Great British Railways - First Train in New Livery

[williamn]

Looks so amateurish. I had understood it was going to be refined before being applied?

 

[skyhigh]

In other news, they had to remove the unit numbers when repainting this unit. This is the solution as of now:

I think it's pretty obvious that is a vinyl transfer that's waiting to be applied rather than an oversight or 'solution'.

 

[Cardiff123]

So glad that TfW and ScotRail trains won't be subjected to this dreadful livery. It looked awful when originally unveiled and looks just as awful in real life.
The loss of the GWR brand and livery to GBR will be a real shame.

 

[Mike Machin]

It will be rather nice to have the 450s on my local services going back into a primarily blue livery!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 May 2026 ==

This livery will have been very tightly specified by the Department for Transport, rather than GTR coming up with a design that makes the middle vehicles to look unbalanced

I would imagine that going forward, units with an even number of coaches will have all vehicles with the full branding, but those with odd numbers will have a plain blue vehicle in the centre of the formation.

 

[SECR 65]

I suspect 387173 cannot be far behind. That unit has been at Lover's Walk for the past week, as far as I can tell:

Train Allocations Lookup | Rail Record

Search UK Train Schedules By TOPS Number, Show Loco Allocations and Unit History | Train Tracker | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

387174 is still in revenue service.

I wonder how long it will be before 172 is back in traffic? Will there be a formal launch? And I wonder what service (and what operator......) its first workings will be.....

We should play GatEx bingo - how many types / colours of unit can you get in one day? That said, all 12 diagrams are red today!

 

[physics34]

I suspect 387173 cannot be far behind. That unit has been at Lover's Walk for the past week, as far as I can tell:

Train Allocations Lookup | Rail Record

Search UK Train Schedules By TOPS Number, Show Loco Allocations and Unit History | Train Tracker | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

387174 is still in revenue service.

I wonder how long it will be before 172 is back in traffic? Will there be a formal launch? And I wonder what service (and what operator......) its first workings will be.....

We should play GatEx bingo - how many types / colours of unit can you get in one day? That said, all 12 diagrams are red today!

Heidi Alexander just said on Twitter that "youll hear more about this next week". I assume it wont be in service until after the 31st

 

[RUK]

I would imagine that going forward, units with an even number of coaches will have all vehicles with the full branding, but those with odd numbers will have a plain blue vehicle in the centre of the formation.

The design announcement images on a 5-car Class 802 had 3 carriages going 1 way, and 2 the other:

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GBR-Train-Livery.jpg

 

[OneOfThe48]

I suspect 387173 cannot be far behind. That unit has been at Lover's Walk for the past week, as far as I can tell:

I would expect the next step to be for other TOCs to follow suit with one of their own GBR branded trains

Heidi Alexander just said on Twitter that "youll hear more about this next week". I assume it wont be in service until after the 31st

I don’t think GTR have that luxury in spare trains to keep it in a depot for that long

 

[sabanda]

I would expect the next step to be for other TOCs to follow suit with one of their own GBR branded trains

701006 has been mentioned - though it's at Wimbledon rather than Bournemouth so seems an unlikely candidate?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Honestly I think it looks great, and I think the sooner it’s rolled out the better.

 

[SECR 65]

I wonder if there will remain any special liveries outside of the new colour scheme? Will units such as 390119 (Pride) and 390121 (COP23 - have I got the right year?) retain their special liveries? And will the Gatwick Express be dissolved as a concept and have no special livery?

 

[MrJeeves]

The design announcement images on a 5-car Class 802 had 3 carriages going 1 way, and 2 the other:

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GBR-Train-Livery.jpg

Well no, it had two going one way, two the other and the middle forming some weird triangular shape with the red.

 

[Mike Machin]

The design announcement images on a 5-car Class 802 had 3 carriages going 1 way, and 2 the other:

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GBR-Train-Livery.jpg

Yes, I remember that being so, but it wouldn’t surprise if a change is made to make the overall design more balanced.

