TOC Branding

[Chris Hamilton]

Black on white is drab. Isn't the universal airport yellow on black/grey supposed to be highly readable?

I understand it was developed by the British Airports Authority to be a typeface and colour scheme to aid reading at a distance and while moving. Black on yellow for passenger information, and yellow on black for staff instructions.

However, it isn’t universal, and is actually a copyright of Heathrow Airport and its parent company (which also owns AGS Airports) as the successor to BAA. That’s why airports like Gatwick and Edinburgh had to change all their signage when they were sold off. That was stated by a member of staff on a Gatwick do a few years ago where they said they had a deadline to change the signage as their “previous owners” had only given them a 1 year license to change the design.

I definitely prefer that style of signage, and as the majority of flights I take start at Glasgow and either end or connect through Heathrow, it’s the style I’m most used to.

 

[K.o.R]

There used to be a consistent style among all the Network-Rail-operated stations of dark blue signs with white text, plus an accent stripe along the bottom which was a different colour per station. Notably Gatwick Airport used to have this, but no longer.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There used to be a consistent style among all the Network-Rail-operated stations of dark blue signs with white text, plus an accent stripe along the bottom which was a different colour per station. Notably Gatwick Airport used to have this, but no longer.

Gatwick Airport was switched to having international standard airport style signage (yellow on dark grey) wasn't it?

 

[K.o.R]

Gatwick Airport was switched to having international standard airport style signage (yellow on dark grey) wasn't it?

The last time I was in an airport was... uh... 25 years ago, give or take.

 

[Hadders]

It depends on the franchise, but when SWT became SWR, they had a lot of trains knocking about with South West Trains written on them, and as SWT was in effect tied to Stagecoach, they were made to change it very quickly. That’s why it’s still acceptable for GWR trains to have First Great Western on the side of them - because although the brand has changed, the parent company remains the same. In fact, their trading name is Great Western Railway, but their actual company name if First Greater Western.

The South West Trains name goes back to British Rail days and belongs to the Secretary of State for Transport. First/MTR could have used the name had they have wanted to but decided to rebrand as SWR instead.

 

[JaJaWa]

There used to be a consistent style among all the Network-Rail-operated stations of dark blue signs with white text, plus an accent stripe along the bottom which was a different colour per station. Notably Gatwick Airport used to have this, but no longer.

NR stations do have that, although the accent colour changed to light blue for all of them.

Gatwick Airport station has been run by Gatwick Express [GTR] / Gatwick Airport for a few years now so uses their design.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The South West Trains name goes back to British Rail days and belongs to the Secretary of State for Transport. First/MTR could have used the name had they have wanted to but decided to rebrand as SWR instead.

I have a vague memory of Stagecoach SWT redoing the station nameboards in blue on white background in the early days of the franchise, only for the blue text to fade in the sunshine quite rapidly! Am I remembering correctly, or is this a "Mandela Effect" thing?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Nope. The Arriva franchise was awarded by the UK Governement, not the Welsh Government. The Welsh Government were bitterly opposed to the 'no growth' element and actually spent their own money trying to ameliorate it.

The SRA actually, before it was abolished, and later transferred to WG/TfW to manage (with UK money).
The franchise pot was empty at the time, and WG wouldn't have had the money for anything better.
Complaining about Westminster funding is a WG speciality.

 

[Mat17]

I seem to recall in Northern Spirit and Arriva Trains Northern days, there was still a lot of station signs around from Regional Railways days. Most went when the original Northern franchise came along.

My favourite though was First North Western's attempts to distance themselves from the class 101 units they had. When one set had to have a replacement vehicle inserted and that vehicle was in Strathclyde Transport livery (instead of RR), they had the new partner vehicle decked out in full Regional Railways livery and branding, not bad for 2002, and not done for 'heritage' reasons like the old BR Green set.

 

[HowardGWR]

The South West Trains name goes back to British Rail days and belongs to the Secretary of State for Transport. First/MTR could have used the name had they have wanted to but decided to rebrand as SWR instead.

This move to replace 'Trains' with 'Railway' is strange in one respect, given the old tension between the network provider, the railway owner, and the train provider. One would have thought TOCs would have wanted to distance themselves from delays caused by Network Rail and its predecessors by avoiding the impression that they had anything to do with the railway itself. One gets the impression that this newer trend with branding was meant thus to achieve a sense of importance, not actually existent.

 

[johnclews]

When I had hair some wag told me the networkers still had NSE stripes because it was under guarantee. Make of that what you will.