European Railroad Discussion > One Railway

The origin of the name One came from the fact that prior to the creation of the Greater Anglia franchise in 2004 there were three operators across East Anglia; First Great Eastern, West Anglia Great Northern and Anglia Railways, and the three became one. It must have sounded very clever when the marketing agency pitched it, but it was quite silly on the ground.

I rather liked One, it had an interesting livery (for a start it wasn't grey) and unlike many other operators at the time the franchise covered almost all services across East Anglia; commuter, regional, branch line and Inter-City. Only the Norwich to Liverpool, Stansted Airport to Birmingham and King's Cross to Cambridge and King's Lynn routes were excluded from the One franchise.

In time National Express, in trying to create a common corporate ID for their rail operations, re-branded One National Express East Anglia (NXEA) with an essentially grey livery, which sadly was perpetuated by its successor Abellio Greater Anglia, a subsidiary of the Dutch State Railway (NS).

Here's a reminder of more colourful times

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86235 Wrote:
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> The origin of the name One came from the fact that
> prior to the creation of the Greater Anglia
> franchise in 2004 there were three operators
> across East Anglia; First Great Eastern, West
> Anglia Great Northern and Anglia Railways, and the
> three became one. It must have sounded very clever
> when the marketing agency pitched it, but it was
> quite silly on the ground.
>
> I rather liked One, it had an interesting livery
> (for a start it wasn't grey) and unlike many other
> operators at the time the franchise covered almost
> all services across East Anglia; commuter,
> regional, branch line and Inter-City. Only the
> Norwich to Liverpool, Stansted Airport to
> Birmingham and King's Cross to Cambridge and
> King's Lynn routes were excluded from the One
> franchise.
>
> In time National Express, in trying to create a
> common corporate ID for their rail operations,
> re-branded One National Express East Anglia (NXEA)
> with an essentially grey livery, which sadly was
> perpetuated by its successor Abellio Greater
> Anglia, a subsidiary of the Dutch State Railway
> (NS).
>
> Here's a reminder of more colourful times

I thought 'ONE' was an acronym? For 'Operated by National Express'?

Posted from Android

Never heard that one in my time living in East Anglia.

Hexagon789 Wrote:
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> I thought 'ONE' was an acronym? For 'Operated by
> National Express'?

You're not getting confused with 'ocean network express' are you?
 

exhaustED Wrote:
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> Hexagon789 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I thought 'ONE' was an acronym? For 'Operated
> by
> > National Express'?
>
> You're not getting confused with 'ocean network
> express' are you?
>  

Oh you would know if it was Ocean Network Express, they really, really love the colour Fuchsia!

exhaustED Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hexagon789 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I thought 'ONE' was an acronym? For 'Operated
> by
> > National Express'?
>
> You're not getting confused with 'ocean network
> express' are you?
>  

Not quite ;)

Posted from Android

Hexagon789 Wrote:
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> exhaustED Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hexagon789 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I thought 'ONE' was an acronym? For 'Operated
> > by
> > > National Express'?
> >
> > You're not getting confused with 'ocean network
> > express' are you?
> >  
>
> Not quite ;)
>
> Posted from Android

Seems popular enough with rail companies as well