National Rail went grey in memory of Prince Philip and it didn’t end well – 9 favourite responses
The good people of National Rail – @nationalrailenq on Twitter – thought they would do their bit to mark the death of Prince Philip by turning their entire website black and white.
It wasn’t just a slightly odd gesture – we’re not sure how often the Duke of Edinburgh could be found checking when the next train left Windsor & Eton Central – it was also a hugely unhelpful one as many people found it incredibly hard to read.
And it wasn’t just passengers who struggled to use it, it turned out, but their own staff.
As a mark of respect for Prince Philip, National Rail have made their employees unable to read the National Rail timetable pic.twitter.com/yyl7OXbF5L
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 12, 2021
And these are our 9 favourite things people said about it.
1.
National Rail greyscaled their website to mourn the death of Prince Philip and its causing utter chaos for the visually impaired. Its what he would have wanted I guess. pic.twitter.com/zMfFC9ZpBD
— Beeb (@ybees3) April 11, 2021
2.
National rail have coloured their entire website grey to “mourn Prince Phillip”, rendering the whole website completely useless to people with visual impairments. The UK has completely lost the plot pic.twitter.com/5OKWAFXDWR
— socks is socially distancing (@carseatarmrest) April 11, 2021
3.
if it wasn’t so utterly mad, I’d be quite enjoying National Rail’s performative grayscale mourning modern art piece on their website, livened up by their employees live tweeting the nonsense with gems such as ‘I am SO sorry, I get it, I can’t even read what I’m typing mate’
— Sorcha Ní Nia (@Luiseach) April 12, 2021
4.
[NATIONAL RAIL MARKETING MEETING]
MANAGER: We need to do something for Prince Philip’s passing
COPYWRITER: I could write a respectful message for the front page?
MANAGER: Needs to be bigger
DESIGNER: …
…
…
goth website.CW: But —
ALL [whispering]: goth website… pic.twitter.com/kGAyh4I5TR
— Helen. (@HelenGradwell) April 12, 2021
5.
At this point, I really just want to live in a basically normal country. A country where the national rail services thinks – you know what – we won’t “greyscale the entire webpage” because an unelected “prince” died at the age of 99 amid a pandemic that’s killed 150,000+
— Philip Proudfoot 🟨🟥 (@PhilipProudfoot) April 12, 2021
6.
You’re all mocking national rail but the British weather has also turned grey in tribute to Prince Philip
— Ian Ford (@ij_ford) April 12, 2021
7.
Many thanks to National Rail for making all my future talks on why senior staff need to understand digital accessibility much, much easier. pic.twitter.com/5HVcbiHK8i
— John Bull (@garius) April 12, 2021
8.
So it’s not just National Rail. Seems other government websites have gone black and white too. This degree of mourning simply invites ridicule. pic.twitter.com/xtVv4FqBfD
— Otto English (@Otto_English) April 12, 2021
9.
Congratulations to…. the National Rail website on unexpectedly becoming Twitter’s leading character for the day!
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) April 12, 2021
Eventually so many people complained that it went back to colour. But there were still options for people who wanted to plan their journey in black and white.
Network Rail has re-emerged in glorious technicolor after its RIP-HRH-greyscale proved inaccessible for colourblind users and employees. CrossCountry still holding out, but at least included a “toggle greyscale” button https://t.co/XGXyyl45G9 pic.twitter.com/8cHY2SBazP
— Katie Deighton (@DollyDeighton) April 12, 2021
The least they could have done was spell the Duke’s name right.
Have just seen that National Rail have turned their website black and white for Prince Philip (really bad for accessibility) but not spelled his name correctly. https://t.co/ODhtG9Rfaj pic.twitter.com/mhDyp50qQj
— Jonathan Haynes (@JonathanHaynes) April 12, 2021
To conclude …
A small thing, a humble gesture, but perhaps my favourite absurdity thus far. https://t.co/g1bvMr1fDP
— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) April 12, 2021
Nobody asked for it, nobody expected it, but we decided to hinder the utility of a website for quite a lot of people and now we’ll endeavour to put it right. Thank you for your patience.
— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) April 12, 2021
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Radio 1 Dance when Prince Philip’s death was announced is peak Britain
Source Twitter @nationalrailenq
