The trainbow was started by Transport for London in June 2015 by decorating two DLR B92 trains for Pride in London, after previously doing it on a Routemaster bus and a London taxi under the phase "Ride with Pride".[1] After the success of the interest in rainbow-decorated light rail carriages, other train operating companies started decorating trains in rainbow colours and LGBT symbols, notably starting in 2018. Later, the hashtag#trainbow came out on Twitter as a reference to these rainbow coloured trains.
Notable trainbows include a GWRClass 800 IET Alan Turing, serial number 800008, which has rainbow stripes on the front,[2] the Avanti West CoastClass 390 Pendolino Progress, serial number 390119, the first one that is covered from end-to-end in pride colours,[3] and the LNERClass 801 Azuma Together, serial number 801226, which has multiple stripes based on various pride flags.[4]
Germany has a number of trains which have been wrapped with rainbow decals. It first started in July 2021 with an ICE 3 nicknamed Rainbow Train (serial number 403 504-4), having its famous red stripe replaced with a rainbow stripe to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Deutsche Bahn's LGBT+ employee network, railbow.[12][13]
Trainbows were immortalised in miniature form in August 2023 when Hornby Railways began selling a miniature version of the GWR's Alan Turing train.[14]
While NI Railways wrapped two NIR Class 3000 units with trainbows (serial numbers 3006 and 3021) in April 2020, they are dedicated to the local health service instead of LGBT causes as part of a COVID-19-related marketing campaign called #ChaseTheRainbow.[15][16]
Influence on other transport
Since the creation of trainbows, other forms of transport in the UK, including regional buses,[17][18] and even a LoganairEmbraer 145 plane, have marked Pride.[19][20]