New PTV livery for the VLocity

The new PTV-branded VLocity livery (via VicSig)

VicSig tweeted a picture earlier today of the first VLocity to wear the new PTV-branded livery, which no doubt is being prepared for the grand opening of the Ballarat and Bendigo legs of Regional Rail Link next month.

This gem-facet pattern is being slowly phased in, but is ultimately intended to be common to V/Line, Metro trains, Yarra Trams, and the various metropolitan buses - everything that comes under Public Transport Victoria (PTV). A unified approach to this sort of stuff does make them stand out as part of a wider network, and not just a bunch of transport options competing amongst each other, so I am in favour of the initiative as a whole.

The new E-Class tram in the PTV livery (source)

I am a fan of the gem-facet design on the Metro trains and the trams - in addition to the way it brings the different modes together, I think it looks really flash and modern. I am generally wary of wasting money on rebranding and new graphics and colour schemes, when real issues with the system need to be fixed (I'm looking at you, myki) but they're phasing it in slowly as units need a spruce up, so I'm okay with it. But I really don't like the look of it on the VLocity.

A VLocity in its original livery (source)

The issue is the way it's been implemented here. The VLocity is, to my mind, by far the best-looking train in Australia - its sleek, clean lines are streets ahead of anything else. But a large part of this is the paint job. Notice how on the previous liveries, the panels in line with the windows are painted black, to continue those lines? Notice how the different colours below the cabin windows continue the lines that extend back along the length of the train? The original livery did this best, and although they had to add yellow high-visibility sections after the Trawalla crash, they did so in a way that really didn't detract much from those lines.

The current VLocity livery (source)

They could very easily add the gem-facet pattern while retaining the smooth lines of the current livery. Black out the window sections again, and extend the gem-facet pattern at the top of the train along the whole length, instead of stopping part-way as it seems to now. Replace the red stripe immediately below the windows of the current livery with a purple one, and unless there is a good safety reason to have it there, get rid of the extra orange bit below the cabin windows.

Like I said, I'm a fan of the gem-facet pattern, so I think if you made it less messy with those few changes, they would look better than ever before.