Great British Railways: Station identity and livery unveiling (09/12/25)

[Nym]

With all of the pride of them doing it "in house" and not using a design consultancy, it shows.

The livery is questionable as to if it meets the NTSNs for colour contrast for doorways, using a train sim to show it off rather than proper renders in something like 3DS MAX... I could go on.

But it very much smacks of amateur hour in livery design, rather than something that's been properly considered.

Also, with this much in varying large panel colours, there's no way this can be a 'majority paint' livery like some of the best out there, this will all be applied with vinyl's so a much more wasteful application of resources. Rather than some of the much better national liveries and private liveries that are formed of a primary paint base, with applied trim single colour vinals (ie. not printed).

EDIT: Looked some more into the images, it probably does meet the NTSN, but the livery just doesn't flow well around the doorways at the leading ends because of the breaks needed in the diagonal car lines.

 

[jupiter]

I think it looks slightly better on the squared off front. My mother would have referred to it as a ‘dog’s dinner’.

 

[generalnerd]

I agree, the real issue is the design not the base colours.

A return to rail blue with some grey (or ecru) and crimson accents would have worked well (not least for hiding dirt).

Absolutely, even adjusting the glue (and adding a striped along the carriage) would improve the livery 10x

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

I'm all for nationalisation and the adoption of a strong, modern corporate livery just as BR did way back in 1964. This really is amateur hour, however, and a hideous mess just to save a few pennies. Hopefully it will go the same way as SNCF's horrid 'En Voyage' livery.

 

[signed]

I am of the opinion that red and blue should never be on anything together since that makes anything hidious. It could have been much worse

 

[generalnerd]

The designer of this horrible livery should be made to appear before a special committee to explain matters.

If a custodial sentence should be handed down, what time period do our thread contributors consider suitable punishment?

1 northern rail delay

 

[stuu]

The design is fine, the application is appalling. Have the flag based design on the front/rear and then carry the stripes along the carriages. Repeating on every carriage is terrible

 

[AlterEgo]

Article on the guardian:

Great British Railways flies the flag as logo goes back to the future

Livery for renationalised railway features red, white and blue alongside familiar double arrow symbol

www.theguardian.com

For me, it’s fine, but not amazing. Nice to at least some colour added into a stock design, considering how much grey there has been recently. Coaches seem a bit much though.

Pretty much my thoughts. The end vehicles can be fussy but intermediate ones are probably better off plain or with a red and white stripe.

 

[Jan Mayen]

Anyone know if the branding is on show at a major station on Southern? I'll go and have a look if it is.

 

[StephenHunter]

The design is fine, the application is appalling. Have the flag based design on the front/rear and then carry the stripes along the carriages. Repeating on every carriage is terrible

How does it work for a three-car DMU?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Dec 2025 ==

Anyone know if the branding is on show at a major station on Southern? I'll go and have a look if it is.

London Bridge today.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not a lot you can do with a flag livery, it's either going to look like GBNews or British Airways IMHO

The BA design package looks great in my view.

 

[vicbury]

With all of the pride of them doing it "in house" and not using a design consultancy, it shows.

The livery is questionable as to if it meets the NTSNs for colour contrast for doorways, using a train sim to show it off rather than proper renders in something like 3DS MAX... I could go on.

But it very much smacks of amateur hour in livery design, rather than something that's been properly considered.

Also, with this much in varying large panel colours, there's no way this can be a 'majority paint' livery like some of the best out there, this will all be applied with vinyl's so a much more wasteful application of resources. Rather than some of the much better national liveries and private liveries that are formed of a primary paint base, with applied trim single colour vinals (ie. not printed).

EDIT: Looked some more into the images, it probably does meet the NTSN, but the livery just doesn't flow well around the doorways at the leading ends because of the breaks needed in the diagonal car lines.

Yes, I could not upvote this higher if I tried. Graphic design and branding is extremely specialist work. It's not just the pain on the trains, it's the logo, the typeface, the colour palette, the tone of language, poster design, web and app design etc. It's actually the sort of highly skilled work that should be outsourced to experts in their field.

What we've ended up with looks so laughably amateur, garish, and incoherent. It's as if the brief was "make it more British" and everything else went out of the window.

It's embarrassing. I can't think of any other state operator in Europe that had rolled out something so bad in the name of so-called patriotism.

 

[Snow1964]

Anyone know if the branding is on show at a major station on Southern? I'll go and have a look if it is.

The DfT press release refers to on display at London Bridge

 

[Warrior2852]

Ignoring the debate about whether or not Union Jack colours should be used, the design itself beyond the colours just looks chaotic in a not great way. The sharp angles on the IET's curved bodyshell look jarring, it looks like someone made a 2D design file without accounting for how it looks wrapped around a 3D train. The bit at the front where the red stripe has its corner honestly looks like it was accidentally misaligned and spilt into the next section, because it awkwardly changes the angle of the downward line that the white stripe had started.

