99-594: Rail Alphabet is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert for signage on the British Rail network. First used at Liverpool Street station , it was then adopted by the Design Research Unit (DRU) as part of their comprehensive 1965 rebranding of the company. It was later used by other public bodies in the United Kingdom. A redesigned version, Rail Alphabet 2 ,
198-590: A Day Return. Oyster pay-as-you-go could be used on services within Greater London . Oyster cards holding season tickets were accepted within the London Travelcard area, in the same way as normal paper Travelcards and season tickets. In November 2010, the DfT announced that passengers would be able to top up Oyster cards at all stations operated by South West Trains in the London Travelcard area from May 2011. SWT
297-417: A device for emphasis , due to their typically blacker type color . For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs are usually divided into three or four major groups, the fourth being the result of splitting the grotesque category into grotesque and neo-grotesque. This group features most of the early (19th century to early 20th) sans-serif designs. Influenced by Didone serif typefaces of
396-533: A fleet of Class 455 metro-style commuter trains on services from London Waterloo to Shepperton, Hampton Court, Woking, Guildford, Dorking and Chessington, as well as services on the Kingston and Hounslow loops and occasionally on Windsor line services. These were built for British Rail . A full refurbishment programme started in 2004 on the fleet of 91 four-car units, and was completed in March 2008. Modifications included
495-643: A lower-case 'L' with a curl or 'i' with serif under the dot. A particular subgenre of sans-serifs is those such as Rothbury, Britannic , Radiant , and National Trust with obvious variation in stroke width. These have been called 'modulated', 'stressed' or 'high-contrast' sans-serifs. They are nowadays often placed within the humanist genre, although they predate Johnston which started the modern humanist genre. These may take inspiration from sources outside printing such as brush lettering or calligraphy. Letters without serifs have been common in writing across history, for example in casual, non-monumental epigraphy of
594-518: A more unified range of styles than on previous designs, allowing a wider range of text to be set artistically through setting headings and body text in a single family. The style of design using asymmetric layouts, Helvetica and a grid layout extensively has been called the Swiss or International Typographic Style . This gallery presents images of sans-serif lettering and type across different times and places from early to recent. Particular attention
693-644: A new 2+2 seating layout with high-back seats, CCTV, cycle storage, wheelchair space, doors that open further to allow for faster alighting, and additional passenger information systems. All 24 Class 456 two-car EMUs were transferred from Southern to SWT, with the first units entering SWT service on 23 March 2014. These early 1990s-built units are compatible with the existing Class 455 fleet and are coupled with these to form ten-car trains, increasing capacity on some local services in and out of Waterloo. Thirty of these four-car units were ordered by South West Trains in 1998, to create extra capacity and to replace some of
792-476: A pre-requisite for which is a passport-sized photograph for a booking hall to issue a nationally valid railcard. All ticket pricing structures are regulated by the Office of Rail & Road . Daily tickets fell into four categories: Peak 'Anytime', Off Peak, Super Off Peak and Advance (pre-booked, long distance). These were broken down into whether the user requires a Single , Return (valid for one calendar month) or
891-406: A profitable concern due to the high number of commuters that regularly used its services. The area of operation was the former South Western division of Network SouthEast , and was also roughly that of the pre-1923 London & South Western Railway (excluding everything west of Exeter ). As part of the privatisation of British Rail , SWT was taken over by Stagecoach . In 2004, the franchise
990-564: A result, printing done in the Latin alphabet for the first three hundred and fifty years of printing was "serif" in style, whether in blackletter , roman type , italic or occasionally script . The earliest printing typefaces which omitted serifs were not intended to render contemporary texts, but to represent inscriptions in Ancient Greek and Etruscan . Thus, Thomas Dempster 's De Etruria regali libri VII (1723), used special types intended for
1089-439: A set of Eastern European characters. In 2020, Network Rail announced that it had commissioned an updated version of the typeface. Designed by Margaret Calvert and Henrik Kubel, Rail Alphabet 2 includes lighter versions of the lettering as well as italics for signage along with accompanying versions for use in printed matter and online. The redesign also includes new pictograms to depict services and facilities which did not exist in
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#17328697741401188-771: A spurred "G" and an "R" with a curled leg. Capitals tend to be of relatively uniform width. Cap height and ascender height are generally the same to produce a more regular effect in texts such as titles with many capital letters, and descenders are often short for tighter line spacing. They often avoid having a true italic in favor of a more restrained oblique or sloped design, although at least some sans-serif true italics were offered. Examples of grotesque typefaces include Akzidenz-Grotesk , Venus , News Gothic , Franklin Gothic , IBM Plex and Monotype Grotesque . Akzidenz Grotesk Old Face, Knockout, Grotesque No. 9 and Monotype Grotesque are examples of digital fonts that retain more of
