How's this for a blast from the past? The red, white and blue livery of Network SouthEast is back — and you can ride it out to the seaside this summer.
Anyone of a certain vintage from south-east England will recognise the colour scheme, which used to adorn Network SouthEast's fleet of trains. Network SouthEast was the branch of British Rail which operated train services in the region, including London commuter services, between 1986 and 1994.
Back in February 2025, Southeastern Railway — which now manages a large section of Network SouthEast's former territory — repainted one of its Class 465 Networker units (number 465908) in the vintage livery, as part of the Railway 200 celebrations. Named after Chris Green, who oversaw the creation of Network SouthEast, the carriage has been in regular use on Southeastern services since.
With summer coming, Southeastern has announced it'll be running its seaside specials again, putting on extra services between London and coastal towns such as Whitstable, Herne Bay, Broadstairs, Margate and Hastings, across Kent and East Sussex, starting from Sunday 18 May.
Even better, Southeastern has confirmed on X that the repainted unit 465908 will be operating on some of these 'Bucket & Spade' specials, starting with the 08:18 Cannon Street to Ramsgate on Saturday 24 May. That means you can hop on the retro-painted train and make like it's 1990 all over again. The train fare — and the cost of your fish and chips — alas, will remain at 2025 prices.
