GNER's livery, despite being a corporate scheme that wasn't originally designed for trains, works very well, and has a lot more class than the many of the psychadelic liveries dreamed up by spotty design consultants. Even the disability legislation hasn't ruined it!

Is the image distorted, or does the farthest train in the picture have an especially pointy nose, like a high-speed TGV or Shinkansen?

The farthest train is a high-speed TGV. It is in fact a kind of Eurostar which itself is a kind of TGV.

It owes its existence to one of the more embarassing chapters in the Channel Tunnel's history.

On the subject of rail liveries, a couple of years ago I was talking to a rail executive about this. He explained to me that liveries were not the product of expensive design consultancies but mainly the result of one not-particularly expensive one-man design consultancy.

You get what you pay for.

The GNER acquitted itself well in the past two weeks. I was doing a bit of riding along the old LNER, on a rail pass, and whenever I had the choice of a GNER train or one of the other operators, I opted for the GNER service and didn't regret it. There will be a compare and contrast of European and North American passenger operations at my site in the near future.

A little story about GNER. A couple of years ago, the overhead cabling blew down between Edinburgh and Newcastle, stranding me at Edinburgh. It took GNER 45 minutes from the lines coming down to having us climbing onto coaches for Newcastle. At Newcastle, an army of staff awaited to carry suitcases to the (waiting) train. On board the train were staff with mobiles who set about getting everyone into a seat - telephoning down the carriages to see where spaces remained. These people remained on board as the train set off for London, and worked their way down the train finding connections for everyone, and, failing a connection, taxis. We arrived in London a mere hour late. I was very impressed - I don't know if they can pull this off every time, but once is enough for me.

James Hamilton has hit the nail on the head. GNER have focuused their attention to ensuring the passenger is important and cared for. Both in first and second class, GNER staff are attentive and know their job to satisfy and advise on any difficulty.