1287-417: A strong impact internationally: Helvetica came to be the most used typeface for the following decades. Geometric sans-serif typefaces are based on geometric shapes, like near-perfect circles and squares. Common features are a nearly-circular capital 'O', sharp and pointed uppercase 'N' vertices, and a "single-storey" lowercase letter 'a'. The 'M' is often splayed and the capitals of varying width, following
1386-409: A study of Schelter & Giesecke specimens; Mosley describes this as "thoroughly discredited"; even in 1986 Walter Tracy described the claimed dates as "on stylistic grounds ... about forty years too early". Sans-serif lettering and typefaces were popular due to their clarity and legibility at distance in advertising and display use, when printed very large or small. Because sans-serif type
1485-608: A typeface expressly designed to be suitable for both display and body text. Some humanist designs may be more geometric, as in Gill Sans and Johnston (especially their capitals), which like Roman capitals are often based on perfect squares, half-squares and circles, with considerable variation in width. These somewhat architectural designs may feel too stiff for body text. Others such as Syntax , Goudy Sans and Sassoon Sans more resemble handwriting, serif typefaces or calligraphy. Frutiger , from 1976, has been particularly influential in
1584-550: Is called Egyptian Characters ". Around 1816, the Ordnance Survey began to use 'Egyptian' lettering, monoline sans-serif capitals, to mark ancient Roman sites. This lettering was printed from copper plate engraving. Around 1816, William Caslon IV produced the first sans-serif printing type in England for the Latin alphabet, a capitals-only face under the title 'Two Lines English Egyptian' , where 'Two Lines English' referred to
1683-449: Is counterbalanced by the need to dwell longer at each station, since they have fewer doors. The Desiro stock comes in two variants – Class 450 units which have four 20 m cars and are mainly used on suburban and outer-suburban services, and Class 444 units which have five 23 m cars as well as intercity-style door layouts and are used on longer-distance services to Weymouth and Portsmouth Harbour . South West Trains operated
1782-455: Is given to unusual uses and more obscure typefaces, meaning this gallery should not be considered a representative sampling. South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited , trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach , which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT operated
1881-584: Is not a conventional feature on grotesque and neo-grotesque designs. Due to the diversity of sans-serif typefaces, many do not exactly fit into the above categories. For example, Neuzeit S has both neo-grotesque and geometric influences, as does Hermann Zapf 's URW Grotesk . Whitney blends humanist and grotesque influences, while Klavika is a geometric design not based on the circle. Sans-serif typefaces intended for signage, such as Transport and Tern (both used on road signs), may have unusual features to enhance legibility and differentiate characters, such as
1980-498: Is one that does not have extending features called " serifs " at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than serif typefaces. They are often used to convey simplicity and modernity or minimalism . For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs are usually divided into these major groups: § Grotesque , § Neo-grotesque , § Geometric , § Humanist , and § Other or mixed . Sans-serif typefaces have become
2079-476: Is planned to be used across the Great British Railways network, whilst the double arrow logo will also be restored as the primary brand identifier for the network. Rail Alphabet is similar to a bold weight of Helvetica , but with some differences in character shapes, stroke width and x-height to aid legibility. The typeface also has some similarities to Akzidenz-Grotesk , which had earlier provided
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#17328697741402178-448: Is that sans-serifs are based on either " fat face typefaces " or slab-serifs with the serifs removed. It is now known that the inspiration was more classical antiquity, and sans-serifs appeared before the first dated appearance of slab-serif letterforms in 1810. The Schelter & Giesecke foundry also claimed during the 1920s to have been offering a sans-serif with lower-case by 1825. Wolfgang Homola dated it in 2004 to 1882 based on
2277-675: The British Airports Authority and by Danish railway company DSB . It was also used on signage for the National Coal Board . Road signs in Iran used Rail Alphabet typeface for English texts. In 2009, a newly digitised version of the typeface was publicly released. Created by Henrik Kubel of A2/SW/HK in close collaboration with Margaret Calvert, New Rail Alphabet features six weights: off white, white, light, medium, bold and black, with non-aligning numerals, corresponding italics and
2376-545: The Megatrain brand from Mondays to Saturdays. This used a similar low-cost model to its Megabus service. Megatrain tickets were available on certain services expected to be lightly loaded. Tickets were generally between London Waterloo and other principal stations, and ticket-holders are assigned to a specific train. Latest performance figures released by Network Rail for period 5 (2014/15) were 88.2% ( Public Performance Measure – PPM) and 88.9% (Moving Annual Average – MAA) for
2475-632: The Secretary of State for Transport announced the DfT was in talks with Stagecoach to extend the franchise until April 2019. At one point, it seemed certain that the franchise would be renewed, information to that effect having been included on the Government's published Rail Franchise Schedule in October 2014. However, in July 2015, Stagecoach confirmed that talks had failed and the franchise would be relet. This outcome
