New DART logo

8629/8529/8530/8630 is now sporting the new DART logo, taken from Fairview depot this afternoon.

Click for full size:

Aard

Aw. It looks a bit sad.

CaptainFreedom

Its Dart 30 next year so Dart 25 is a bit long in the tooth.......

murphaph

More pointless rebranding by a company that shouldn't be wasting tax and fare payers' money on such things and should concentrate on improving the service in real terms. The same German S-Bahn logo has been used continuously for 83 years now. It is immediately recognisable to any German, wherever you may be in Germany. It's as if in Ireland we try to paper over the cracks in the service (often due to fundamentally missing infrastructure and joined up thinking) by rolling out a *new* *shiny* livery every 5 or 10 years.

LoonyLovegood

That looks like they let a five year old loose on MS paint.

I really don't like it myself. It looks inspired by (or ripped off from) the old British Rail logo.

Nate--IRL--

I wonder how much was paid for the new design. Needlessly.

Nate

D.L.R.

I think the original logo (right) was perfectly fine. Simple and effective. They haven't improved on it.

Why they feel the need to standardise logos across services I'm not really sure.

icdg

CaptainFreedom wrote: »

Its Dart 30 next year so Dart 25 is a bit long in the tooth.......

Yup, the fact that they are still carrying the 25th anniversary logo now is a bit ridiculous.

Worth noting as well with the new logo, the Commuter and InterCity brands appear to have been completely axed. The new Dublin suburban rail map refers to what was previously Commuter as "Local Rail Services".

gobnaitolunacy

Don't know why they bother with constant rebranding.

The LT/Underground roundel has been around with donkeys years with minimal alteration and still looks fresh. Plus I can't think of any other rail transport logo that's internationally recognised and has what amounts to a bit of a cult following.

GBOA

CTYIgirl wrote: »

That looks like they let a five year old loose on MS paint.

Almost!

jrmb

The livery and the printed timetables appear to have the logo in different typefaces.

murphaph

jrmb wrote: »

The livery and the printed timetables appear to have the logo in different typefaces.

IE Goon: "What's a typeface"?

Cookie_Monster

murphaph wrote: »

IE Goon: "What's a typeface"?

font

devnull

icdg wrote: »

Worth noting as well with the new logo, the Commuter and InterCity brands appear to have been completely axed. The new Dublin suburban rail map refers to what was previously Commuter as "Local Rail Services".

That isn't surprising, since the number of commuter trains on commuter lines is declining almost on a weekly basis and being replaced by ICR's that are not suitable for commuting.

LXFlyer

devnull wrote: »

That isn't surprising, since the number of commuter trains on commuter lines is declining almost on a weekly basis and being replaced by ICR's that are not suitable for commuting.

This is simply not true.

The numbers of commuter trains operating commuter services has not changed since July 2012.

The Dublin commuter operation is operated by the same number of 29k units as at that time, i.e the entire fleet, supplemented by a number of ICR sets that also operate to Sligo/Rosslare.

Drogheda has one six car (2 x 3 piece) ICR set operating on it throughout the day.

As I said in the other thread, what happened on Maynooth sounded like there was a failure somewhere and the ICRs were drafted in instead.

devnull

Well that is how it feels anyway - It's only a few times a month I take the train on the line to connect with travel elsewhere, and I'ce certainly seen more around lately, but yesterday just took the biscuit since it was the least appropriate time for it.

cython

lxflyer wrote: »

This is simply not true.

The numbers of commuter trains operating commuter services has not changed since July 2012.

The Dublin commuter operation is operated by the same number of 29k units as at that time, i.e the entire fleet, supplemented by a number of ICR sets that also operate to Sligo/Rosslare.

This my be the case, but surely the supplementation of those 29000 sets by ICRs wouldn't be as necessary if there weren't 29000 sets regularly being used to operate intercity services to at least Rosslare. Can anyone explain why so mant M3 Parkway services seem to be inappropriately used ICRs when there are also inappropriately used 29k sets they could be swapped with?

