No it is not called British Rail anymore!!

[NSEFAN]

Even i can't get my head round all that confusion. We have British gas doing lectric, the water people doing Gas, the Gas people selling insurance, and the Electric people are now called Scottish & Southern Electric -Scottish & Southern? That's completely irrational! But it's all the same gas and Electric! They don't each make their own, it's supplied to them by N-Power or Radion or someone, and it's sent down the wires care of National Grid! It's all completely insane! For everyone who complains that the Railways are complicated, i recommend them to take a look at that.

Most passengers don't seem to care who runs things. They just want an affordable train service that is reliable. The same could be said of any service, gas, water, electricity, etc.

The problem comes when things fall apart and passengers don't know who to direct their complaints to. A classic example is a signal failure causing hours of delay, and passengers think it's the fault of the TOC, when really it's beyond the TOC's control. Cue diatribes of TOC hatred on Twitter, and ongoing expensive legal battles between TOCs and Network Rail to try and shift the blame around. :roll:

The government has it best in all of this. They can take the credit for when things go well, and distance themselves when things stop working. The quote from the DfT in my signature sums the situation up nicely, I feel. Funny how it appeared on the BBC news page and then mysteriously dissapeared.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Arriva Trains Vales?

Is this vhat zey are called in Germany?

As you probably know, the name Wales actually comes from German/Saxon and means "foreign" as applied to the Celts by the incoming Saxons.
There's a city called Wels in Upper Austria, which was once a Celtic centre.

 

[2Dogbox]

Despite all the train companies love of branding, passengers really don't seem to take any notice. I get a lot of people still referring to British Rail. I think its just a matter of habit. My Dad calls N - Power the 'Electricity Board' and Virgin Media 'Birmingham Cable'.

The BR logo was excellent in its design and is why it has been kept for use by National Rail. Personally I would call the whole lot British Rail or National rail, have a standard livery and some kind of Intercity branding. Then just have a small piece of branding indicatiing who the operator is. A bit like bus transport in London.

 

[Michael.Y]

As you probably know, the name Wales actually comes from German/Saxon and means "foreign" as applied to the Celts by the incoming Saxons.
There's a city called Wels in Upper Austria, which was once a Celtic centre.

It's also where the "-wall" in Cornwall comes from.

Oxymoronically, the native tongue names for Wales and Cornwall - Cymru and Kernow - as well as "Cumbria" mean "fellow men" or "countrymen".

 

[RichmondCommu]

The BR logo was excellent in its design and is why it has been kept for use by National Rail. Personally I would call the whole lot British Rail or National rail, have a standard livery and some kind of Intercity branding. Then just have a small piece of branding indicatiing who the operator is. A bit like bus transport in London.

What a sensible idea! I don't understand the fascination with what colour a train is. It’s pretty clear that passengers have no interest in what livery trains carry and they are the people that matter.

 

[Cliveblackpool]

Hopefully one day a forward thinking government will merge all these disjointed companies into one National railway, and call it 'British Rail'
Won't miss the silly liveries either, in fact the only decent one was GNER.

 

[swtandgw]

The BR logo was excellent in its design and is why it has been kept for use by National Rail. Personally I would call the whole lot British Rail or National rail, have a standard livery and some kind of Intercity branding. Then just have a small piece of branding indicatiing who the operator is. A bit like bus transport in London.

Scotland are already doing it with their trains, albeit as ScotRail. Personally, I think we should do the same and have a single livery (or a continuity of the pre-privatisation sector liveries), with only the operator mentioned in small text somewhere, and a coherent corporate theming, rather than the slap-dash job I've seen at some stations. Don't get me wrong, I like how Stagecoach have done their corporate theming, but I still prefer the good old British Rail theme, because it was the most coherent out of all the other corporate themes I've seen in my life, and it especially looks better than WorstGroup's horrible magenta.

 

[HSTEd]

As it was, so it shall be again.

I hope.

 

[DXMachina]

As you probably know, the name Wales actually comes from German/Saxon and means "foreign" as applied to the Celts by the incoming Saxons.
There's a city called Wels in Upper Austria, which was once a Celtic centre.

In a further irony the naming the other way has the same reasons: 'Lloegyr' - the old Welsh word for 'England', means 'the lost lands', referring to the retreat of the Romano-British society to Wales during saxon invasions in the 4th century

 

[Bedpan]

In a further irony the naming the other way has the same reasons: 'Lloegyr' - the old Welsh word for 'England', means 'the lost lands', referring to the retreat of the Romano-British society to Wales during saxon invasions in the 4th century

If thaqt'sthe case, it makes me chuckle that there's a sign as you drive over the Severn Bridge "Welcome to the lost lands".

