Sussex Thameslink and Southern trains rebranded to show support for NHS workers

Trains in Sussex have been rebranded in a display of gratitude to NHS workers during the fight against coronavirus.
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Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has unveiled three trains on its Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern services paying homage to NHS staff across the UK fighting coronavirus.

The newly painted carriages read 'We Thank You' and feature NHS branding, which the operator said shows its 'heartfelt support and gratitude' to the NHS staff and 200,000 key workers who use GTR's routes every week.

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The Thameslink train, which serves Brighton, stopped at London Bridge on Thursday (April 16) for rail staff to join the national Clap for Carers and commend staff from nearby Guy's Hospital. It has also been renumbered 700111 in thanks to the efforts of the NHS's 111 advice line.

Thameslink's trainThameslink's train
Thameslink's train

Southern Rail's rebranded train has been renumbered as 377111 for the same reason and the Great Northern train echoed the sentiment but, with only 25 trains in the fleet, was numbered 717011.

Steve White, chief operating officer at Govia Thameslink Railway said: “We are proud to be supporting the NHS, social care and emergency services during this crisis. We hope that our NHS and Key Worker trains show how grateful we are to those working so very hard to keep people safe and beat this virus.

"There are more than 50 hospitals across our network and we are carrying more than 200,000 key workers each week. The team at GTR appreciates each and every one of them. I am also really proud of our teams, key staff themselves, who have worked so hard to support this project.”

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The initiative was part-funded by Porterbrook Rail and Cross London Trains, with the new train liveries designed, created and installed in less than a week by the team from Aura Brand Solutions in close collaboration with the team at GTR.

Thameslink's trainThameslink's train
Thameslink's train

Tim Locke, rail director at Aura Brand Solutions, added: “It’s been a pleasure to work on this project with Govia Thameslink to help highlight and support the incredible work the NHS is doing during these unprecedented times. At Aura Brand Solutions, we have remained operational, albeit with a reduced workforce.

"It’s enabled us to continue to support our customers providing essential services with items such as social distancing floor graphics, safety-critical labelling and livery for the core transport infrastructure and the emergency services across the UK. We wrapped the trains using the latest sustainable non-PVC branding technology from 3M.”