2574-599: The South Western franchise . These franchises were awarded to various privately owned companies following an evaluation of competitive bids. During 1995, it was announced that the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising had awarded the South West Trains franchise to the Scottish transport group Stagecoach . Operations commenced on 4 February 1996, with South West Trains' first train, the 05:10 Twickenham to London Waterloo; it
2673-509: The classical model . The geometric sans originated in Germany in the 1920s. Two early efforts in designing geometric types were made by Herbert Bayer and Jakob Erbar , who worked respectively on Universal Typeface (unreleased at the time but revived digitally as Architype Bayer ) and Erbar ( c. 1925 ). In 1927 Futura , by Paul Renner , was released to great acclaim and popularity. Geometric sans-serif typefaces were popular from
2772-498: The "astonishing" effect the unusual style had on the public. The lettering style apparently became referred to as "old Roman" or "Egyptian" characters, referencing the classical past and a contemporary interest in Ancient Egypt and its blocky, geometric architecture. Mosley writes that "in 1805 Egyptian letters were happening in the streets of London, being plastered over shops and on walls by signwriters, and they were astonishing
2871-768: The (generally wider) slab serif and "fat faces" of the period. It also added a lower-case. The term "grotesque" comes from the Italian word for cave , and was often used to describe Roman decorative styles found by excavation, but had long become applied in the modern sense for objects that appeared "malformed or monstrous". The term "grotesque" became commonly used to describe sans-serifs. Similar condensed sans-serif display typefaces, often capitals-only, became very successful. Sans-serif printing types began to appear thereafter in France and Germany. A few theories about early sans-serifs now known to be incorrect may be mentioned here. One
2970-466: The 12 months up to 16 August 2014. The introduction of Desiro rolling stock built by Siemens was to replace the old Class 411 , Class 412 , Class 421 and Class 423 slam-door trains , which were life-expired and did not meet modern health and safety requirements; a franchise commitment was to replace all slam-door stock by the end of 2005. The Desiro trains have on-board information systems and full air-conditioning. Their faster acceleration
3069-410: The 120 vehicles reconfigured into 36 five-car sets, incorporating 60 extra vehicles from the mechanically similar Class 460 formerly used on Gatwick Express services. The five-car sets are now designated Class 458/5 and since 2014 have been coupled together to form ten-car trains. The first two of the five-car sets were delivered in October 2013, and underwent testing ahead of the introduction of
Rail Alphabet - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-430: The 1920s and 1930s due to their clean, modern design, and many new geometric designs and revivals have been developed since. Notable geometric types of the period include Kabel , Semplicità , Bernhard Gothic , Nobel and Metro ; more recent designs in the style include ITC Avant Garde , Brandon Grotesque , Gotham , Avenir , Product Sans , HarmonyOS Sans and Century Gothic . Many geometric sans-serif alphabets of
3267-419: The 1960s when the original typeface was conceived – such as gender neutral toilets and vaping areas. In October 2020, Network Rail announced that starting with London Paddington , the updated Rail Alphabet 2 typeface will replace Brunel for all signage on all Network Rail managed major stations on the network. Network Rail will also begin using the typeface for corporate communications. In May 2021, as part of
3366-531: The 1980s, British Rail's various business units were developing their own individual brands and identities with use of Rail Alphabet declining as a consequence. The typeface remained in near-universal use for signs at railway stations but began to be replaced with alternatives in other areas, such as in InterCity's 1989 Mark 4 passenger carriages which made use of Frutiger for much of their interior signage. The privatisation of British Rail from 1994 accelerated
3465-452: The Egyptians had no letters, you will doubtless conceive must be curious. They are simply the common characters, deprived of all beauty and all proportion by having all the strokes of equal thickness, so that those which should be thin look as if they had the elephantiasis." Similarly, the painter Joseph Farington wrote in his diary on 13 September 1805 of seeing a memorial engraved "in what
3564-473: The Futura, Erbar and Kabel tradition include Bank Gothic , DIN 1451 , Eurostile and Handel Gothic , along with many of the typefaces designed by Ray Larabie . Humanist sans-serif typefaces take inspiration from traditional letterforms, such as Roman square capitals , traditional serif typefaces and calligraphy. Many have true italics rather than an oblique , ligatures and even swashes in italic. One of
3663-1300: The Quiet Coaches on trains operated by certain other Train Operating Companies. Quiet Zones were available on most outer-suburban services and on some express services and are indicated by notices in the windows and signs on the doors. Passengers in these zones were requested not to use mobile phones to take calls or play music out loud. South West Trains operated suburban and long-distance trains. Main destinations included: London Waterloo , Clapham Junction , Barnes , Richmond , Twickenham , Hounslow , Ascot , Staines , Reading , Windsor & Eton Riverside , Kingston , Raynes Park , Motspur Park , New Malden , Chessington South , Surbiton , Leatherhead , Weybridge , Dorking , Effingham Junction , Woking , Guildford , Aldershot , Alton , Farnborough Main , Fleet , Basingstoke , Haslemere , Andover , Winchester , Eastleigh , Southampton Central , Romsey , Salisbury , Fareham , Portsmouth & Southsea , Brockenhurst , Portsmouth Harbour , Bournemouth , Westbury , Bristol Temple Meads , Weymouth , Yeovil Junction and Exeter St Davids . The seven main lines operated by SWT were: Suburban services diverged from
