesh I think it looks much better than the RA2 attempt in Northern-land.

It did, of course, look better with NSE stripes rather than the blue strip beneath

I think that blue top and bottom with RA2 would look quite good. Perhaps even revert to red top and bottom for IC stations.

 

[nlogax]

It did, of course, look better with NSE stripes rather than the blue strip beneath

Agree with this. I still believe NSE signage was the gold standard. Just enough colour to get your attention and correct in the typeface weight dept.

 

[HYPODERMIC]

I think the problems with RA2 aren't the typeface itself, or even the use of black on white, it's the combination of:

• not using a bold enough font/weight on signs, particularly station names
  
  
• the absence of any colour on signage

I don't think you need full colour signage - ala London Midland or Avanti - to look good. In fact, TfL, TfW, Merseytravel, etc, and most TOCs all feature white signage with colour stripes, and that colour stripe is enough to look modern and premium. I think a colour stripe header also helps to each sign to 'pop out' against the background and subconsciously signals to readers that it's a customer information/wayfinding sign rather than a retail advert or staff/operational sign.

I think the TfW branding shows quite clearly how black on white signage can look very modern and presentable while being uncluttered and straightforward at the same time. So I don't think RA2 is really the problem in and of itself. In fact, I really like the idea of embracing the RA design heritage and adapting it to modern tastes. But I think a splash of colour is needed to stop it looking austere. And a bolder weighting/font to stop it looking cheap. I think GBR can make it work, but some tweaks are going to be needed for it to look good.

If I had access to proper photo editing or design software I'd try to mock up bolder RA2 with colour design elements - I think it would be a big improvement on the slightly anemic-looking vinyls we've seen rolled out so far.

 

[the sniper]

It'd be nice if each sector or region/operator within GBR (depending how they do it) had it's own coloured stripe to differentiate. These plain signs look woeful.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It'd be nice if each sector or region/operator within GBR (depending how they do it) had it's own coloured stripe to differentiate. These plain signs look woeful.

BR wasn't far off with these. Blue for regional, red for InterCity. Both colours of the Union Flag. Top and bottom looks good and is different from what is there now (other than the Northern City Line I suppose).

Plain white just looks naff.

 

[Grumpy Git]

BR wasn't far off with these. Blue for regional, red for InterCity. Both colours of the Union Flag. Top and bottom looks good and is different from what is there now (other than the Northern City Line I suppose).

Plain white just looks naff.

I don't agree.

A railway station is a railway station and a ticket to get from A to B should be valid on any train which stops there. Time to stop all this "not valid on this service" crap, end of.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't agree.

A railway station is a railway station and a ticket to get from A to B should be valid on any train which stop there, end of.

I think you might have the wrong thread. Colour highlights on signage to make it look less cheap and naff has nothing whatsoever to do with ticketing.

 

[Grumpy Git]

I think you might have the wrong thread. Colour highlights on signage to make it look less cheap and naff has nothing whatsoever to do with ticketing.

OK, put the effort (therefore funds) into improving the infrastructure, we don't need fancy signage, just clear and uniform.

 

[Tio Terry]

Does adding colour help or hinder those with visual impairments? Opinion seems to be less is more in that black text on a white background is the easiest to differentiate and that adding colour does nothing to help at all but can make signage too "busy"to be easily read.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does adding colour help or hinder those with visual impairments? Opinion seems to be less is more in that black text on a white background is the easiest to differentiate and that adding colour does nothing to help at all but can make signage too "busy"to be easily read.

I very much doubt a narrow strip of colour at the top and bottom of a sign will make a blind bit of difference to accessibility other than making it look better to everyone.