Rail Alphabet is a
typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
designed by
Jock KinneirRichard 'Jock' Kinneir was a typographer and graphic designer who, with colleague Margaret Calvert, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom. Their system has become a model for modern road signage....
and
Margaret CalvertMargaret Calvert is a typographer and graphic designer who, along with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain, as well as the Rail Alphabet used on the British railway system and an early version of the signs used in airports.After moving to England...
for British Railways. First used by them in signing tests at London's
Liverpool Street StationLiverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major railway station and connected London Underground station in the north eastern corner of the City of London in England...
, it was then adopted by the
Design Research UnitThe Design Research Unit was one of the first generation of British design consultancies that sought to offer a wide range of specialist services covering the design spectrum. In the wake of discussions with Marcus Bramwell, managing director of Stuart's Advertising Agency, it was established in...
(DRU) as part of their comprehensive 1965 rebranding of the company.
Rail Alphabet is similar, but not identical, to a bold weight of
HelveticaHelvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.-History:Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein, Switzerland...
(and, not quite as similar,
Akzidenz GroteskAkzidenz-Grotesk is a realist sans-serif typeface originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1896 under the title Accidenz-Grotesk. It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later neo-grotesque typefaces...
or
ArialArial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X, Openoffice.org, and many PostScript computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders...
). Akzidenz Grotesk had earlier also provided the same designers the broad inspiration for the
TransportTransport is a sans serif typeface designed for road signs in the United Kingdom. It was created between 1957 and 1963 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert as part of their work as designers for the Department of Transport's Anderson and Worboys committees....
typeface used for all road signs in the United Kingdom.
The DRU's 1965 rebranding of British Rail included a new logo (the double arrow), a shortened name
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
, and the total adoption of Rail Alphabet on station signage, trackside signs, train liveries and corporate communications materials.
Rail Alphabet is a
typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
designed by
Jock KinneirRichard 'Jock' Kinneir was a typographer and graphic designer who, with colleague Margaret Calvert, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom. Their system has become a model for modern road signage....
and
Margaret CalvertMargaret Calvert is a typographer and graphic designer who, along with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain, as well as the Rail Alphabet used on the British railway system and an early version of the signs used in airports.After moving to England...
for British Railways. First used by them in signing tests at London's
Liverpool Street StationLiverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major railway station and connected London Underground station in the north eastern corner of the City of London in England...
, it was then adopted by the
Design Research UnitThe Design Research Unit was one of the first generation of British design consultancies that sought to offer a wide range of specialist services covering the design spectrum. In the wake of discussions with Marcus Bramwell, managing director of Stuart's Advertising Agency, it was established in...
(DRU) as part of their comprehensive 1965 rebranding of the company.
Rail Alphabet is similar, but not identical, to a bold weight of
HelveticaHelvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.-History:Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein, Switzerland...
(and, not quite as similar,
Akzidenz GroteskAkzidenz-Grotesk is a realist sans-serif typeface originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1896 under the title Accidenz-Grotesk. It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later neo-grotesque typefaces...
or
ArialArial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X, Openoffice.org, and many PostScript computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders...
). Akzidenz Grotesk had earlier also provided the same designers the broad inspiration for the
TransportTransport is a sans serif typeface designed for road signs in the United Kingdom. It was created between 1957 and 1963 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert as part of their work as designers for the Department of Transport's Anderson and Worboys committees....
typeface used for all road signs in the United Kingdom.
British Rail Usage
The DRU's 1965 rebranding of British Rail included a new logo (the double arrow), a shortened name
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
, and the total adoption of Rail Alphabet on station signage, trackside signs, train liveries and corporate communications materials. 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
SealinkSealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom, operating services to France, Belgium, Netherlands, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland....
ships until that company's privatisation in the late 1980s.
By the end of the 1980s, British Rail's various business units were developing their own
individual brands and identitiesBritish Rail was the brand image of the nationalised railway owner and operator in Great Britain, the British Railways Board, used from its formation in 1965, until its breakup and sell-off from 1993 onwards....
with use of Rail Alphabet declining as a consequence. The typeface remained in near-universal use for signage at railway stations but began to be replaced with alternatives in other areas, such as in
InterCityInterCity was introduced by British Rail in 1966 as a brand-name for its long-haul express passenger services ....
's 1989
'Mark 4' passenger carriagesBritish Rail's fourth design of passenger carriages was designated Mark 4, designed for use in InterCity 225 sets on the newly-electrified East Coast Main Line between London, Leeds, and Edinburgh.-History and construction:...
which made use of
FrutigerFrutiger is a series of typefaces named after its designer, Adrian Frutiger. Initially available as a sans serif, it was later expanded to include ornamental and serif typefaces.-Frutiger:...
for much of their interior signage.
The privatisation of British Rail from 1994 accelerated 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 their own corporate identities for station signage and publicity. Some of the privatised train operators, such as
Arriva Trains WalesArriva Trains Wales is a train operating company that operates urban and inter urban passenger services in Wales and the Welsh Marches. Its busiest stations are Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street and Newport...
,
First Great WesternFirst Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup, which operates services in the west and south west of England and South Wales....
and
MerseyrailMerseyrail is the name given to the electric commuter rail network, centred on Liverpool in the metropolitan county of Merseyside in England. The system has 67 stations spread across 75 miles of track, and runs underground and overground, carrying over 100,000 passengers each day...
have continued to use the typeface for station signage and its use is still prescribed for trackside warning signs and safety/operating notices within the trains themselves.
Usage Outside British Rail
The
National Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the name commonly used to refer to the publicly-funded health care services in Great Britain. In England the name National Health Service is used without further qualification whereas the services in Scotland and Wales are known as NHS Scotland and NHS Wales...
in England and Wales adopted Rail Alphabet for its signage and it is still the dominant typeface used in signage in and around hospitals. It ceased to be used in new builds in the late 1990s. The English NHS now uses Frutiger while
NHS ScotlandNHS Scotland is the publicly funded healthcare system of Scotland. Although they are separate bodies the organisational separation between NHS Scotland and the other three healthcare organisations each commonly called the National Health Service in the United Kingdom tends to be hidden from its...
uses Stone Sans.
Rail Alphabet was also widely used for signage by the British Airports Authority and by Danish railway company DSB.
New Rail Alphabet
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 a set of Eastern European characters..
See also
- Transport Typeface
Transport is a sans serif typeface designed for road signs in the United Kingdom. It was created between 1957 and 1963 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert as part of their work as designers for the Department of Transport's Anderson and Worboys committees....
- Another font designed by Kinneir & Calvert for use on UK road signs.
- Johnston Typeface
Johnston is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The capitals of the typeface are based on Roman square capitals, and the lower-case on the humanistic minuscule, the handwriting in use in Italy in the fifteenth century...
- The typeface used by London UndergroundThe London Underground, Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. The first section opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world, and, starting in...
, designed by Edward Johnston.
- Public signage typefaces