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

[AndrewP]

I honestly thought the livery was a fake done by a kid it is so bad.

Can they get some proper designers in please?

 

[MerlinRail 804]

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

There’s a difference between intolerance and recognising that the flag has recently been used by the far right to intimidate members of minority communities, and therefore now may not be the best time to put out branding that slaps that flag on every train in the country.

 

[Harlequinuk]

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

The livery looks absolutely awful - designed by committee.

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.

Yup, so offended. This isnt 1985 anymore, that was 40 years ago and times and styles have moved on

 

[Revilo]

What is this obsession with slapping flags on everything? Can’t anyone remember which country they live in?

It’s to pretend that they are proud of a country they secretly hate.

 

[Pacerpilot]

It looks like one of Saint Nigel’s wet dreams. At least they haven’t painted mini roundabouts onto the axle caps.

 

[Bletchleyite]

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

No, it just looks rubbish.

 

[mike57]

Well, first thoughts:

Good: Keeping BR double arrow logo, using red white and blue
Bad: Design is too busy, something like the old intercity dark grey red and white livery would have looked better, maybe using blue in place of dark grey. This looks like something out of one of those 1960 toys you would shake and look through (Kalideoscope???). Also, why two shades on blue.

 

[sh24]

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

For sure, this is a big part.

But I’d always seen flag waving as something a nation insecure in their identity has to do (eg the US, or a military dictatorship somewhere). I’d always seen the UK as more grown up. Not any more…

 

[Goldfish62]

The offended woke right hate it, l just look at all the virile diatribe about the colours on geebeebies

Unfortunately it's another example of the government trying to please everyone, but ending up pleasing no one.

I did think however in this case that the right whingers would like it, but obviously not. Perhaps they wanted more flags on it. Can never have enough flags, apparently.

 

[AdamWW]

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.

Does anyone know who produced the original British Rail Corporate Identity Manual? Did they employ experts in-house or external consultants?

Whichever it was, the difference is of course that it was carried out by the organisation itself not the Ministry of Transport.

 

[williamn]

A bizarre thing to try and save money on. A livery that will be applied to thousands of trains and an identity applied to every station, something that might last a decade or more. It might cost, done professionally, 100k, which is basically a rounding error in transport budgets over a period of several years.

 

[Bletchleyite]

For sure, this is a big part.

But I’d always seen flag waving as something a nation insecure in their identity has to do (eg the US, or a military dictatorship somewhere). I’d always seen the UK as more grown up. Not any more…

Do you think Wales and Scotland are insecure? There are flags everywhere, showing national pride and not racism.

 

[birchesgreen]

The offended woke right hate it, l just look at all the virile diatribe about the colours on geebeebies

What is a virile diatribe? Offended woke right?

 

[-Colly405-]

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…

Absolutely!

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Yup the offended woke right now hate a train which is Red , white and Blue.

I thought us leftists were the “woke” ones?

 

[Warrior2852]

Glasgow Central's had GBR branding put all over it this morning, interesting considering how Scotland''s in large part excluded from GBR related things with the devolution of ScotRail and the like.

 

[mpthomson]

I suppose it's too much to hope for the simple reinstatemnent of the double arrow logo and 'British Rail'

To remind people of how terrible it used to be? No thanks…

 

[Royston Vasey]

It seems that Heidi Alexander is redecorating our railways in the same style as Boris Johnson redecorating his Prime Ministerial apartment

 

[Snow1964]

Does anyone know who produced the original British Rail Corporate Identity Manual? Did they employ experts in-house or external consultants?

Whichever it was, the difference is of course that it was carried out by the organisation itself not the Ministry of Transport.

Design Research Unit

A young lettering and graphics person called Gerry Barney drew quite a lot, including double arrow logo. The BR Board apparently admired style of Canada CN logo which had just been introduced.

The BR Board then wanted the modern style rolled out so had the design manual produced

 

[The Mercian]

I think the most animated I can get about the whole thing is……meh.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

That's truly horrendous. Thankfully TfW and ScotRail won't have to waste millions re-branding into this livery.

Glasgow Central is apparently getting the new branding.
NR/GBR owns/will own all the stations after all, bar some local routes.

Looks to me like the Avanti branding but in more garish colours and in a more angular style.
The double arrow and GBR looks OK, it's the wider colour scheme which grates.
And what's that yellow panel on the end? Mostly not needed today. It just makes the colour palette worse.
We still don't know if all trains will get this branding, or just inter-city types like the 80x shown.

 

[markle]

An example of station branding:View attachment 193516
Text reads "GBR A railway owned by you"

Looking forward to drunk belligerent passengers shouting "F**K OFF I OWN YOU" to ticket barrier staff.

 

[mpthomson]

Bringing back the old liveries would've been nostalgia pandering at best and would've not done much good for building the image of a railway of the future. I for one welcome the decision to not use old liveries as a basis because GBR needed it's own identity. But even if they did, it surely couldn't have been worse than the rubbish they've just thrown at us now.

Part of me feels bad for how much disliking this has received because the graphic designer could've very well put some hard work into this and wouldn't exactly have much of a confidence boost if they were to read the criticisms here, but at the same I just couldn't bring myself to be so dishonest and pretend like it's good in any way shape or form when, quite honestly, it just isn't.

Agree with much of this, if something like this has to be done then better it’s done properly by a specialist design agency.

 

[AlterEgo]

There’s a difference between intolerance and recognising that the flag has recently been used by the far right to intimidate members of minority communities, and therefore now may not be the best time to put out branding that slaps that flag on every train in the country.

It is exactly the time to put the flag into the mainstream. It is the national flag.

 

[AdamWW]

Design Research Unit

A young lettering and graphics person called Gerry Barney drew quite a lot, including double arrow logo. The BR Board apparently admired style of Canada CN logo which had just been introduced.

The BR Board then wanted the modern style rolled out so had the design manual produced

Thanks!

 

[Ellwill]

I honestly thought the livery was a fake done by a kid it is so bad.

Can they get some proper designers in please?

"Taxpayer says no!"

Do you think Wales and Scotland are insecure? There are flags everywhere, showing national pride and not racism.

I find it quite bemusing how some will decry having any kind of union jack related motif in a livery but will happily heap praise on Scotrail's livery in the same breath.

 

[fandroid]

The offended woke right hate it, l just look at all the virile viral diatribe about the colours on geebeebies

There, sorted it for you.

I'm just hoping that they don't apply that colour palette to the interiors!

Think teenager's bedroom

 

[Tetchytyke]

I quite like the livery. Bold and brash is good when you need people to understand the change in ownership and the new concept being rolled out

I like the livery on the driving cars. It doesn’t work on the intermediate carriages. But that sort of livery on intermediate carriages seems to be fashionable at the minute.

It’s certainly doesn’t look any worse than the Avanti and TPE liveries.

 

[Trainspecial]

Its alright but I do think the arrows on the coaches look a bit awful

 

[birchesgreen]

I like the livery on the driving cars. It doesn’t work on the intermediate carriages. But that sort of livery on intermediate carriages seems to be fashionable at the minute.

Yes it would be greatly improved if they kept it simple on the intermediate cars. It looks a bit like the shunter had a mare at the depot.