TOC Names

[AlistairW]

After the debate about FCC in another thread, I was wondering what everyone’s favourite names for TOCs are, it can be as far into the past as you like, present day and possible future ones.

Personally I quite like Great North Eastern Railway, or of course British Rail always proved quite popular

[danielw2599]

Either First Great Eastern or Network South East for me

[JSReeves86]

Personaly i liked SE&CR South Eastern & Chatham Raiway & the previous form LC&DR London Chatham & Dover Railway and the fact that Go Via has resurected it to some extent with the new TOC London & Southeastern Railway shame that in practice they are only refered to as southeastern but i must admit that it would be quite a mouthfull when it comes to platform anouncements....The train now at platform 2 is the 0745 london and southeastern service to london charing cross.

JR

[southcoasttrains]

Personaly i liked SE&CR South Eastern & Chatham Raiway & the previous form LC&DR London Chatham & Dover Railway and the fact that Go Via has resurected it to some extent with the new TOC London & Southeastern Railway shame that in practice they are only refered to as southeastern but i must admit that it would be quite a mouthfull when it comes to platform anouncements....The train now at platform 2 is the 0745 london and southeastern service to london charing cross.

JR

Thats Go-vias aim

If we went for the South Western franchise it would probably be called London and South Western.

[eastern]

First Great Eastern is best number one.

[Keelar001]

Great Northeastern Railway Company...

Harks back to past glories....

[metromuppet]

For Modern names, i would have to say Chiltern Railways- It's underused and under thought about, so it makes a change.

Otherwise, i think Southern are a good company for names. It gets down to the point, and covers it all in one word.

[arabiandisco]

Anything that purports to be a "railway" is good with me. I don't like XZY Trains, nor First XYZ.

[Elojikal]

If I got the franchises for the southern region I'd have three distinct entities based around a common "network" theme. Thus Network SouthWest with a predominantly red based livery, Network SouthCentral with a blue based livery and Network SouthEast (which would be Kent) based on either grey (as per the existing scheme) or possibly green.

Although they would be distinct and represent their individual regions they would still all essentially tie into the same brand sharing the same service goals for the entire south coast region.

[mattvince]

Name is surely a mere part of the 'corporate image' of the whole company, so just judging by the name is possibly not enough. You can have the best name in the world, but using the worst possible font, in vile colours, just makes it look bad.

Good ones:
Southern - carried off with an appropriate logo and livery, very retro in a good way.
GNER - Again, retro, even more than Southern, but modern at the same time. Using Century Gothic makes it look classy.

Bad ones:
First *** - A corporate image which is possibly self-destructive. It confuses the punters and attempts to force the brand onto everything - but the brand is percieved as being bad.
Arriva - the same could be argued, but Arriva are performing better so there is less 'brand baggage'.
Northern Rail - the marketing boffins must have been on annual leave when that was thought up.

Others:
Virgin Trains - contradictory to First/Arriva above, Virgin Trains, whilst being a 'bad name' on it's own, has its own strength, because it is part of a wider brand which is well established. Unlike FG, where the brand has significant 'baggage', Virgin is merely another way of saying Branson.

Oldies:
Metropolitan Railway - what better to call your company when planning a railway through the-then world's greatest metropolis?

[Elojikal]

I've never been a big fan of "Southern Railway" or any name that includes the word "railway" really. It just seems very old fashioned and a bit passe and tries to hanker back to a bygone golden age that never actually existed. A matter of personal taste really.

In Southern's case it's also very presumptuous!

[jpantera]

It just seems very old fashioned and a bit passe and tries to hanker back to a bygone golden age that never actually existed.

Thats a contradiction if I ever heard one 'an age that never existed'

[skipperdipper]

Merseyrail, a name thats been around since the 30's or there about. The only exception is when Arriva renamed it Arriva Trains Merseyside and when MTL called it Merseyrail 'Electrics'. Livery's a bit dull, although we're promised our new trains will have silver, yellow and blue!

Rob

[jpantera]

Merseyrail, a name thats been around since the 30's or there about. The only exception is when Arriva renamed it Arriva Trains Merseyside and when MTL called it Merseyrail 'Electrics'. Livery's a bit dull, although we're promised our new trains will have silver, yellow and blue!

Rob

When are these new trains coming? They have just spent 51 million on the old ones so I cant see it being anytime soon.

[Elojikal]

It just seems very old fashioned and a bit passe and tries to hanker back to a bygone golden age that never actually existed.

Thats a contradiction if I ever heard one 'an age that never existed'

By omitting the crucial word "golden" you are altering the context!