25 Jan 2021, 2:29 pm
#762
(25 Jan 2021, 10:35 am)Dan ...which is largely what the strategy is, but sadly the perception seems to be that it's either black or white and no in between!
There may be a subtle nod to one of the colours on cross-boundary services; such as how Cityrider and Crusader includes red at the rear, Cobalt & Coast includes blue at the rear, and Connections4 includes pink at the front, but it's not the be all and end all, 'farce' and 'flawed strategy' that it's being made out to be, due to a very small reference included within an internal team briefing.
But having a local livery/core colour scheme for the minibus routes isn’t anything new, certainly much longer than the two years mentioned. East Durham/North Tyne Links/Venture did that going back (approx) ten years ago. No criticism from me on that policy. But it’s impossible to do it any further that that, realistically, that’s the point. How on earth you try to tie that in with every other bus in a town/area is flawed.
Connections 4 going blue/pink might having very subtle references in very limited sections to the soon to be Little Pinks 84 route (Concord Bus Station & Lingey Lane being the only two common sections) but that’s it. I’m not sure anyone in Washington is going to think the Connection 4 having a bit of pink means it’s anymore a Go North East bus than the currently red Black Cats 2/2A buses or the gold/red X-lines X1.
Also ‘Little Pinks’. As someone who isn’t massively fan of ‘Little Coasters’ as a concept you can guess my opinion on that one. One question where is the Big Pink? ‘Little Coasters’ works (although personally not a fan of that naming strategy) because of the ‘main’ or ‘Big’ Coaster 1 service which goes further afield. There is no big pink in Washington. And if Connections 4 is meant to do that,
well it’s not even prominently pink? The new livery looks 70% blue. And also doesn’t reference ‘pink’ in its brand name. It’s almost as if indiGo had to go at all costs, for whatever reason, and no one had any other ideas. *
EDIT: I’ve got mixed up with the buses! All this talk of colours
But if we’re taking it too literally, and routes such as Prince Bishops, Coast & Country, Drifter won’t necessarily have a forced colour change, then I don’t know how else to take it, that’s in any way different to how branding worked previously?
