Eurostar unveils new brand

Eye sees that Eurostar's new branding has gone down as well as might be expected.

Following the merger with Thalys the new logo will be applied by the end of the year to both operators fleets, serving the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Alas - not all the commentariat welcomed the latest design evolution:

Extremely pleased to see that @Eurostar is using a cat's anus as its new logo https://t.co/XQBM4yZI4U

— Kate Bevan (@katebevan) January 24, 2023

Once viewed, never unseen. You're welcome.

Eurotunnel car crash rebrand

This tosh from Eurotunnel…

Groupe Eurotunnel has today changed its name to Getlink.

This new name, reflecting the dynamism of connection and exchange, marks the Group’s passage into an exciting new era for mobility infrastructures.

“Getlink is all that is Eurotunnel and more than just Eurotunnel! Originally the promoter of the Channel Tunnel, itself an historic technological achievement, over the past ten years the Group has transformed and is now in perfect shape to take on the challenges of new forms of mobility”, stated Jacques Gounon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group. “The core mission for Getlink is the development and management (cont' p94).

Getlink? Get lost!

Chiltern re-brand

Suffice to say it has not been universally welcomed...


 

🤔🤔🤔 caps? No caps? Someone couldn’t decide! pic.twitter.com/YiyeQBlRQC

— Joanna Seabright (@JibberJabberJo) November 1, 2017

This is not a design, it is a printer malfunction. https://t.co/lzwmwcuNLj

— The Fact Compiler (@TheFactCompiler) November 1, 2017

That has to be one of the worst fonts ever designed. Gives no confidence that the company can run a street food stall let alone a raileay

— Martin Popplewell (@chrisswain132) November 1, 2017

That's just horrible. Why rebrand at this late stage of a long franchise with a well established image.

— Chris Jackson (@cmajrail) November 1, 2017

*Railway rebrand alert*... and it's... it's... so dull I'm falling asleep. Swing and a miss Chiltern, sorry. pic.twitter.com/C4dkuxWSf8

— Sam Jessup (@samjessupdesign) November 2, 2017

That is all.

Warning - may cause retina bleed!

This from the Hammer Man...

This horror passed across the misus' desk this morning.

With the above in mind the answer to this particular question from M'learned Friends has to be no!

EC champions Railway Gardens?

This from the Lancastrian...

Further to the 'Railway Garden' entry from York last Monday, I visited the station last week and spotted this poster.


Is grass growing through cobbles now an advertised feature of East Coast's offering at York?

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

I had always assumed this branding called to mind the number of railway careers that have been buried by the state owned 'flagship' operator.

NR lays it on with a trowel...

Oh dear!

The new, improved, caring, sharing and feminised Network Rail is starting to emerge from under the Coucher shadow.

This 'icky making nonsense in an email sent to NR's Safety Central subscribers...

Click on the image to see it in all it's ghastliness!

"Check out the list of David-friendly improvements"

And the pièce de résistance...

"It’s more stylish, like you David"

Has NR recruited the former editor of Just 17 to run Safety Central?

Colour by numbers

This from Maarten Otto...

How on earth Ian Yeowart came up with green on a GNER branding is a complete mystery to me.

So I took the liberty to give him a more appropriate livery for his new east coast rail company.


If you can recycle a name you must have the balls to steal their colours as well.

Greetings from Amsterdam.

UPDATE: This from Mike Altro...

The cynical amongst us would note that most of NXEC and East Coast's stock STILL look like that apart from one or two units re-liveried just to show willing.

GNER resurrexit !

This from a Captain Nolan...

I grabbed this screenshot after booking tickets on East Coast's site yesterday:


It was nice to see the both NXEC and East Coast have ensured that the money spent on re-branding the booking system has resulted in a thorough job being done.

Lookalike - lowering the standard?

Exciting news for Eye's readers at Innotrans in Berlin!

The new ERTMS Logo is going to be officially launched on Tuesday 16h30 at the InnoTrans, Hall 4.2, (UNIFE) Stand 120 - you are cordially invited to participate!

For those unable to attend here it is...

At least someone has a sense of irony.

UPDATE: This, unbelievably, from Prof Stephen Hawkins...

Am I alone in seeing a strong similarity between the new ERTMS logo and a diagrammatic representation of an object falling into a black hole?

A sense of irony indeed!!

UPDATE: This from Inspector Blakey...

I don't think it was the famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist who contacted you.

He spells his surname Hawking.

Must be another expert on black holes out there with a confusingly similar name...

UPDATE: This from Chionanthus virginicus...

Clearly The Fact Compiler has spent too long on the cushions.

Had he spent anytime up-front he would know exactly what the new ERTMS logo looks like...

Been there, seen that, nothing new under the Sunflower!

How to maximise driver hours - Explained

Exciting news from the road fleet world!

Eye has been sent these splendid images showing how Babcock's Network Division applied corporate branding to a road vehicle

And what a smart image it presents!

But what's this?

No doubt the amount of time it takes drivers to enter and exit vehicles is much reduced?

Bad branding - Banbury

No longer the 'Arrows of Indecision'!

Welcome to Chiltern's Banbury station...


...home to the 'Arrows of Indeterminate-distance'.

Babcock - Trussed up like a kipper

Much excitement in the land of crappy corporate branding!

Babcock has a recruitment ad in today's Sunday Telegraph which appears to lay claim to the expression "Trusted to deliver".


Eye is sure that this will come as news to: Prontaprint, Logica, and no less an organisation than the Government Mail which is part of the Department for Transport (prop Lord Adonis).

Meanwhile...

Trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, trusted to deliver, and finally, trusted to deliver.

Eye, trusted to deliver!

Mutley moment at the DfT

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Oak leaves have been added to Lord Adonis' Орден Ленина in recognition of another heroic act of railway statism that will get them dancing round their handbags in Essex.

Andy baby has stepped in where even uber-privatiser Richard Bowker feared to tread and announced that when c2c is refranchised in 2011 the line will be named Essex Thameside.

It would have been oak leaves with diamonds had he reverted to London Tilbury and Sarf'end - the railway that serves where it says on the tin.

Freightline® Gobshitte®y

This C®ap from Freightline®, presumably at the behest of GE®.


Eye® is delighted to say that NR® in its response refused to play this g@me.

What a lot of a®se!

Screw airline passengers

This just in from 'Bacon Butty'...

When is a Gatwick Express not a Gatwick Express?

When it's the 18:22 London Bridge to Eastbourne (not calling at Gatwick Airport).

Who gives a stuff about route branding anyway!