what do you think, folks? Transport for England, eh? the structure? identity? let us know here!!

Give this man a job!

transport for England is desperately needed

When I saw your proposal for transport for England, I literally gasped. That is such an unbelievably good idea on so many levels

I basically think GBR should be BR as it was in 1992 with the necessary updates and changes and then go from there

am I going to play with the TfE logo A LOT MORE before we do a full episode on it? of course I am

Install a new bench and there’s a ceremony on the modern railway

The GWR branches should get a fleet of 756s or something in that family....

Ticks all the boxes

Modern train that is comfy for passengers
Level boarding
Runs on 25kv and battery with a small diesel engine to get you out of a jam
Easy to provide large areas for bikes, pushchairs etc without compromising the PRM space.

What's not to like?

Saw the "smoosh" (great word) of operators yesterday with some passengers just not undedrstanding the difference between LNER, HT, GN and Thameslink on the ECML and being forced to pay extra. You could see the total confusion on their faces (2 in my carriage).

Very much agree with Transport for England, although id call it Transport England in line with Transport Scotland.

The livery says it all. I did a video on this on my Ferrosaurs channel. Lipstick on a pig. It must be a nightmare getting those complicated shapes on a train - and has to be designed separately for each class.

The chaos dates back to the original privatisation model. I was joint author of a critical article on the structure for Design magazine in 1993 (the Design Council's journal). This caused such a row that the magazine was closed. It is on my Physiocrat blog.

TFI mentioned LETS GOO, also TFI appears to do a better job with leapcards then translink in Northern Ireland, where for some reason you still use a bank card but you put the ylink card on first, the pay, but if you do it the wrong way, your paid more, but leapcard just taps. No fumbling no nothing, straight to the point. Also just a few days ago, Cork now has 90 min fares, same that Dublin had for ages now. You just tap on and if your swaping to another bus or I the future, trains, then you won't be charged, irelands transport is heavily subsidised compared to UK railways. We have PSOs which are bus routes created under a public obligation, we also have local link services that allow people in rural areas to reach larger towns. And I think some of the railway routes could be pso but I'm not sure

I like the TFE idea, I cant imagine every small council effectively running their own trains/bus services. Better to have them feeding into this org

I think that we should devolve branding to local authorities, but I think GBR should still have a style guide the same way NHS has rules about how any related body (including private) can use it.

I’d pitch, having not thought it through much yet:
* all brands to use the national typeface on websites, signage, promotional materials
* all brands to use the GBR symbol in strict ways
* explicit signage rules like black+yellow means station exit (introduced by TfL), a shared arrow glyphs and iconography

I think consistency particularly in signage should not be underestimated for accessibility and wayfinding. This would be analogous to how we pioneered a national road sign standard.

The trick will be being prescriptive enough that travellers won’t need to learn new rules to understand signage, and to stop authorities from having to reinvent the wheel to meet accessibility goals, but relaxed enough that the local area can shine through overwhelmingly. I think the distinction is that utility would be GBR but aesthetics, architecture, maps and point of sale would be local

This is totally possible to do and satisfy everyone, it just needs a really competent hand (which we don’t have yet).

Ps 15:28 that sign is such a disaster design-wise

This feels so much like deck chair management. TfL works not because it's government owned, its that it sets clear ambitious goals and gets the best teams to deliver that for it.  Shuffling the deck wastes time (2 years so far, anyone noticed service improvements yet?) - moving the remit for service planning out of the centre and leaving the franchises as it was would save time and money.

So if bus fares are getting capped then why not rail fares?
A big reason I don't use the train is because I can not afford to.
It's cheaper for me to drive my car into the city and a lot more convenient.

That Transport For England logo would have to go.
I can already hear the Red Cross lawyers knocking on the door 😅

GBR Stations - Manage, operate and maintain all stations (in England)

GBR Maintenance - PWAY, S&T, OHLE etc

GBR Operations - Signalling, MOM's, ECRO

GBR Intercity (with maybe even HS1/2 sub brands)

GBR Regional

Garreth.  Nice name. Nice face.  Nice stache.

That "Transport for England" logo might run into some problems with Geneva and her list of suggestions 😅