3762-705: The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Boroughs of Richmond-upon-Thames and Hounslow, and also served the London Boroughs of Merton, Wandsworth and Lambeth. Most SWT services ran on electrified lines using the 750 V DC third-rail system. A diesel fleet was used for services on the West of England line to Salisbury, Exeter and Bristol, using the unelectrified track beyond Worting Junction just west of Basingstoke, and for Salisbury to Southampton via Romsey services which also served Eastleigh. By 2015, SWT
3861-519: The Theater as the Highest Symbol of a Culture), by Peter Behrens , in 1900. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sans-serif types were viewed with suspicion by many printers, especially those of fine book printing , as being fit only for advertisements (if that), and to this day most books remain printed in serif typefaces as body text. This impression would not have been helped by
3960-487: The Williams Rail Review, it was announced that the new government body Great British Railways (GBR) will introduce Rail Alphabet 2 on the rail network, replacing the many different typefaces used on railway signage since privatisation. Sans-serif#Neo-grotesque In typography and lettering , a sans-serif , sans serif ( / ˈ s æ n ( z ) ˈ s ɛ r ɪ f / ), gothic , or simply sans letterform
4059-627: The above routes. Taken in order westwards from Waterloo, travelling down the SWML, they are: London Travelcards were available and widely used for journeys into Greater London beyond any of the South West Trains stations. They were valid on London Buses , Tramlink , Docklands Light Railway , London Underground and national rail services within the London travelcard area. All tickets and (London) Travelcards were available on weekly, monthly and annual bases (such tickets are traditionally known as season tickets ),
Rail Alphabet - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-441: The ageing Class 411 (4-CEP) trains, which at the time were on short-term lease. Deliveries of these trains began in 1998. The class suffered major technical problems, so in the end, none of the older trains were withdrawn from service at that time. It was six more years, in 2004, before the full fleet was in service. In 2003 and 2004, reliability was so poor that, although they were only six years old, South West Trains decided that
4257-543: The classical period. However, Roman square capitals , the inspiration for much Latin-alphabet lettering throughout history, had prominent serifs. While simple sans-serif letters have always been common in "uncultured" writing and sometimes even in epigraphy, such as basic handwriting, most artistically-authored letters in the Latin alphabet, both sculpted and printed, since the Middle Ages have been inspired by fine calligraphy, blackletter writing and Roman square capitals . As
4356-472: The company completely recast its timetable, the first occasion that such an exercise had been performed in the South West region since 1967. This was reportedly motivated by ambitions to bring service provision into line with changing demand and to take into account the different characteristics of modern rolling stock. Within a year, the new timetable had delivered an increase in reliability and punctuality across
4455-663: The condensed forms of the contemporary sans cuttings of the last thirty years." Leading type designer Adrian Frutiger wrote in 1961 on designing a new face, Univers , on the nineteenth-century model: "Some of these old sans-serifs have had a real renaissance within the last twenty years, once the reaction of the 'New Objectivity' had been overcome. A purely geometrical form of type is unsustainable." Of this period in Britain, Mosley has commented that in 1960 "orders unexpectedly revived" for Monotype's eccentric Monotype Grotesque design: "[it] represents, even more evocatively than Univers,
4554-452: The customer experience, such as better access to service information. During the early 2000s, improvements included the introduction of new rail services and the reopening of Chandler's Ford station in Hampshire . From May 2004, a smoking ban on all SWT services was introduced; this move, which came partly in response to a fire caused by a cigarette left next to an under-seat heater during
4653-398: The decline in use of the typeface on the railway network with most of the privatised train operating companies who now manage individual stations choosing to use the typefaces associated with their own corporate identities for station signs and publicity. More recently, the custom Brunel typeface introduced by Railtrack for signs at major stations and adapted by Network Rail as NR Brunel
4752-475: The design was "cruder but much larger" than its predecessor, making it a success. Thereafter sans-serif capitals rapidly began to be issued from London typefounders. Much imitated was the Thorowgood "grotesque" face of the early 1830s. This was arrestingly bold and highly condensed, quite unlike the classical proportions of Caslon's design, but very suitable for poster typography and similar in aesthetic effect to
4851-920: The development of the modern humanist sans genre, especially designs intended to be particularly legible above all other design considerations. The category expanded greatly during the 1980s and 1990s, partly as a reaction against the overwhelming popularity of Helvetica and Univers and also due to the need for legible computer fonts on low-resolution computer displays. Designs from this period intended for print use include FF Meta , Myriad , Thesis , Charlotte Sans , Bliss , Skia and Scala Sans , while designs developed for computer use include Microsoft's Tahoma , Trebuchet , Verdana , Calibri and Corbel , as well as Lucida Grande , Fira Sans and Droid Sans . Humanist sans-serif designs can (if appropriately proportioned and spaced) be particularly suitable for use on screen or at distance, since their designs can be given wide apertures or separation between strokes, which
