British Rail brand names

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 , 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 such as ScotRail, Merseyrail, Eurostar and Freightliner remain. Some privatised train operating companies have since introduced their own brands along the same lines, such as, Midland Mainline's "Meridian" trains, and the Virgin Trains "Voyager" services.

The iconic double-arrow symbol introduced with the creation of the British Rail brand remains post-privatisation, as a unifying branding device for the privatised National Rail network, used on most tickets, stations and publicity, but not trains.

Under the Transport Act 1962, responsibility for the state railway operation, British Railways, was transferred from being a trade name and subsidiary of the British Transport Commission, to a separate public corporation, under the British Railways Board.

As the last steam locomotives were being withdrawn (completed in 1968) under the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the corporation's public name was re-branded in 1965 as British Rail, which introduced the double-arrow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 livery, applied to nearly all locomotives and rolling stock.

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