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Best UK Trainbow

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greatvoyager

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With 390119 splitting the opinions of many, what would you consider to be the best pride train?

Being a proud member of the LGBTQ community, I think it’s nice that trainbows exist.

Personally, I quite liked Virgin’s 390045.

I would ask that this thread sticks to discussing the best trainbow livery that is either currently applied or has previously been applied to any UK train.

Please save political views for somewhere else. Many thanks.
 
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bluegoblin7

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As the only fully inclusive Trainbow there really isn’t any answer but 390 119. All of the previous incarnations use the traditional six stripe Pride flag; 390 119’s design depicts the Progress flag.

Four years of pushing for better diversity & inclusion across the industry tells me that that’s also the reason why it might be unpopular with some...

(More on why 390 119 is of landmark importance in UK railway D&I: theprogresstrain.co.uk)
 

greatvoyager

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As the only fully inclusive Trainbow there really isn’t any answer but 390 119. All of the previous incarnations use the traditional six stripe Pride flag; 390 119’s design depicts the Progress flag.

Four years of pushing for better diversity & inclusion across the industry tells me that that’s also the reason why it might be unpopular with some...

(More on why 390 119 is of landmark importance in UK railway D&I: theprogresstrain.co.uk)
It certainly shows lots of progress, which is pleasing to see.
 

Ladder23

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700155 was my favourite but I think the latest from avanti has blown that out the water!

i just hope it’s some inspiration for other tocs to do the same, not because it’s relevant to me, I just love colours!
 

greatvoyager

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700155 was my favourite but I think the latest from avanti has blown that out the water!

i just hope it’s some inspiration for other tocs to do the same, not because it’s relevant to me, I just love colours!
I quite like 700155, it was bold and colourful.
 

hst43102

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700155 or 800008. Both nice, tidy and colourful liveries. I think 390119 is a bit over the top and rather messy.
 

hst43102

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Disagree with that ... I consider GTR's attempt to be one of the most pathetic Pride liveries, just slap the rainbow on the driving cars only and call it a day - no imagination put into it at all!

Lazy? yes. Pathetic? yes. Aesthetically pleasing? also a yes!
 

Peter C

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I've seen 800008, GWR's trainbow, in person several times, and I think it's quite nice. A bit small compared to other liveries (such as Avanti's Pendolino, which is lovely and colourful), but still a nice touch.

-Peter
 

greatvoyager

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I've seen 800008, GWR's trainbow, in person several times, and I think it's quite nice. A bit small compared to other liveries (such as Avanti's Pendolino, which is lovely and colourful), but still a nice touch.

-Peter
I think if anything, the fact it takes up such a small part of the unit, makes it stand out more.
 

BayPaul

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There's not much good you can say about 'one' but at least they didn't just paint one train in rainbow colours, they went all out and painted half the fleet! They didn't get the colours quite right, but as they didn't get anything else quite right either I like to think it was a pleasantly incompetent piece of LGBT branding rather than unrelated to the pride flag!

As an equally proud LGBT person I love seeing rainbows on stuff, but do get annoyed when our 6 colour one is stolen to support the NHS. They can have 7 colours of support, ours is ours!
 

hst43102

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As an equally proud LGBT person I love seeing rainbows on stuff, but do get annoyed when our 6 colour one is stolen to support the NHS. They can have 7 colours of support, ours is ours!

I thought the point of the rainbow is that it's inclusive to everyone? :)
 

Domh245

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It’s very easy for a simple rebrand of a company logo into a rainbow to become a marketing exercise, but it needs to be backed up with education and appropriate messaging to staff and customers.

This is a particular issue with multinationals - in June everything on twitter becomes rainbowified and then on the 1st of July it's back to normal. It's especially depressing with things like Bethesda's latest showing - a clear commitment showing through to be seen to be doing the right thing but no more.
Bethesda_Pride_Month_Logos_Banner.jpg

image shows rainbow variants of bethesda icons for french, brazillian, australia/new zealand and general twitter accounts, but the standard logo for russian, middle east, and turkish accounts.
 

hexagon789

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I liked the design Translink branded one of their units with. I thought it was one of the best arrangements, though I'm not sure if it was for Pride or for supporting the NHS tbh.

Otherwise GWR.
 

Energy

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It's especially depressing with things like Bethesda's latest showing - a clear commitment showing through to be seen to be doing the right thing but no more.
It is Bethesda though :) In all seriousness, it is a common thing that multiple company accounts are inconsistent in the logo. It isn't really confusing but the inconsistency doesn't look great. In train terms its like GWR having their twitter be the rainbow logo and facebook being normal logo, it isn't confusing like one of them being the GWR logo and the other being the FGW logo but it doesn't look great.
 

greatvoyager

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No, that isn’t the point of the rainbow at all. The six-stripe flag (and the eight-stripe variant before it) was created specifically for, and by, the LGBTQ+ community. It, along with the Progress variant found on 390119, has a very specific meaning. As Plymouth Citybus found out, rebranding a Pride rainbow for the NHS doesn’t go down well.

Incidentally, it’s worth noting that there is far more to inclusivity than just sticking some stickers on the side of a train - and the more “over the top” efforts are having a much bigger impact on the industry as a whole. It’s very easy for a simple rebrand of a company logo into a rainbow to become a marketing exercise, but it needs to be backed up with education and appropriate messaging to staff and customers.

As this forum shows time and again (including comments such as this one), there is a lot more education needed across the industry, and it can still be an extremely hostile environment for LGBTQ+ staff and customers in the majority of places.

Here’s to more Trainbows like Avanti’s offering.
I like the fact that Avanti seem to have gone into it seriously, putting in a lot of effort with 390119.
 

trentside

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But it’s not subjective, is it? As @ComUtoR has pointed out to you (again) the Pride flag is a specific design, differing from that used for the NHS. Why are you so keen to not acknowledge that the Pride flag has a specific design and meaning?

The Plymouth Citybus situation was not a laughing matter to a lot of people. It made a mockery of them doing a Pride livery in the first place as it was clearly just a publicity stunt and had no significance to the company beyond that. As soon as another opportunity came along they jumped on that instead trying to get good PR (it backfired).
 
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