 

[Busman]

That looks bad - very amateurish and a poor replacement for the previous livery

What? Plain white?

 

[SECR 65]

What? Plain white?

It happens that the particular unit in question, 387172, is ex-GWR and carried their dark green livery up until now.

Maybe this is why they went for one of those ones first.

 

[Busman]

It happens that the particular unit in question, 387172, is ex-GWR and carried their dark green livery up until now.

Maybe this is why they went for one of those ones first.

My mistake. I thought it was GTR's all white variety.

 

[Siemens Staines]

701006 has been mentioned - though it's at Wimbledon rather than Bournemouth so seems an unlikely candidate?

When did 701006 return from Bournemouth? It was rumoured to be on this under cover of darkness move tomorrow night, but if it is already at Wimbledon it won't be.

Realtime Trains | 5Y53 2246 Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs | 21/05/2026

Real-time train running information for 5Y53 2246 departure from Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on 21/05/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[SECR 65]

My mistake. I thought it was GTR's all white variety.

Indeed, many many units are, including various members of the 387/1 sub class. It will be interesting to see what order they do the fleet in. My guess is white ones first, then red ones, then 377s.

 

[sabanda]

When did 701006 return from Bournemouth? It was rumoured to be on this under cover of darkness move tomorrow night, but if it is already at Wimbledon it won't be.

Realtime Trains | 5Y53 2246 Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs | 21/05/2026

Real-time train running information for 5Y53 2246 departure from Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on 21/05/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I was going off Rail Record’s allocation data - it’s possible that it missed the move to Bournemouth.

 

[XCTurbostar]

GBR South West

NR uses Wessex, could be GBR Wessex?

 

[Concorde9289]

When did 701006 return from Bournemouth? It was rumoured to be on this under cover of darkness move tomorrow night, but if it is already at Wimbledon it won't be.

Realtime Trains | 5Y53 2246 Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs | 21/05/2026

Real-time train running information for 5Y53 2246 departure from Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on 21/05/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I don't believe 006 has returned, its last revenue-earning runs were last Wednesday according to RailRecord, with the unit presumed to be running 5X95 to Bournemouth the following day.

 

[Kite159]

And there is a mention of some event to mark the first anniversary of SWR going across to GBR on Friday on a recent email about GBR so maybe they will use that as a chance to show off that 701 in full flag colours

 

[XCTurbostar]

And there is a mention of some event to mark the first anniversary of SWR going across to GBR on Friday on a recent email about GBR so maybe they will use that as a chance to show off that 701 in full flag colours

I thought SWR had to earn GBR branding

 

[Parallel]

It’s okay, but not terribly inspiring. I actually thought the Southern brand logo added onto the GWR livery looked quite smart.

 

[Chris172]

Is the livery a vinyl job like the WMR 172 all over or base of paint job with the red being vinyl

 

[bramling]

I would expect the next step to be for other TOCs to follow suit with one of their own GBR branded trains



I don’t think GTR have that luxury in spare trains to keep it in a depot for that long

The GN side is slacker for 387s at the moment, now that most of the 379s are in service and their availability is better. Until recently the 387s were very much holding the GN fort. If needed GTR could cover with one or more GN units.

 

[jamieh27]

My mistake. I thought it was GTR's all white variety.

GTR mostly white except for Gatwick Express.

 

[Kite159]

I thought SWR had to earn GBR branding

They must be using Northern as the baseline

 

[StephenHunter]

Most likely GTR's Southern than "Southern Region" as the GBR livery is being rolled out now also the TOC names still exist for now as it won't be all consolidated until about 2027 or 28

Agree with the comment the GBR livery should be more streamlined for the intercity stock with conical "noses" like LNER's example applied on Azumas & Serenzas. The proposed artwork makes it look like the trains are wearing collars!

Anglia Region (GA and c2c) already had a combined management.

 

[Darandio]

Nope don’t like it one bit keep trains as they are

What does this even mean?