Great British Railways - First Train in New Livery

CR165022 · Friday at 23:06

RUK said:
That means that the Class 68 must always run with the red flash in the opposite direction in order to match

The 68s very regularly run the wrong way round on sets, both with the MK3s and now the MK5s too.

RailUK Forums

TastyMaltesers · Saturday at 00:14

AlterEgo said:
The livery looks very smart but this reinforces my view that the red flag decal shouldn't be on intermediate carriages. Too busy. End vehicles only would be better.

I must agree - what a mess!

XCTurbostar · Saturday at 10:40

CR165022 said:
The 68s very regularly run the wrong way round on sets, both with the MK3s and now the MK5s too.

This validates, at least to me, that this either has been considered but wasn’t taken seriously or, the more likely option, no-one with serious knowledge of the stock was consulted.

The light blue and dark blue coaches are interesting.. this was also the case with the 720s but has not been the case for anything else. I’m not sure why this was the case.

Overall, there appears to be a distinct lack of strategy behind all of these liveries and as a result, they look untidy.

318266 · Saturday at 10:41

Class15 said:
It has been done much, much more tastefully than this.

If I recall correctly it was, in effect, a directive from the Salmond-era SNP Government, at the time where the media were still referring to it as an "Executive".

Alex Salmond always preferred cleaner, more subtle displays of Scottish nationalism - in part deliberately to contrast with what usually comes out of UK/GB nationalism. It's similar to the reason why the Scottish Government logo is so simple - to contrast with the UK Government being very complex and hard to decipher royal coats of arms, it was meant to be simple and the "message" easily understood.

I can't recall to what extent he was personally involved in the ScotRail livery proposals, but I'm sure he was satisfied with the outcome. It is subtle but still obvious nationalism, designed in part to contrast with England rather than try to derive something from that.

birchesgreen · Saturday at 13:14

I like the big GBR on the side of the loco, that looks quite cool. The livery is ok, just needs tweaks especially to intermediate carriages. Personally i'd make the upwards red bit (if you must have it) a vertical block. it would be more in keeping with the Union Flag in any event.

TT-ONR-NRN · Saturday at 16:50

birchesgreen said:
I like the big GBR on the side of the loco, that looks quite cool. The livery is ok, just needs tweaks especially to intermediate carriages. Personally i'd make the upwards red bit (if you must have it) a vertical block. it would be more in keeping with the Union Flag in any event.

There’s a specially dedicated thread for people’s thoughts and tweaks here

Great British Railways livery: Alternative suggestions/variations

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 :lol: :D

www.railforums.co.uk

RUK · Sunday at 23:02

I saw 357 020 today and can confirm that it does not have the GBR logo and logo-type on either cab end of it any more, so it’s been removed after its livery launch, for some un-known reason, given that it’s shown on the renders of the new TPE trains.

I personally find the plain blue coach in the middle of the 5-car Class 720s too plain, so would like to see the livery as shown on the middle car of the original renders of a Class 802 (also 5 cars), with a U-shaped red flash.

Redders345 · Monday at 18:19

https://www.instagram.com/stories/se_railway/3986090762538177150?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&stkn=MWg2MmIxNDZoc3dqZw==

XCTurbostar · Monday at 18:22

Still images from the link above

Southeastern instagram

Cach17 · Monday at 19:51

XCTurbostar said:
Still images from the link above

Southeastern instagram

At last, the most GBR-able livery is getting (at least partially) GBR-ised.

Rail_Sussex · Monday at 20:01

Would anyone know what unit number it is? I wonder if it’ll run along the Tonbridge to Hastings line?

Many2Audi · Monday at 20:09

XCTurbostar said:
Still images from the link above

Southeastern instagram

View attachment 211602 View attachment 211603 View attachment 211604

I fear the Bayeux tappestry will look fine on the side of the 375 yet the GBR wordmark won’t fit in.

Mikey C · Monday at 22:52

XCTurbostar said:
Still images from the link above

Southeastern instagram

View attachment 211602 View attachment 211603 View attachment 211604

They need to bring back the Jaffa Cake livery and the 1066 Electrics!

ainsworth74 · 2026-09-15T10:00:29+0100

The discussion about replacement buses can now be found in its own dedicated thread here.

XCTurbostar · 2026-09-15T13:16:09+0100

375822 has gained Great British Railways | South Eastern branding.

TT-ONR-NRN · 2026-09-15T13:31:08+0100

skyhigh said:
Temporary rollout coming soon.....

Maybe this wasn't far off after all.

jamster47 · 2026-09-15T13:53:35+0100

Looks good. I wondered why they did not put the double arrow and GBR on the class 357s for c2c. Seems enough space on the electrostar cabs.

Is this just one unit for southern or start of wider rollout?

