Global InformationBritish Rail brand names information
British Rail was the brand image of the nationalised railway owner and operator in Great Britain, the British Railways Board, 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, 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 names such as ScotRail, Merseyrail, Eurostar and Freightliner still exist today.
The double-arrow symbol which was the symbol of British Rail from 1965 still remains after privatisation, as a unifying branding device used by the privatised National Rail network, and shown on most tickets, stations, timetables, publicity and road signs indicating stations, but not trains.
However, it is to be used more generally once again by Great British Railways.