Kevo00 wrote:Most are monopolies so do not need to differentiate themselves so aggressively.
The problem is that we've later found out that rail works best in a capitalist system when competing against other modes of transport, rather than against itself. The huge investment needed to build a new line for instance is prohibitively expensive compared to a company that wants to run a new bus route to somewhere that isn't served. Nonetheless, it has worked to an extent - rail fares between areas of competition are generally cheaper - for example Birmingham, Reading, York and Hull to London. Each company has managed to found a niche in their market and tuned into it.
RFT wrote:Yes, but the change between NSE and Chiltern is that subtle, I doubt many people on the line even noticed...
I believe it's very different! Compare
NSE and
Chiltern. I think it was Stagecoach with South West Trains that originally went for the easy option of adding an extra orange stripe to the NSE livery to differentiate themselves (and noone noticing). Compare
before and
after 
Kevo00 wrote:One thing thats always puzzled me is why you don't see more external advertising on mainline trains (or infact internal advertising) - do train companies value their brand that highly?
I'm not sure if external advertising works that well on trains through. It's well known that advertising on something that's moving is far more effective that on something static - cause your eyes are drawn to it. Likewise for something dynamic - while going up the escalators at some of the major tube stations, your eyes are drawn to the moving plasma screens far more than to the previously static posters.
Trains on the other hand are seen by relatively few people - primarily the people who get on the train, and the few people who manage to see it stop in the other platform. Most of the time, it's travelling far too fast for people to see what's on the outside (even about 40-50mph is too fast to read something), and most rail lines are shielded from the roads by copious amounts of trees. Slower moving buses for example are seen by all car users, pedestrians, bus users etc.
There are some advertising vynels, but they tend to be very self-advertising. The ones I'm thinking of is FirstGroup branding a Croydon Tram to try and say who actually runs them, c2c relivering one train a horrible green and pink colour to say their trains are environmentally friendly with regenerative breaking, and EWS's Teenage Cancer Trust liveried 60. The exceptions are the occasional London Underground train (purely for the sheer number of people getting on the train but I doubt it's effective), Heathrow Express with RBS livery and the few examples Andel mentioned.
One thing thats always puzzled me is why you don't see more external advertising on mainline trains (or infact internal advertising) - do train companies value their brand that highly? Most are monopolies so do not need to differentiate themselves so aggressively.
