18 Dec 2015, 6:41 pm
#282
(18 Dec 2015, 5:58 pm)Greg in Weardale Quite a few young people on this forum lamented the passing of the OK Expressway livery and Northern, Venture and Diamond all refer to historic operators around the area now served by the brands. There's nowt wrong with having some traditionally named brands and liveries along with some modern, trendy ones. The X21 is now an ideal case for the former. And several brands (some good, some not) have been replaced recently eg Highwayman to Green Arrow, (quite liked both), Laser (so so) to See it, do it (naff), Lime (stupid name) to Coast & Country (not bad) etc. Pronto is a pretty silly name and not a brilliant livery. The Bishop - Newcastle route was the main line of OK (for both constituent companies, Emerson and Howe) so there's a relevance there, (which there wasn't with the OK1 route) and it was a brilliant livery. I hope Prince Bishops will be kept as it's a good brand (being pedantic, it would have more relevance to a Durham (Cathedral) to Bishop Auckland (home of the Bishop) route, but the name does cover the whole area as the "Land of the Prince Bishops" because in mediaeval times the Bishop ruled what is now County Durham and Northumberland in the name of the King (end of history lesson).
That's only the case to enthusiasts though, other people I know who are around the same age as me (I'm 21) who aren't enthusiasts (some of whom live on the X21 route) will not know anything of the fact that OK was a bus company that existed in the past and branding the bus as "OK Expressway" will make no difference to them or any branding name whether it's called "OK Expressway" "Pronto" or anything else, the only thing they will identify with the branding is that the bus is branded for service X21. Also know people living on Durham Diamond and Venture routes and they won't know the significance of these brandings.
(18 Dec 2015, 6:05 pm)S813 FVK Some brands just don't work without vinyls going over the windows with the Prince Bishops being one of them. Contravision is easy to see out of in the day when it is light and, to be honest, it doesn't matter when it is dark as you won't be able to see much anyway.
Contravision is a bit difficult to see out of when it is raining, I once had Arriva's 1493 on the 7 one morning when it had that vinyl advertisement promoting the 1/X1 and I struggled to tell where I was. I think a bit of Contravision is fine so long as it doesn't totally cover the windows.