Goldfish62 · 2026-09-15T14:35:42+0100

318266 said:
If I recall correctly it was, in effect, a directive from the Salmond-era SNP Government, at the time where the media were still referring to it as an "Executive".

Alex Salmond always preferred cleaner, more subtle displays of Scottish nationalism - in part deliberately to contrast with what usually comes out of UK/GB nationalism. It's similar to the reason why the Scottish Government logo is so simple - to contrast with the UK Government being very complex and hard to decipher royal coats of arms, it was meant to be simple and the "message" easily understood.

I can't recall to what extent he was personally involved in the ScotRail livery proposals, but I'm sure he was satisfied with the outcome. It is subtle but still obvious nationalism, designed in part to contrast with England rather than try to derive something from that.

The Scotrail livery and overall brand was designed by Redpath, a design and brand agency, in line with a brief from Transport Scotland. It's why it looks smart and professional rather than an incoherent, brash mess "designed" by a child.

Class 466 · 2026-09-15T14:46:33+0100

jamster47 said:
Looks good. I wondered why they did not put the double arrow and GBR on the class 357s for c2c. Seems enough space on the electrostar cabs.

Is this just one unit for southern or start of wider rollout?

should be a part of a rollout across all DFTO operators.

nlogax · 2026-09-15T14:49:23+0100

Goldfish62 said:
The Scotrail livery and overall brand was designed by Redpath, a design and brand agency, in line with a brief from Transport Scotland. It's why it looks smart and professional rather than an incoherent, brash mess "designed" by a child.

Honestly I'm looking forward to seeing how a busy Glasgow Central will look with a mix of fully-GBR'd Pendos, 397s and Voyagers amongst Scotrail everything else. That'll be the true comparison.

Russel · 2026-09-15T14:53:02+0100

XCTurbostar said:
375822 has gained Great British Railways | South Eastern branding.

Is this the best they could do?

It's already in what is basically the base GBR livery!

Goldfish62 · 2026-09-15T15:04:48+0100

nlogax said:
Honestly I'm looking forward to seeing how a busy Glasgow Central will look with a mix of fully-GBR'd Pendos, 397s and Voyagers amongst Scotrail everything else. That'll be the true comparison.

Unless GBR is planning a major increase in cross-border services it'll look pretty much like it does now, with ScotRail livery dominating.

Class 466 · 2026-09-15T15:06:45+0100

Russel said:
Is this the best they could do?

It's already in what is basically the base GBR livery!

It’s part of a wider rollout of the new operator/sector names, they’re not going to re-do every single train into the full livery to start with, it’d take ages to get the names out there.

Goldfish62 · 2026-09-15T15:10:58+0100

Class 466 said:
It’s part of a wider rollout of the new operator/sector names, they’re not going to re-do every single train into the full livery to start with, it’d take ages to get the names out there.

Yes, it makes perfect sense. What would be far more confusing is retaining the existing TOC logos until trains are repainted. I assume website and app logos will change soon as well.

nlogax · 2026-09-15T15:13:58+0100

Goldfish62 said:
Unless GBR is planning a major increase in cross-border services it'll look pretty much like it does now, with ScotRail livery dominating.

Amongst the raft of Scotrail services the relatively small number of final GBR-liveried trains will stand out a lot more. Whether that's a good or bad thing will be personal preference of course.

rmHawk765 · 2026-09-15T15:47:32+0100

XCTurbostar said:
375822 has gained Great British Railways | South Eastern branding.

Far prefer this to everything else. Perhaps a dash of red and white lines at either end could be nice (ScotRail strikes again) but overall this is actually the closest we've gotten to a good design - simplicity is key here, ironically!

adc82140 · 2026-09-15T15:53:21+0100

Goldfish62 said:
Yes, it makes perfect sense. What would be far more confusing is retaining the existing TOC logos until trains are repainted. I assume website and app logos will change soon as well.

The GBR Anglia website is a mess. what are they actually called? It's still Greater Anglia branded, but everything else refers to GBR Anglia.

Goldfish62 · 2026-09-15T16:04:40+0100

adc82140 said:
The GBR Anglia website is a mess. what are they actually called? It's still Greater Anglia branded, but everything else refers to GBR Anglia.

Just mirrors the trains which have three different names on them.

Class 466 · 2026-09-15T16:27:39+0100

rmHawk765 said:
Far prefer this to everything else. Perhaps a dash of red and white lines at either end could be nice (ScotRail strikes again) but overall this is actually the closest we've gotten to a good design - simplicity is key here, ironically!

It’s not a GBR design though… just the Southeastern livery with a new logo slapped on

rmHawk765 · 2026-09-15T16:46:01+0100

Class 466 said:
It’s not a GBR design though… just the Southeastern livery with a new logo slapped on

The blue is very similar to the 'actual' GBR deep blue though.

Great British Railways - First Train in New Livery

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