4950-475: The duration of franchises, thus South West Trains was awarded a three-year franchise starting on 1 February 2004. Shortly following this award, SWT placed a substantial order for new rolling stock for the network, it was described as being the largest such order in British history. During the early days of its franchise, SWT gained notoriety for enacting severe cuts to its services, which were typically attributed to
5049-599: The earliest humanist designs was Edward Johnston 's Johnston typeface from 1916, and, a decade later, Gill Sans ( Eric Gill , 1928). Edward Johnston, a calligrapher by profession, was inspired by classic letter forms, especially the capital letters on the Column of Trajan . Humanist designs vary more than gothic or geometric designs. Some humanist designs have stroke modulation (strokes that clearly vary in width along their line) or alternating thick and thin strokes. These include most popularly Hermann Zapf 's Optima (1958),
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#17328697741405148-457: The early twentieth century, an increase in popularity of sans-serif typefaces took place as more artistic sans-serif designs were released. While he disliked sans-serif typefaces in general, the American printer J. L. Frazier wrote of Copperplate Gothic in 1925 that "a certain dignity of effect accompanies ... due to the absence of anything in the way of frills", making it a popular choice for
5247-409: The eccentricities of some of the early sans-serif types. According to Monotype, the term "grotesque" originates from Italian : grottesco , meaning "belonging to the cave" due to their simple geometric appearance. The term arose because of adverse comparisons that were drawn with the more ornate Modern Serif and Roman typefaces that were the norm at the time. Neo-grotesque designs appeared in
5346-934: The first ten-car train into service in December 2013. Passenger service started in March 2014, with the work concluding in 2016, thereby rendering the Class 458/0 extinct. South West Trains had 11 two-car Class 158 units and 30 three-car Class 159 units (22 Class 159/0 and eight Class 159/1). The Class 159/1 units were converted at Wabtec, Doncaster from Class 158s, received from First TransPennine Express in exchange for Class 170s . Eleven further two-car Class 158 units were received from First TransPennine Express, which were also refurbished at Wabtec. The Class 159 has on occasion been used for railtours. Although South West Trains did not operate locomotive-hauled services, until 2009 it maintained three Class 73 locomotives for recovery duties. Locomotive 73109 had been in service with SWT since
5445-405: The fresh revolutionary breeze that began to blow through typography in the early sixties" and "its rather clumsy design seems to have been one of the chief attractions to iconoclastic designers tired of the ... prettiness of Gill Sans". By the 1960s, neo-grotesque typefaces such as Univers and Helvetica had become popular through reviving the nineteenth-century grotesques while offering
5544-415: The hourly Waterloo to Exeter service. As with most rail companies, non-folding bicycles were banned from peak-time trains to and from London. However, these restrictions applied only to cyclists boarding or alighting in the area bounded by Hook, Alton, Guildford, Reading and Dorking. The aim was to maximise available passenger space on the most crowded trains. South West Trains had Quiet Zones, similar to
5643-529: The leading expert on early revival of sans-serif letters, has found that architect John Soane commonly used sans-serif letters on his drawings and architectural designs. Soane's inspiration was apparently the inscriptions dedicating the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy , with minimal serifs. These were then copied by other artists, and in London sans-serif capitals became popular for advertising, apparently because of
5742-548: The majority of commuter services from its Central London terminus at London Waterloo to South West London and was the key operator for outer suburban and regional services in the counties of Surrey , Hampshire and Dorset . It also provided regional services in Devon , Somerset , Berkshire , Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight through its Island Line subsidiary. Unlike the majority of franchises, SWT operated without subsidies , being
5841-491: The mid-twentieth century as an evolution of grotesque types. They are relatively straightforward in appearance with limited stroke width variation. Similar to grotesque typefaces, neo-grotesques often feature capitals of uniform width and a quite 'folded-up' design, in which strokes (for example on the 'c') are curved all the way round to end on a perfect horizontal or vertical. Helvetica is an example of this. Unlike earlier grotesque designs, many were issued in large families from
5940-524: The most prevalent for display of text on computer screens. On lower-resolution digital displays, fine details like serifs may disappear or appear too large. The term comes from the French word sans , meaning "without" and "serif" of uncertain origin, possibly from the Dutch word schreef meaning "line" or pen-stroke. In printed media, they are more commonly used for display use and less for body text . Before
6039-541: The necessity of a guard, SWT senior manager Brian Souter promised to keep a guard on every service; one consequence of this agreement was strong relations between the company and the trade unions . Further measures were also proposed by SWT; Tim Shoveller, the company's managing director, periodically spoke out on his desire to eventually introduce double-decker trains to serve its busiest commuter routes. While typically viewed as an effective means of increasing capacity, such ambitions were complicated by multiple factors,
