Personally I think the Scottish livery argument is a red herring, for two reasons. Firstly the rolling stock repainting cycle follows a similar timespan to the franchising process so the number of times trains are repainted solely owing to a franchise change is minimal. Secondly most transport organisations, whether private companies or local government bodies, tend to want to update/renew their liveries at least once a decade anyway. I confidently predict that by the time the Scotrail franchise is renewed somebody will have decided that the Saltire livery needs updating or replacing!
I'm in total agreement.
Since a train is built in one livery, the cost of a handful of new vinyls over a thirty year lifetime is almost irrelevant when you consider each new carriage costs over a million pounds.
Look at how First, Stagecoach and Arriva have all revised their bus liveries (even if the Arriva one is more marginal) and how TOCs like FGW, Midland Mainline and Virgin have revised their livery during a franchise.
Things like seat covers and signage will need replacing every few years regardless of whether they are replaced by identical ones or not.
You can argue in favour of a simple livery, you can argue in favour of a "heirarchy" of colour schemes (like the way that BR had a red band for InterCity and a blue band for ScotRail), but please don't use the excuse that its about saving money - absolute peanuts.
(and that's assuming that units aren't cascadede around the country from one TOC to another a few times over a thirty year lifespan!)
