British Rail was the brand image of the nationalised
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
owner and operator in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
, the
British Railways Board
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
, used from 1965 until its
breakup and sell-off from 1993 onwards.
From an initial standardised corporate image, several sub-brands emerged for marketing purposes, and later in preparation for privatisation. These brands covered rail networks, customers services, and several classes of new trains.
With the size of British Rail's fleet, due to the time required to repaint
rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...
, in terms of the physical trains brand switchovers could be lengthy affairs lasting years. This worsened into privatisation, with the same services often using 3 or 4 different liveries.
Following privatisation, several of the brands disappeared, although some brand names such as
ScotRail,
Merseyrail
Merseyrail is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line (Merseyrail ...
,
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operate ...
and
Freightliner still exist today.
The double-arrow symbol introduced with the creation of the British Rail brand in the 1960s, still remains after privatisation, as a unifying branding device used by the privatised
National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
network, and shown on most tickets, stations, timetables and publicity, but not trains.
Timeline of brands
Under the
Transport Act 1962
The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Haro ...
, responsibility for the state railway operation,
British Railways, was transferred from being a
trade name
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
and subsidiary of the
British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...
, to a separate
public corporation, under the
British Railways Board
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
.
As the last steam locomotives were being withdrawn (completed in 1968) under the
1955 Modernisation Plan
Events January
* January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.
* January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.
* January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...
, the corporation's public name was re-branded in 1965 as British Rail, which introduced the double-arrow symbol, a standard typeface (named
Rail Alphabet) and the
BR blue
The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although from the mid-1960s to the 1980s the organisation was associated with "Rail Blue", a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating u ...
livery, applied to nearly all locomotives and rolling stock.
The first major BR sub-brand to appear was
InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
brand. This was augmented with the InterCity 125 brand in 1976, in conjunction with the introduction of the
InterCity 125 High Speed Train.
In the 1980s under
sectorisation blue livery was phased out as the organisation converted from a regional structure to being sector-based. The Intercity brand was relaunched, and passenger brands
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...
and
Regional Railways
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''.
Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...
introduced, seeing these divisions introduce many sub-brands. Freight operations were split into the
Trainload Freight
Trainload Freight was the sector of British Rail responsible for trainload freight services. The division was subdivided into four sub-sectors; coal, petroleum, metals and construction.
It was formed in 1988 from the trainload operations of Br ...
,
Railfreight Distribution
Railfreight Distribution was a sub-sector of British Rail, created by the division in 1987 of British Rail's previous Railfreight sector. It was responsible for non-trainload freight operations, as well as Freightliner and Intermodal services ...
and
Rail Express Systems sectors.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, new
multiple-unit train designs being introduced to replace rolling stock also brought new brand names, often linked to other branding exercises, such as the
Networkers specially built for
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...
.
In the 1990s, BR created the
division, to run passenger services through the
Channel Tunnel, under the Eurostar brand. After construction delays, this was operated from 1994, until it passed to the
London and Continental Railways
London and Continental Railways (LCR) is a property development company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom for developing former railway land. The company was originally established in 1994 as a private consortium to own European Pa ...
consortium in 1996 as
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operate ...
.
In preparation for privatisation, the freight sectors were further split into smaller business functions, as regional splits of Trainload Freight, or further splits along customer market, such as inter-modal traffic, each with their own branding. With almost all freight businesses going straight to
EWS, most of these brands were short lived.
List of brands
Networks
*
Island Line Island Line or Island line may refer to:
* Island line (MTR), one of the lines of the MTR metro system in Hong Kong
* Island Line, Isle of Wight, a railway line on the Isle of Wight, England
** Island Line (brand)
Island Line is a brand of the ...
- passenger services on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
(
Ryde
Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...
-
Shanklin
Shanklin () is a seaside resort and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on Sandown Bay. Shanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake and Sandown. The sandy beach, its Old Village ...
) from 1989. Part of
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...
.
*
Merseyrail
Merseyrail is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line (Merseyrail ...
- a passenger service brand for Merseyside.