(Also I can't imagine Lumo are happy that the base paint colour is their exact shade of blue).

I really wish that we could keep regional liveries to give a bit of variety and local identity. Also, particularly with intercity vs local trains, having different designs makes it easier for the public to tell the difference between e.g. fast and slow trains at a glance, losing that would be unfortunate I feel.

 

[Snow1964]

How does it work for a three-car DMU?

Especially GWR 3car 158s made up out of 1.5 two car with cab in middle

 

[MerlinRail 804]

It’s alright IMO. It’s a bit full on, but like with the Chiltern Mk5 livery, I’ll warm up to it. Surely there were people who didn’t like BR blue when that first came out?

Also could just be me, but part of me feels that considering the recent uses and messaging behind the UJ flag that now might not be the best time to put this out…

 

[Harlequinuk]

So many offended on here today about the redesign

 

[THC]

So many offended on here today about the redesign

Offended? No. Just think it's awful.

THC

 

[Harlequinuk]

So offended then, it looks modern and not stuck in the past

 

[MerlinRail 804]

So offended then, it looks modern and not stuck in the past

The NSE livery was really good (especially on the networkers IMO) but we can’t be stuck in the 90s

 

[Goldfish62]

I’m quite surprised it’s so soon to be honest, I’d have thought they’d have waited for GBR to actually exist!

Quite. The actual organisation should be designing its livery(s), not civil servants!

The livery looks absolutely awful - designed by committee.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Quite. The actual organisation should be designing its livery(s), not civil servants!

The livery looks absolutely awful - designed by committee.

Yes it’s kind of edgy, post-millennium modern that public bodies seem to love. Reminds me of the London 2012 branding

 

[generalnerd]

Fair play to the Government for not wasting oodles of taxpayers cash employing a design firm.
I mean, if I can knock this design up in 2 minutes then anyone is a design consultant.
This has got a bit of everything for everybody

This is better tin my opinion, it has flow like the LNER livery and it took you two minutes

 

[The exile]

So offended then, it looks modern and not stuck in the past

No - “offensive” and “bad” are two very different concepts. Although it is unlikely that anyone could view something as offensive but not bad - the other way round is perfectly possible.

 

[talldave]

Call me grumpy but I really don't care what colour the train is, I just want it to run on time. But I guess I'm meant to feel positive that millions of our money is going to be wasted repainting trains?

Writing this whilst sitting at Clapham Junction wasting another 15 minutes of life because they couldn't run the train on time. It's the same, day in, day out, week after week.

 

[physics34]

Yuk.
I wonder how much it's going to cost to
repaint everything?
The leasing companies must be rubbing their hands together.
Which leads me on to another thought...
Has anyone actually seen anything regarding how much the introduction of GBR and nationalisation is actually going to cost?

If they are clever enough it will be done gradually as and when its needed. With several classes of stock a regular paint job or wrap is needed to prevent erosion.
Signage will cost a bit... might just be vinyl stickers too though.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Dec 2025 ==

Rather puzzled at those complaining of the use of Union flag colours. Only in the UK would anyone have a problem with their own country's flag. Other countries use them without comment,

EXactly. Sadly shows the intolerance of some of the left wing.
Does look like GB news though lol

 

[dosxuk]

In view of all these negative comments, I think they should go back to the drawing board.

If getting negative comments from the enthusiast community is all it would take to reject a design, we would never get a new one approved.

Is it perfect - no. Is it the best design ever applied to a train - no. Is it the worst design ever applied to a train - also no. Should it be a surprise to anyone based on current Government design styles - again, no.

It's also worth remembering that most liveries go through a period of adjustment after they are initially launched. For all the standardisation of BR Intercity - there were some significant differences over the stock and the years. It's hardly like this is going to the be the final design for ever more.

 

[birchesgreen]

Rather puzzled at those complaining of the use of Union flag colours. Only in the UK would anyone have a problem with their own country's flag. Other countries use them without comment,

I think a lot of folk are complaining about how its been applied.

 

[signed]

Only in the UK would anyone have a problem with their own country's flag. Other countries use them without comment

Add France to that list, the French flag basically only gets out on right wing demonstrations and on major national sports team games, else it's taken as being a fascist. (but that's off-topic)

 

[sor]

I don't mind it (and I say this as someone who is very much not politically aligned with the groups that have overused the flag recently). I remember when SWT changed hands and people were lamenting the loss of the stagecoach era livery, but this feels like a return to that. That said, the screenshots of the app do very much look like that "news" channel.

The livery has been posted in other (non rail) places I frequent and it is interesting to see that the response is much more positive. Same sentiment as others in regards to toning down the middle carriages.