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A new Great British Railways logo that will “restore pride” in the British train network is set to be unveiled in May on the first trains to be nationalised under the Labour government.
Government officials are currently in the process of finalising the new branding for Great British Railways, with the Union Jack set to feature prominently, The Times reported.
Great British Railways is the train body to be set up by the government, which is currently working on renationalising the railways.
Similar to British Rail, the state-owned company that operated the rail network across the country until 1997, Great British Railways will be the public sector body overseeing trains once they come back into public ownership.
Starting with South Western Railways, trains will be brought back under public control, followed by C2C which shuttles between London and south Essex, and Greater Anglia, the train network covering East Anglia and operating the Stansted Express.
As each operator is nationalised, it is understood that old logos will be dropped and all trains will carry a new Great British Railways logo instead.
“We want to usher in a genuinely new era and make it feel different,” a Whitehall source said, according to The Times.
“It’s about restoring pride in the railways, a bit like we do towards Team GB at the Olympics.”
With long-held criticism of the railways in Britain by both passengers and politicians, the renationalisation of the railways hopes to make the network more reliable and customer-focused.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said in December: “Our railways have been broken for years, but we are now on the path to rebuilding a system that the British public can once again trust and be proud of.”
It appears the government hopes to match this pride with a new logo.
How different the trains will look will be determined by how much funding the Department for Transport receives from the Treasury.
New uniforms for Great British Railways staff could also be included in the change-up.
However, trains themselves are unlikely to be repainted due to cost constraints, sources told The Times. It is thought that the current branding will be removed and replaced with a symbol that would include the red, white and blue of the Union Jack.
The sources also confirmed that the branding will be different to a Great British Railways logo that was registered with the Intellectual Property Office’s online trademark journal under a previous Conservative government.
British Rail established branding across its network called the ‘Double Arrow’ logo, which can now be seen at stations to denote that national rail trains are operating there.
The “Double Arrow” was designed in 1964 by lettering artist Gerry Barney, and was rolled out by British Rail the following year.
While the symbol is simpler than the complex heraldic logos that came before it, it has become synonymous with railways in Britain.
The Independent has contacted the Department for Transport for comment.
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