national rail

National Rail changes entire booking site grey out of respect for Prince Philip

But even staff admit they’re finding it hard to use


National Rail has changed its main booking site from blue to grey out of respect for Prince Philip, who passed away on Friday morning.

Following several complaints from Twitter users, including one posted from the official National Rail account from a staff member, a spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, which runs National Rail Enquiries, confirmed to The Tab that they have since changed the site back to blue to make it easier to use.

“The National Rail Enquiries website was temporarily greyscaled as a mark of respect following the death of HRH Duke of Edinburgh on Friday,” they said. “We are listening to feedback about how people are using the website and have made further changes today to make it more accessible to all our customers.”

Following the announcement of the initial colour change, several Twitter users complained that the website was now hard to use, including an interaction from the official National Rail account showing that one of their own staff members was “struggling to read” content on the website whilst it was coloured differently.

In an official governmental guideline published on Saturday, which outlines how websites and social media accounts can respect the mourning period with their content, it is suggested that social media profiles and websites may reflect upon the death of Prince Philip by changing their colours to black.

“Online communication channels may also choose to reflect the death of The Duke of Edinburgh and participate in the period of national mourning. Organisations, such as those of which His Royal Highness was patron, could modify the homepage of their site to feature a visual indication of mourning, for example the use of black edging or black banners.”

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