Great British Railways rebrand costs UK taxpayers £30,000, figures reveal

Its red, white and blue design features a double arrow, reminiscent of the former publicly owned British Rail.

The branding will be rolled out from the spring to trains, websites and train stations, the Government has said.

Ms Alexander insisted it was not "just a paint job" and instead "represents a new railway" aimed at "casting off the frustrations of the past and focused entirely on delivering a proper public service for passengers".

But new figures show the rebrand cost £32,400.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said £27,000 of this total, excluding VAT, was spent on audience and accessibility testing through a specialist agency.

"This testing ensured that the branding unveiled and deployed would deliver against the Government’s objectives for GBR and meet the needs of a variety of users with different accessibility needs," it said.

Thinktank TaxPayers' Alliance warned the figures are "simply the tip of a costly rail renationalisation iceberg".

Chief executive, John O'Connell, told Sky News: "This is just Whitehall playing with logos while passengers pay more for nationalised trains that have no guarantee of providing better services."

A spokesman for the DfT said: "To maximise value for money, the GBR brand was designed in-house, and will be rolled out gradually, rather than as an expensive exercise painting all the trains and stations in one go.

"As you'd expect with any new brand, the process included focus groups, including those with accessibility needs, which was done to fully comply with relevant accessibility legislation."

Upon revealing GBR's rebrand in December last year, the Transport Secretary told GB News Britain's rail network was "entering a new era" which "people can be proud of".

She said: "This Government is serious about bringing change to our railways for decades.

"People have experienced delays, cancellations.

"I'm pleased to say that when you look at the train operating companies that are in public ownership at the moment, we've got lower cancellation rates than the train operating companies that are still privately operated.

"It is an exciting moment as we nationalise the railways, we stop the leakage of money to the private train operating companies.

"Up to £150million a year has been paid in management fees in recent years to those train operating companies.

"We're stopping that by bringing the train operating companies back into public ownership."

"I think this is where we're entering a new era when it comes to the the rail network in Britain, a rail network that people can be proud of and one in which they can rely on," she added.