Sam Russell

If they want a new logo, I think they should bring back the 'Flying Snail'

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3472642179_312b24c69b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickriver.com/photos/23885771@N03/3472642179/&h=333&w=500&sz=82&tbnid=1YBVtgMRBk2EaM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcie%2Bflying%2Bsnail%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=cie+flying+snail&usg=__Zhw17vz8LkvbYEytHPoHTkAi9-I=&docid=ow6AAMoew6oruM&sa=X&ei=nJMOUsS6MMyXhQfIvIHwBQ&ved=0CFIQ9QEwBg&dur=399

jrmb

Sam Russell wrote: »

If they want a new logo, I think they should bring back the 'Flying Snail'

I agree. It's a timeless and recognisable emblem, rather than a logo that needs regular tweaking.

I know it's not a real emergency but the constant tweaking of Iarnród's brand has left stations plastered with inconsistent signage & logos.

icdg

jrmb wrote: »

I agree. It's a timeless and recognisable emblem, rather than a logo that needs regular tweaking.

I know it's not a real emergency but the constant tweaking of Iarnród's brand has left stations plastered with inconsistent signage & logos.

Its not even just brand tinkering - every single upgrade project they do seems to result in different signage standards. They just can't seem to stay consistent.

There's even the mad example within the one station of Pearse having the old IE and DART logos on the Westland Row side and the new flag logo on the Pearse Street side. Did I mention Hansfield opening after the rebrand with the old IE logo!

They should have just stuck with the 1987 logo because it was a logo that was really suited to a railway operator.

murphaph

Karsini wrote: »

They should have just stuck with the 1987 logo because it was a logo that was really suited to a railway operator.

It was pretty good but it was the victim of mindless idiots who daubed an "A" to the right hand side to make "IRA". Muppets.

Captain Chaos

Just saw the new DART logo on the cab end of 8640 this evening in Fairview depot and it just looks awful. Like someone just got a black marker and wrote DART on it.

dublinman1990

I was actually on one of the EMU's this morning with it's new DART logos printed on them. It was going from Dun Laoghaire to Connolly Station.

I think it had 8630 on the end of the 1st set. It was a 8 carriage train.

Half of the train had two different logos on it; the new one & the DART25 logo. Most of the first set had the new logo apart from the driver's cab on the 1st carriage. The other half of it had the previous logo on the whole set.

I have seen at least two 4 Toyko car sets with their new logo applied. I had noticed them while going between Sydney Parade & Blackrock just before 5pm yesterday evening.

The new logo on the driver's cab of the EMU's were only coloured black. It looks too dark, dull & boring as a logo. It should have some background colour to make it look neat & tidy but IE don't seem to care about the effort. They just stick a dark logo just because it costs less money or it's probably just laziness on their part.

dublinman1990

Unit 8602 (with it's semi round roof) now has it's new logo's applied while I boarded it at Seapoint this morning.

Captain Chaos

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Unit 8602 (with it's semi round roof) now has it's new logo's applied while I boarded it at Seapoint this morning.

Got it this evening on my way home from work. Took a good look but the all back logo on the cab really does not look right.

dublinman1990

Just to update you on the new DART logo being applied to the fleet.

There were two DART trains going in and out at Sandymount Station by around 10am this morning. One was a six-carriage train to Bray with four of their carriages on the back having the new logo. One of the units that I can remember is 8135+8335. The DART25 logo being at the first two carriages as per usual.

The other being a two-carriage train (8137+8337) going to Howth with the same look.

Captain Chaos

It's mad they are still carrying the DART25 logo even though they are now over 30 years old.

petronius

yes the DART logo and colour scheme is naff.
I always thought the colour scheme should be Navy and Light blue!
-
rather than money spent on new logos i would rather cleaner carriages, and better facilities in train stations.

MGWR

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Don't know why they bother with constant rebranding.

The LT/Underground roundel has been around with donkeys years with minimal alteration and still looks fresh. Plus I can't think of any other rail transport logo that's internationally recognised and has what amounts to a bit of a cult following.

Rebranding gives them an excuse to spend money that ought to have otherwise been spent on actual service improvements.