ScotRail’s pitch for future battery trains has been derailed by an avoidable own goal after a conference slide appeared to show a British Union of Fascists-style emblem on the side of a train concept image.
The image, shown by managing director Joanne Maguire at the Rail in Scotland event in Edinburgh last week, featured a stylised train with oversized roof batteries and a bold bodyside symbol that critics said matched the BUF logo, raising awkward questions about where the graphic came from and why nobody sanity-checked it before it went on a big screen.
Rail engineer Gareth Dennis summed up the backlash in a post on X: “Top tip: to avoid having the British Union of Fascists logo on the side of your mock-up train, don’t use horrible text-to-image AI slop instead of actual designers and artists.”
Top tip: to avoid having the British Union of Fascists logo on the side of your mock-up train, don’t use horrible text-to-image AI slop instead of actual designers and artists. https://t.co/tGbGPM6Xue pic.twitter.com/r2SbjqlzDV
— Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis) February 2, 2026
ScotRail said the interpretation was wrong and that the symbol was never intended to reference political imagery. “The image included a bolt of electricity to aid the presentation on electric trains,” a spokesperson said. The operator added it had been made clear during the presentation that the image “did not represent what the new trains will look like and was merely a visual aid to support the information being provided to attendees”.
Fleet strategy director Magnus Conn said teams were focused on procurement and that early-stage visuals should not be confused with final design decisions. “Skilled teams across ScotRail are working hard on the procurement process to deliver new trains, which is exciting news for customers who will benefit in the years to come,” Conn said. “The use of these images doesn’t take away from that work, and were used at this early stage in the process to help attendees visualise what new trains could look like.”
ScotRail’s great replacement
Having to explain why a conference slide appeared to place a fascist-era emblem on the side of a train is probably not how ScotRail wanted to be talking about its next fleet, as it moves into the early stages of a multi-billion-pound replacement programme. In Edinburgh, Maguire was trying to keep the focus on the actual pitch: a programme she said would “transform” ScotRail, with new electric and battery trains designed to “enhance accessibility” and improve the passenger offer — and a “whole railway” approach intended to avoid another messy fleet introduction.
The very odd @ScotRail train image – and not just because of the batteries strapped to its roof https://t.co/0vTyDrlxkF
— Alastair Dalton (@AlastairDalton) February 3, 2026
Around 70 per cent of ScotRail’s trains, some 243 of 348 vehicles, are due to be replaced. Refurbished diesel units are set to begin replacing the operator’s ageing Inter7City High Speed Trains from mid-2027, followed by 70 new electric and battery-powered trains in 2031. The Scottish Government had originally said the first new trains would enter service in 2027, meaning the main electric and battery fleets have now slipped by around four years.
Rail chiefs have acknowledged the complexity and reputational risk of another major fleet transition after repeated problems in the past. All five of ScotRail’s previous new fleets over the past 25 years suffered serious introduction issues, and Scottish Rail Holdings chief executive Hannah Ross told the Rail in Scotland conference: “It will be bumpy. I hope it won’t be so bumpy that you ever know anything about it.”
On this occasion, however, it was a slide, not new fleet teething pains, that drew attention. ScotRail has stressed that the conference visuals, including the battery-equipped train graphic at the centre of the controversy, were “not a mock-up” and “don’t represent what any final designs may look like”, but were used only to support early-stage discussion of the programme. Well, it certainly did that…
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