*
Network NorthWest - passenger service brand paralleling Network SouthEast for
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
and
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
introduced in 1989
as part of Regional Railways. After a few years it was replaced by the Regional Railways branding.
*
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...
(originally ''London & South Eastern'') - commuter and medium-distance trains operating in an area bounded roughly by
King's Lynn,
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
,
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
,
Bedwyn,
Exeter and
Weymouth and included the
Waterloo & City line
The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...
, which is now part of the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
.
*
Regional Railways
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''.
Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...
(originally ''Provincial'') - other passenger services in England and Wales, often suffixed by a regional description, e.g. Regional Railways North West
* Ryde Rail - passenger services on the Isle of Wight (Ryde - Shanklin) 1985–1989.
Part of Network SouthEast from 1987.
*
ScotRail - passenger services within Scotland (officially part of Regional Railways, but with a distinct identity)
*
Strathclyde Transport - brand operated by ScotRail on behalf of
Strathclyde Regional Council
Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government ...
. Strathclyde transport operating commuter services within
Greater Glasgow
Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...
and the wider
Strathclyde
Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...
area, and had its own distinct livery (orange/black from 1983, carmine/cream from 2000 onward). The brand survived privatisation and was later shortened to SPT, but disappeared completely when responsibility for co-ordinating rail services was taken away from SPT following the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005 when Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive (and Authority), along with the WESTRANS voluntary regional transport partnership, were replaced by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport..
* Tynerail and Tynerider - passenger service brand for Tyneside (pre
Tyne & Wear Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...
).
Express passenger services
*
Alphaline - sub-brand of Regional Railways, for regional express services on secondary routes, operated using 90 mph
Class 158 trains, complementing the InterCity network.
*
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operate ...
- an international high speed passenger train service connecting
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
with
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
through the
Channel Tunnel using Network SouthEast mainline tracks in Britain.
*
InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
- high-speed express trains connecting major towns and cities.
*
TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...
- sub-brand of Regional Railways, for regional express services on secondary routes in the Northeast, complementing the InterCity network.
Other services
*
Motorail
A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer ...
- long-distance passenger services that also carried cars (operated as part of InterCity)
*
Pullman - first Class carriages in InterCity trains offering a full at-seat catering service (mainly marketed to business travellers)
*
Railair - through ticketing service for coach links to airports.
*
Sealink
Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland.
Ports served by the company included: Dover, Folkesto ...
- ferry services.
Freight Services
*
Rail Express Systems -
Royal Mail Post Office and parcels services
*
Red Star Parcels - express parcel delivery
*
Trainload Freight
Trainload Freight was the sector of British Rail responsible for trainload freight services. The division was subdivided into four sub-sectors; coal, petroleum, metals and construction.
It was formed in 1988 from the trainload operations of Br ...
- whole-train services, divided into sub-sectors covering Coal, Construction, Metals and Petroleum
*
Freightliner - container services
*
Speedlink
Speedlink was a wagonload freight service operated by British Rail from 1977 to 1991 using air-braked wagons.
History
Background, 1970s
In the late 1960s British Rail (BR) was loss making and government supported; government and British Rail ...
- wagonload services
Rolling stock classes
† The Clubman was never operated by British Rail. Network SouthEast planned it for their new service to Birmingham (via the Chiltern Main Line
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull.
It is one of t ...
) and nicknamed it the Clubman; but privatisation intervened. In 1996, new private operators Chiltern Railways (former Chiltern Line managers) ordered five 168/0s, which were only cosmetically different from the units planned by NSE.
* The InterCity 225 is not a multiple unit: sets are made up of a single Class 91 electric locomotive, 9 Mark 4
Mark 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It tells the parable of the Sower, with its explanation, and the parable of the Mustard Seed. Both of these parables are paralleled in Matthew ...
coaches and a Mark 4 Driving Van Trailer
A Driving Van Trailer (DVT) is a British purpose-built control car railway vehicle that allows the driver to operate with a locomotive in push-pull formation from the opposite end of a train. A key benefit of operating trains with DVTs is t ...
.
References
{{reflist
Brand names
Lists of brands by company