As today is World Car Free Day (22 September), the railway industry has launched their “We Mean Green” campaign for people to use greener trains instead of cars.
But it is National Rail’s new green logo to coincide with this launch that has got people talking.
Instead of the familiar red and white British Rail logo, the redesign features the same logo outline but the lines and arrows are filled in with four different colors of green.
Despite the environmentally friendly message behind the design change, many people aren’t impressed, including Gerry Barney, the designer of the original logo who was horrified when he saw the new logo for the first time, The Guardian reported.
“I think that’s rubbish,” He told The Guardian. “I could understand it if they had just swapped red for green. But why on earth have they got that many colours? It’s a load of old bollocks. It’s just a mess.”
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The 82-year-old designed the logo back in 1964 when he was a lettering artist.
Barney was asked by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) to endorse the new green version but refused to (not surprising given his critical comments).
“I don’t know if it can be updated, it’s so simple,” he said. “They should just leave it well alone – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
It seems many people agree with Barney’s sentiments and took to Twitter to diss the updated logo.
Although some people believe that a cleaner logo will not encourage more people to travel by train, others think that it might.
Designers shared their ideas on how they would update the logo.
The new logo was not hated by everyone.
According to a report published earlier this month, the Rail Delivery Group estimated that a 20% shift from rail to road would lead to an extra one million tonnes of CO2 emissions and 300 million hours stuck in traffic jams per year.
With only weeks until COP26, the UN climate summit (1 – 12 November 2021) in Glasgow, people will see the iconic British Rail double arrow logo go green through posters displayed at stations, onboard trains and across digital channels.
Andy Bagnall is the Director General of Rail Delivery Group. “Train travel is more than a journey. By choosing to travel or transport goods by rail, people and businesses are on track to cut their carbon footprint so that together we achieve the net zero target.
“While rail accounts for 10% of journeys, it is responsible for just 1% of transport emissions. We want to work with government to reform the rail industry including making fares much simpler so that trains are the more attractive option to driving or flying.”