BRITISH RAIL BRAND NAMES

British Rail created many brand names for its products, designed to catch the eye and imagination of current and potential travellers and freight users. These included brands both for services and for multiple units. The privatised successor companies have built on this tradition, sometimes adopting the original British Rail brand, sometimes introducing their own (for example, Midland Mainline's "Meridian" trains, and the Virgin Trains "Voyager" services).

Contents

Services

Multiple Units

Services

Britain's state railways underwent a corporate identity change in 1965 with the introduction of the system-wide name "British Rail", the double-arrow symbol and a "Rail Blue" livery.
The size of British Rail's fleet and the time required to repaint every locomotive and carriage meant that examples of the previous liveries could continue to be seen until c.1970.
In 1966, British Rail launched the first of its service brand names: "Inter-City" (the hyphen was later dropped to become "InterCity") and "Railfreight".
By the 1980s and 1990s, British Rail operated services under a number of brand names:

★ 'Passenger Services'

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★ 'InterCity' - high-speed express trains between major towns and cities

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★ 'Network SouthEast' (originally ''London & South East'') - commuter and medium-distance trains operating in an area bounded roughly by King's Lynn, Peterborough, Worcester, Bedwyn, Exeter and Weymouth and including the Waterloo & City Line now part of London Underground

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★ 'Regional Railways' (originally ''Provincial'') - other passenger services in England and Wales, often suffixed by a regional description, e.g. Regional Railways North West

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★ 'ScotRail' - passenger services within Scotland (officially part of Regional Railways, but with a distinct identity)

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★ 'Eurostar' - international trains from London-Paris/Brussels (also used to describe the Class 373 units that operate the service)

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★ 'Alphaline' and 'Transpennine Express' - regional express services on secondary routes, operated by Regional Railways using 90mph Class 158 trains.

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★ 'Motorail' - long-distance pasenger services that also carried cars (operated as part of InterCity)

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★ 'Pullman' - First Class carriages in InterCity trains offering a full at-seat catering service (mainly marketed to business travellers)

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★ 'Ryde Rail' - passenger services on the Isle of Wight (Ryde - Shanklin)

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★ 'Network NorthWest' - passenger service brand paralleling "Network SouthEast" for Greater Manchester and Lancashire in the early 1990s as part of Regional Railways.

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★ 'Merseyrail' - passenger service brand for Merseyside.

★ 'Freight Services'

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★ 'Rail Express Systems' - Post Office and parcels services

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★ 'Trainload Freight' - whole-train services, divided into sub-sectors covering Coal, Construction, Metals and Petroleum

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★ 'Freightliner' - container services

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★ 'Speedlink' - wagonload services

Multiple Units

Several families of multiple unit have been given official brand names for publicity purposes. These are listed below:

Brand Name		Unit Classes
'Diesel Units'
Blue Pullman		251
Pennine		185
Trans-Pennine		124
Heritage		100 to 131
Intercity 125 (or ''High Speed Train'')		253, 254
Pacer (or ''Skipper'' on Western Region)		140, 141, 142, 143, 144
Sprinter-family	Sprinter	150
	Super-Sprinter	153, 155, 156
	'Express-Sprinter' or 'Express'	158,
	South Western Turbo	159 (Network South East)
Turbo-family	Network Turbo	165
	Network Express Turbo	166
	Clubman	168
'Electric Units'
Advanced Passenger Train		370
Blue Train		303, 311
Clacton Express		309
Eurostar		373
InterCity 225 ★		91 and Mark 4 hauled coaching stock
Networker		365, 465, 466
Networker Classic (prototype)		424
Wessex Electric		442

★ The InterCity 225 is not a multiple unit - sets are made up of a single Class 91 electric locomotive, 9 Mark 4 coaches and a Mark 4 Driving Van Trailer.