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#17328697741406138-614: The network changed considerably, no longer serving West Croydon , Sutton , 'Coastway' stations between Chichester and Brighton , or the Reading to Basingstoke line . Services to Bristol (introduced in 2004 to replace withdrawn Arriva Trains Wales services), Mottisfont and Dunbridge and Dean were introduced after the start of the franchise. Its longstanding services beyond Exeter to Paignton , Plymouth and Penzance , which ran in competition with First Great Western and its predecessors, ceased in December 2009 so as to release stock for
6237-494: The network's capacity included the substantial redevelopment of its London Waterloo station and the procurement of new rolling stock. Christian Roth, SWT's engineering director, claimed in 2015 that the firm was in the process of delivering similar capacity improvements to the Thameslink programme at a tenth of the cost and a quarter of the time. While some rival companies chose to pursue driver-only operated trains, eliminating
6336-578: The network, measured as a 12% improvement in the operator's Public Performance Measure. Further major changes to the timetable followed in subsequent years, including the restoration of services between Yeovil and Yeovil Pen Mill that had been withdrawn under the Beeching cuts . During December 2005, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that Arriva , FirstGroup, MTR /Sea Containers, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to tender for
6435-540: The new South Western franchise, which combined the South West Trains and Island Line Trains franchises; National Express later withdrew. In September 2006, the DfT awarded the franchise to Stagecoach, the new franchise starting on 4 February 2007, for a period of ten years. Throughout the operation of the franchise, passenger numbers grew year on year, along with rapid spikes in numbers occurring in some years. While many franchises required government funding to sustain their services, SWT operated without any subsidies and
6534-676: The new franchise. On 27 March 2017, the franchise was awarded to South Western Railway , in spite of concerns that it would result in a single company holding a monopoly on services between London and the West of England , Dorset and Somerset , due to FirstGroup also operating the Greater Western franchise in those regions. South West Trains was the key operator for western Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, and also served Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon. In Greater London, it operated all National Rail services (other than London Overground) in
6633-607: The period and sign painting traditions, these were often quite solid, bold designs suitable for headlines and advertisements. The early sans-serif typefaces often did not feature a lower case or italics , since they were not needed for such uses. They were sometimes released by width, with a range of widths from extended to normal to condensed, with each style different, meaning to modern eyes they can look quite irregular and eccentric. Grotesque typefaces have limited variation of stroke width (often none perceptible in capitals). The terminals of curves are usually horizontal, and many have
6732-608: The period, such as those authored by the Bauhaus art school (1919–1933) and modernist poster artists, were hand-lettered and not cut into metal type at the time. A separate inspiration for many types described "geometric" in design has been the simplified shapes of letters engraved or stenciled on metal and plastic in industrial use, which often follow a simplified structure and are sometimes known as "rectilinear" for their use of straight vertical and horizontal lines. Designs which have been called geometric in principles but not descended from
6831-464: The previous year that raised safety concerns, also pre-empting the public smoking ban that was introduced two years later. Additional staff were deployed onboard trains to help enforce the change. At the time, most other commuter services had already banned smoking, and the measure was claimed by the Evening Standard to be popular with the majority of the travelling public. On 12 December 2004,
6930-436: The principal of which that there were no double-deck trains in operation that were believed to be suitable for SWT's needs, thus likely necessitating the development of an original design. Procuring a small fleet of bespoke rolling stock would certainly incur a steep price rise over conventional rolling stock, while handling the increased dwell times typically necessary when operating double-deck trains would also adversely impact
7029-448: The privatisation era. Arriva Trains Wales used the typeface until the end of the franchise in 2018, with First Great Western also making extensive use of Rail Alphabet for signage until the firm's rebranding to Great Western Railway in 2015. Merseyrail continues to use the typeface for station signage. The use of the typeface is also still prescribed by standards for trackside warning signs and safety/operating notices. Rail Alphabet
7128-465: The public, who had never seen letters like them and were not sure they wanted to". A depiction of the style, as an engraving, rather than printed from type, was shown in the European Magazine of 1805, described as "old Roman" characters. However, the style did not become used in printing for some more years. (Early sans-serif signage was not printed from type but hand-painted or carved, since at
7227-654: The representation of Etruscan epigraphy , and in c. 1745 , the Caslon foundry made Etruscan types for pamphlets written by Etruscan scholar John Swinton . Another niche used of a printed sans-serif letterform from 1786 onwards was a rounded sans-serif script typeface developed by Valentin Haüy for the use of the blind to read with their fingers. Towards the end of the eighteenth century neoclassicism led to architects increasingly incorporating ancient Greek and Roman designs in contemporary structures. Historian James Mosley ,
