SWR Station Signage

[Dan15812]

When will South Western Railway start re-branding their running boards/ other signs and Re-painting over stagecoach orange!

GWR have managed it in only a few years, why can't SWR?

 

[Mills444]

I doubt they will be as all the ones I see are in generic unbranded Blue background with white lettering and they have been since 2008 or so.

 

[swt_passenger]

When will South Western Railway start re-branding their running boards/ other signs and Re-painting over stagecoach orange!

GWR have managed it in only a few years, why can't SWR?

The plain white on navy blue name boards were designed to be brand neutral as proposed in the “better stations” report some years ago. At one stage DfT suggested they'd become a national standard. I wouldn’t expect them to be changed by FMTR.

 

[Parallel]

GWR have managed it in only a few years, why can't SWR?

There are still GWR stations in FGW blue and with ‘First Great Western’ station name plates etc. Some stations still have Wessex Trains maroon on noticeboard frames!

 

[Mills444]

There are still GWR stations in FGW blue and with ‘First Great Western’ station name plates etc. Some stations still have Wessex Trains maroon on noticeboard frames!

Indeed I am sure that one of the request stops on the HOW has faded back to show off the Wessex trains Pink underneath.

 

[Dan15812]

There are still loads of SWR stations with stagecoach blue and orange around the columns and handrails ect.

 

[bishdunster]

Does it really matter? joe public just wants to know the station name, and is not interested what colour the sign is !!!

 

[Mills444]

Does it really matter? joe public just wants to know the station name, and is not interested what colour the sign is !!!

Not really which is why the DFT have done what SWT passenger mentioned up thread.

 

[59CosG95]

I do distinctly recall that SWT (before SWR) wanted to keep their station branding as neutral as possible. This, IMO, sets them apart from some of the "devolvable" operators (TfW, WMR etc.) who want to create their own long-term brand identity.

• WMR (part of the TfWM - Transport for West Midlands empire) was designed to be separable from the larger-scale West Midlands franchise, which is why WMTrains (the Abellio/JR East/Mitsui joint venture currently operating it) has West Midlands Railway & London Northwestern Railway as two distinct brands.
• TfW Rail (part of the Transport for Wales empire) is let by the Welsh Gov't, rather than the DfT. All that changes, branding-wise, is the operator in charge, similar to how the ScotRail franchise is run.
• Merseytravel-owned stations (irrespective of whether or not Merseyrail services call there) also have the yellow/black colour scheme throughout. Like London Overground, ScotRail, and now TfW/WMR, they seem to be keen to let concessions out rather than franchise everything.

Obviously there's no global standard for railway signs, as idealistic as that would be. SWT's blue/white running boards, in the brand-neutral "Brunel" font, seem to be the closest to following continental practice. If I recall, Southeastern's running boards are near-identical.
Southern's are also near-identical, but have a green background rather than navy blue. EMT's (well, EMR's now) are basically the inverse of SWT's (navy blue text on a white background).

All this is however distracting from the main point of the post, which makes clear that SWR think their current station running boards are perfectly adequate.

 

[387star]

New repaints are awful as they use cheap tape for the blue bands not paint which peels off easily