It always irritates me when organisations like the BBC say "we're trying to get in touch with the Electricity Board" when there's a power cut, or "Delays on the A5 due to Water Board works" in their traffic reports. My recollection is that the utility boards ceased to exist about 8 years before BR, and if they can't get it right, what hope is there for all the others who get it wrong?

 

[Lampshade]

It always irritates me when organisations like the BBC say "we're trying to get in touch with the Electricity Board" when there's a power cut, or "Delays on the A5 due to Water Board works" in their traffic reports. My recollection is that the utility boards ceased to exist about 8 years before BR, and if they can't get it right, what hope is there for all the others who get it wrong?

They can't refer to company/brand names on air.

 

[blacknight]

If only it were still BR then under BR would what happened yesterday due to engineering have played out like this.
Hello Local Control can I have couple minutes hold on your local as retimed express is due in 2 minutes before yours is due out today & it would be good idea to get passengers on it as next service on Sunday ain't for hours.
Reply Sorry son due to the retiming it is not a connection so local goes to time.
Reason of retiming is Mainline TOC don't want want PPM failure due to engineering, so they tinker with timetable not thinking of knock on effect on connections, do they put replacement bus no just leave it to station staff to pick up pieces.
Makes mehaving then to deal with passengers who think we couldn't organise party in a brewery

 

[Cliveblackpool]

In BR days they held the Paddington to Penzance service at Plymouth for 40 minutes, because of the late running of the train from Scotland. It was the last train to Penzance that day. Over 80 people joined the train. They also announced an extra stop at Camborne.

One amusing incident at Plymouth station in the BR late 70's - '' Important amnnouncement - Platform change - Persons for the xxxx Paddington to Penzance sevice will now need to use platform 5 not platform 4 as advertised.
Everyone went down the subway to platform 5.
5 minutes later
'' Important amnnouncement Platform change - Persons on platform 5 waiting for the xxxx Paddington to Penzance sevice will now need to use platform 4, not platform 5 as originally announced. We appologise to passengers affected by this second change.''
A big sigh from everyone on platform 5!

 

[Hydro]

One amusing incident at Plymouth station in the BR late 70's - '' Important amnnouncement - Platform change - Persons for the xxxx Paddington to Penzance sevice will now need to use platform 5 not platform 4 as advertised.
Everyone went down the subway to platform 5.
5 minutes later
'' Important amnnouncement Platform change - Persons on platform 5 waiting for the xxxx Paddington to Penzance sevice will now need to use platform 4, not platform 5 as originally announced. We appologise to passengers affected by this second change.''
A big sigh from everyone on platform 5!

If that was a railtour with enthusiasts, some would think that was done deliberately!

 

[Tracky]

Just on the original topic of this thread... How many pre-grouping company names are still in day to day use.

Examples

If you say 'Cheshire Lines' in Chester most staff will instantly know you mean Northern train to Manchester via Stockport.

There is a sign at Carlisle station that refers to the Maryport and Carlisle Railway.

 

[4SRKT]

When I first started going to Dublin about 20 years ago most people still called the three main stations 'Kingsbridge', 'Amiens Street' and 'Westland Row', despite having been renamed more than 25 years before. The new names have gradually caught on since then, but you still hear older people using the original names. Curiously seemingly nearly everyone calls Westland Row 'Pearse Street' rather than just 'Pearse', presumably because the eponymous street is not far away.

 

[aspierail]

I know one colleague in my old volunteering position and i was discussing about my interest in trains and he said do they still call it British Rail and my reply was no.

 

[Solent&Wessex]

Just on the original topic of this thread... How many pre-grouping company names are still in day to day use.

Examples

If you say 'Cheshire Lines' in Chester most staff will instantly know you mean Northern train to Manchester via Stockport.

There is a sign at Carlisle station that refers to the Maryport and Carlisle Railway.

Quite a few. Often you find it in the name of the line itself, i.e. Your train might be travelling along the "Up L&Y", the name referring to the fact that it was a Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company route. I once, only recently, had an amended duty at work , the altered workings said "CLC" in the route description place. That of course means Cheshire Lines Committee. In every day use we always refer to the line via Warrington Central as the Cheshire Lines route to Liverpool.