7326-580: The same designers the broad inspiration for the Transport typeface used for road signs in the United Kingdom. The typeface was designed specifically for signage and the designers included features to support this such as a bespoke letter-spacing system and two slightly different weights to provide optimum visibility on both light and dark backgrounds. In 1949, the Railway Executive decided on standard types of signs to be used at all stations. Lettering
7425-399: The shortage of drivers; the company sought to remedy this by seeking to hire additional drivers. SWT also implemented significant improvements upon the network, including replacing much of the inherited British Rail-era rolling stock , along with the refurbishment of most stations, which included increasing their accessibility to disabled passengers. There was also an emphasis on the improving
7524-781: The spirit of modernity, using the German slogan " die Schrift unserer Zeit " ("the typeface of our time") and in English "the typeface of today and tomorrow" ; many typefaces were released under its influence as direct clones, or at least offered with alternate characters allowing them to imitate it if desired. In the post-war period, an increase of interest took place in "grotesque" sans-serifs. Writing in The Typography of Press Advertisement (1956), printer Kenneth Day commented that Stephenson Blake's eccentric Grotesque series had returned to popularity for having "a personality sometimes lacking in
7623-450: The standard of common sans-serif types of the period, many of which now seem somewhat lumpy and eccentrically-shaped. In 1922, master printer Daniel Berkeley Updike described sans-serif typefaces as having "no place in any artistically respectable composing-room." In 1937 he stated that he saw no need to change this opinion in general, though he felt that Gill Sans and Futura were the best choices if sans-serifs had to be used. Through
7722-441: The station from a on-site joint control room. At the time, the partnership was hailed as an advancement for rail operations, However, the arrangement was dissolved in 2015 without any official explanation, although anonymous insiders claimed the cause to be Network Rail's reluctance to devolve power over its centralised infrastructure to individual routes while Stagecoach desired a local decisions made in partnership. In March 2013,
7821-529: The stationery of professionals such as lawyers and doctors. As Updike's comments suggest, the new, more constructed humanist and geometric sans-serif designs were viewed as increasingly respectable, and were shrewdly marketed in Europe and America as embodying classic proportions (with influences of Roman capitals) while presenting a spare, modern image. Futura in particular was extensively marketed by Bauer and its American distribution arm by brochure as capturing
7920-476: The term "sans-serif" became standard in English typography, a number of other terms had been used. One of these terms for sans-serif was "grotesque", often used in Europe, and " gothic ", which is still used in East Asian typography and sometimes seen in typeface names like News Gothic , Highway Gothic , Franklin Gothic or Trade Gothic . Sans-serif typefaces are sometimes, especially in older documents, used as
8019-565: The time it was not possible to print in large sizes. This makes tracing the descent of sans-serif styles hard, since a trend can arrive in the dated, printed record from a signpainting tradition which has left less of a record or at least no dates.) The inappropriateness of the name was not lost on the poet Robert Southey , in his satirical Letters from England written in the character of a Spanish aristocrat. It commented: "The very shopboards must be ... painted in Egyptian letters, which, as
8118-479: The time of release. Neo-grotesque type began in the 1950s with the emergence of the International Typographic Style , or Swiss style. Its members looked at the clear lines of Akzidenz-Grotesk (1898) as an inspiration for designs with a neutral appearance and an even colour on the page. In 1957 the release of Helvetica , Univers , and Folio , the first typefaces categorized as neo-grotesque, had
8217-450: The timetable; finally, no such rolling stock could be operated until the completion of track lowering across substantial portions of the network, particularly around bridges and tunnels, for sufficient headroom to be achieved. Between 2012 and 2015, Stagecoach partnered with the British railway infrastructure owner Network Rail to jointly operate London Waterloo via a single management team that operated both tracks and trains in and around
8316-408: The total adoption of Rail Alphabet for all lettering other than printed matter including station signage, trackside signs, fixed notices, signs inside trains and train liveries. Key elements of the rebranding were still being used during much of the 1980s and Rail Alphabet was also used as part of the livery of Sealink ships until that company's privatisation in the late 1980s. However, by the end of
8415-447: The typeface's body size, which equals to about 28 points. Although it is known from its appearances in the firm's specimen books, no uses of it from the period have been found; Mosley speculates that it may have been commissioned by a specific client. A second hiatus in interest in sans-serif appears to have lasted for about twelve years, until Vincent Figgins ' foundry of London issued a new sans-serif in 1828. David Ryan felt that
8514-451: The units should be replaced by 2005 with the newer Class 450 Desiro units. Only a handful of units were required each day to help maintain services from Waterloo to Reading, and these had been expected to cease after 31 July 2006, when the lease with the rolling stock company expired. An application by SWT to extend this by six months was refused, as the class did not meet all the requirements of disability legislation. However, later it
