Standard Livery For Each TOC?

[Failed Unit]

I doubt that would be in line with national CO2 policies though.

I can't see the increasing it much myself to be honest. The M8 is bad enough at 70! The m74 (a74m) probably could take it as but with the price of petrol now I don't think many will use it if it happen. More 20mph I could certainly see!

 

[me123]

I can't see the increasing it much myself to be honest. The M8 is bad enough at 70! The m74 (a74m) probably could take it as but with the price of petrol now I don't think many will use it if it happen. More 20mph I could certainly see!

The only road in Scotland I would support an 80mph limit on is the M74/A74(M). And even then, only on the 3-lane section South of Abington. 70mph is more suitable on other roads; indeed some of the 50mph parts of the M8 are scary enough at the limit!

I could list speed limits that need revising, some upwards (eg the 50mph limit on the Southern part of the M80, the 50mph on the A725 with appropriate works to improve the junctions) and some need lowering (eg some NSL roads, the A737 dual carriageway). And the best way to deal with the M8 through Glasgow is variable speed limits. But 70mph is a sensible NSL for dual carriageway, 60mph is sensible for single carriageway (and even then, I would suggest putting lower limits on some NSL single carriageway roads).

 

[scotsman]

Things like the Scotrail rebrand are for political rather then financial reasons

Indeed, given that the previous Labour/Lib Dem administration introduced the policy...although it's completely the SNP's fault that all station names are being translated into Gaidhilg, that there are massive Saltires on the carriages and that the slogans "Scotland's Railway/Reile na h-Alba"

 

[DarloRich]

Thinking about it a bit more I think that while the cost savings of all of the relivery/rebranding might be small in practice the perception from the public would be that the cost saving is large. Therefore you get an easy win in PR terms because you are trying to "share the pain" with the public.

On a branding point of view I think it would allow the routes to become a "brand" rather than the operator. It would make it easier for the public to understand the complex system of operation we have in this country. If you knew, for instance, that a London train from Darlington was silver, a Manchester train blue, a Middlesbrough train purple and a Birmingham train red it would be much easier. You could perhaps but a colour box in the route section of the ticket to avoid any confusion over allowable journeys.

 

[At_traction]

Thinking about it a bit more I think that while the cost savings of all of the relivery/rebranding might be small in practice the perception from the public would be that the cost saving is large. Therefore you get an easy win in PR terms because you are trying to "share the pain" with the public.
[....]
On a branding point of view I think it would allow the routes to become a "brand" rather than the operator.

With the somewhat long-ish contracts for each franchise, would the impact of a unified region identity ("region", that sounds familiar ) come more from the public's relief of a single identity for services rather than necessarily from the perceived savings of a complete livery makeover 10...15 years apart? And who knows where we are in the rollercoaster of economic trends in the, say mid-2010s. "Get that old stale grey colour off our East Coast trains..."

 

[RichW1]

To be honest nothing annoys me more in liveries (and I know this'll probly sound anal) than a TOC covering all trains in the same livery instead of seperating out IC from all other trains on the network. I'm sure they've gotten away with stopping at some outrageous places with Intercity's because they just see IC trains as....trains and not seperate from the rest. For example there are operators using regional trains on some routes I'm sure should be done with IC stock but they just see any train as a train...it's not! IC and the rest of their services should have some way of identifying express from the rest.

 

[starrymarkb]

To be honest nothing annoys me more in liveries (and I know this'll probly sound anal) than a TOC covering all trains in the same livery instead of seperating out IC from all other trains on the network. I'm sure they've gotten away with stopping at some outrageous places with Intercity's because they just see IC trains as....trains and not seperate from the rest. For example there are operators using regional trains on some routes I'm sure should be done with IC stock but they just see any train as a train...it's not! IC and the rest of their services should have some way of identifying express from the rest.

Like FGW having a separate local livery? Or SWT's selection (though the intercity livery does appear on stoppers in Southampton with the 158s being shared with Long distance and Junipers, which were painted before the decision to distinguish between services)

 

[At_traction]

IC and the rest of their services should have some way of identifying express from the rest.

Not a silly idea at all, the TOC-based unified franchise livery would not in itself prevent them from identifying Intercity services from more localized ones too (whatever each one of them sees as Intercity).

I propose a painted flying bird on the first carriage/loco and a red stripe...

*Psychotropic - Hypnosis (The Definitive Mix)*

 

[RichW1]

Now that idea I love!! Bring back the swallow or was it a swift which would make more sense!

 

[Matt Taylor]

I like the way Stagecoach liveries work with white for long distance, blue for outer suburban and red for local/metro, but I think these should have been red rather than blue:

http://matthew-taylor.fotopic.net/p68373070.html