8613-402: Was a profitable venture. This outcome was largely on account of the high proportion of commuters that made frequent use of its services. One of the franchise's major ongoing concerns was the overcrowding that occurred on some services, particularly around rush hour , thus SWT's management paid considerable attention to increasing capacity when feasible. Major measures performed by SWT to expand
8712-505: Was also announced that SWT proposed to reduce operating hours at 24 of its ticket offices. South West Trains issued penalty fares for passengers travelling by train without a valid ticket. However, the company had planned to install at least one self-service ticket machine at each of its served stations in the bid to stop fare evasion . In 2009, ticket gates were installed at Waterloo to improve revenue protection. Stagecoach, SWT's parent company, sold seats on some off-peak services under
8811-565: Was decided that, on or before the start of the new franchise in February 2007, the class would be reinstated and take over all operations on the Waterloo to Reading line, indirectly covering the loss of the Class 442. They have been fitted with new, larger destination screens that comply with the disability legislation, but the trains still fall foul in some other areas, such as the height of the door-open buttons. All 30 Class 458 trains were split up and
8910-433: Was designed around the specific needs of road users – such as visibility at speed and in all weathers. The subsequent creation of Rail Alphabet was intended to provide a style of lettering more specifically suited to stations where it would primarily be viewed indoors by pedestrians. The Design Research Unit 's 1965 rebranding of British Railways included a new logo (the double arrow ), a shortened name British Rail , and
9009-538: Was often used for headings and commercial printing, many early sans-serif designs did not feature lower-case letters. Simple sans-serif capitals, without use of lower-case, became very common in uses such as tombstones of the Victorian period in Britain. The first use of sans-serif as a running text has been proposed to be the short booklet Feste des Lebens und der Kunst: eine Betrachtung des Theaters als höchsten Kultursymbols (Celebration of Life and Art: A Consideration of
9108-522: Was recommended as a new national standard for station signs by a 2009 report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Transport , and was used extensively by South West Trains and East Midlands Trains . Meanwhile, Helvetica Medium has replaced Rail Alphabet as the industry's preferred typeface for safety notices within passenger trains due to the ready availability of the former and for consistency with British Standards on general safety signs. Some train operators continued use of Rail Alphabet long into
9207-678: Was reportedly operating roughly 1,600 train services each day and managing in excess of 200 stations. From Waterloo , SWT's London terminus, long-distance trains ran to southern England, including the major coastal population centres of Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. There were also trains to Reading, Exeter and Bristol, but these were not the principal fast services from London to those cities, which are operated from London Paddington by Great Western Railway . The majority of its passengers were on suburban commuter lines in inner and south-west London, Surrey, east Berkshire, and north-east Hampshire. After privatisation in 1996,
9306-526: Was retained by Stagecoach when re-tendered. In 2007, the franchise was merged with the Island Line franchise to form a newly extended South Western franchise, which was won by Stagecoach. When next tendered, the franchise was awarded to South Western Railway which took over the franchise on 20 August 2017. As a consequence of the privatisation of British Rail during the mid 1990s, railway operations were segmented into various franchises , one of which being
9405-572: Was the first privatised scheduled train to operate for 48 years. In April 2001, the Strategic Rail Authority awarded Stagecoach a new franchise for the region, its bid having been judged to be superior to those from its rivals, FirstGroup / NedRailways and Sea Containers . The 2001 franchises awarded were (as promulgated ) to run for twenty years; however, only one year later, the Strategic Rail Authority decided to reduce
9504-494: Was the last rail company franchise to offer this facility (except at Wimbledon and Richmond stations) for passengers using suburban rail services within the London Travelcard area. The smartcard scheme for tickets on the national rail system was extended in early 2010 to cover the lines from Weymouth to Basingstoke and from Staines to Wokingham, and on the Isle of Wight, in addition to the current trial area between Staines and Windsor. It
9603-406: Was to use redrawn versions of Gill Sans lettering on a background of the regional colour. This style persisted for nearly 15 years. In the early 1960s, British Railways (which rebranded as British Rail in 1965) trialled new signs at Coventry station that made use of Kinneir and Calvert's recently launched Transport typeface . While Transport has since been an enduring success on road signs, it
9702-460: Was used by certain other state-owned corporations and organisations in the UK. The National Health Service in England, Scotland and Wales adopted Rail Alphabet for its signs. It is still the dominant typeface used on signs in older hospitals. It ceased to be used in new builds in the late 1990s. NHS England now uses Frutiger , while NHS Scotland uses Stone Sans. Rail Alphabet was widely used on signs by
9801-411: Was viewed by several industry commentators as being unexpected and inconvenient in its timing; the periodical Rail speculated that Stagecoach's rejection had been largely due to government officials feeling that the state was not receiving a sufficiently large share of the profits being generated. Stagecoach and a FirstGroup / MTR Corporation joint venture were shortlisted on 4 February 2016 to bid for
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