(18 Apr 2022, 8:01 pm)Jack Gill wrote I'm gonna guess that 6332 and 6333 will be the next ones painted into 2019?

(18 Apr 2022, 8:01 pm)Jack Gill wrote I'm gonna guess that 6332 and 6333 will be the next ones painted into 2019?

(19 Apr 2022, 12:00 pm)Storx wrote They should've painted them into blue X-Lines for the X21 imo and have the two oddball B5TL's plus 6331 as the Chester Le Street spares for the 21/X21 since visually and interior wise they're identical.

Be an improvement over 6172 - 6182 which are on daily lately.

(19 Apr 2022, 12:00 pm)Storx wrote They should've painted them into blue X-Lines for the X21 imo and have the two oddball B5TL's plus 6331 as the Chester Le Street spares for the 21/X21 since visually and interior wise they're identical.

Be an improvement over 6172 - 6182 which are on daily lately.

(19 Apr 2022, 1:20 pm)KingSlayerRBLX wrote i dont think they would repaint them back into the X-Lines Blue as they came off the X21 to do the X45/X46/X47

(19 Apr 2022, 2:00 pm)Drifter60 wrote Well if the vehicles need painting out of X45/X46 it doesn’t really matter if it goes gold and blue or red and blue? 

Just goes to show an element of truth in the “needless” painting of buses raised by some. Vehicles repainted out of a livery, but now service cuts mean the new livery given is no longer appropriate so they need painting again! X21 has 7 branded vehicles for a 9 PVR.

(19 Apr 2022, 1:55 pm)L469 YVK wrote I agree with you there and actually been thinking that myself. Never been a fan of the Volvo B5TLs though if I'm honest. However, the G2 StreetDecks did well on the X21.

I do hope that if there are future service changes that GNE review and re-allocate a more suitable type for the X21 either in the form of newer StreetDecks or E400MMCs. The X21 has never had a solid allocation of trusted vehicles even dating back to the Pronto days.

The fact that GNE were contemplating a replacement for the B5TLs on the X9/X10 when they were barely 2 year old (that was just before COVID & the coaches.......no doubt would've ended up with OM936 StreetDecks if not for COVID) speaks volumes. The B9TLs they replaced although with a struggle, lasted 5 years on the X9/X10.

(19 Apr 2022, 2:14 pm)Dan wrote I don't think it goes to show an element of truth in the "needless" painting at all. Whilst a lot of enthusiasts are jumping on the bandwagon to point the finger and cast aspergens on how much money is being 'wasted' on paint, there is a reason and rationale behind every bus being repainted at the moment.

It goes to show the disadvantages of route branding when the network is clearly as fragile as it is. It goes to show that if buses weren't route branded, these vehicles could move around and there'd be no issues at all... But how effective route branding is, and the pros and cons of this, is a completely separate issue to the one being discussed here.

(20 Apr 2022, 8:44 am)Drifter60 wrote I’m not sure you can lay that line just at the door of enthusiasts either. It’s your own colleagues who’ve said this, there’s been articles in the local press which is more damming for the company than a couple of people on a bus forum, albeit many of which who are customers too. 

Which ever way you look at it, whatever the pros and cons, money has been ‘wasted’ on paint. It might be that painting buses into new colours every year helps boost customers, but which ever way you look at it GNE are throwing about money on paint. How many paint jobs would a 5 year old bus usually receive? 6332 has been in ‘Hop Tap and Go’ then ‘XLINES X21’ then ‘XLINES X45/X46’ and now presumably into corporate or perhaps XLINES X21 again.

• delivered new in a livery to promote contactless payments
  
• repainted into X-lines X21 livery due to PVR increase on service X21 (and service's encapsulation into X-lines network)
  
• partial (back end) repaint into X-lines X45/X46 livery due to fleet re-allocations to improve reliability on service X21
  
• full repaint out of X-lines X45/X46 livery due to PVR reduction on these services.
  

(20 Apr 2022, 11:52 am)Dan wrote I don't think I can add anything else to what I said previously - you haven't made a new point here really.

The Northern Echo love a story about buses - whether that's Go North East or Arriva - it's huge click-bait and that's how they make their money. Their reporters will happily admit that, so if one member of staff chooses to go to them or share an internal briefing with them, they will report on it.

As I said before, I don't agree with the claims that it's money 'wasted'. Nobody can deny that Go North East has done an awful amount of work on marketing and promoting its bus services and whilst it's open to debate whether new brands achieve any kind of growth, clearly the company or its management team think that this works and is something that will continue to happen. Stagecoach probably repaint an equal number of buses as Go North East, and Arriva are currently repainting/refurbishing many of their buses too. You don't hear about this though. Again, as I said before, this is really a debate about route branding - might some of these repaints have been avoided if Go North East didn't have individual route brands?

For 6332:

• delivered new in a livery to promote contactless payments
  
• repainted into X-lines X21 livery due to PVR increase on service X21 (and service's encapsulation into X-lines network)
  
• partial (back end) repaint into X-lines X45/X46 livery due to fleet re-allocations to improve reliability on service X21
  
• full repaint out of X-lines X45/X46 livery due to PVR reduction on these services.
  

So in that, two full repaints and one partial repaint in five years - but some of the comments I've seen on social media have heavily exaggerated this to the point you'd have thought it had been fully repainted 5+ times. None of these repaints have been 'needless', they've been done because the company has route branded buses...

(20 Apr 2022, 12:29 pm)cbma06 wrote even though martijn has said that service 5 and 9 will not be branded routes, but you have branded buses running those 2 services

(20 Apr 2022, 1:09 pm)Unber43 wrote Also who thought having branded buses but not incorporating there route number on the side, you could easily get confused and get on the X71, if its a 47 branded bus. Or if its a X45.

(20 Apr 2022, 1:20 pm)F114TML wrote And leaving all information about the route itself to be the job of the rear destination screen (hope it's a full length one in that case, unlike the Versas on the 2)- Would it not hurt to put a schematic diagram showing the route on? Doesn't even have to be as detailed as the one inside.

(20 Apr 2022, 4:01 pm)omnicity4659 wrote 6336 now has blue front panel.

(20 Apr 2022, 4:04 pm)L469 YVK wrote I didn't rate it on the OmniDekka but it actually suits the E400MMC.

(20 Apr 2022, 4:01 pm)omnicity4659 wrote 6336 now has blue front panel.

(20 Apr 2022, 4:01 pm)omnicity4659 wrote 6336 now has blue front panel.

(21 Apr 2022, 8:25 am)ne14ne1 wrote Shouldn’t be surprised, they love a bit of inconsistency.

(21 Apr 2022, 8:42 am)streetdeckfan wrote Any photos?

I can't imagine it looking very good

(21 Apr 2022, 8:44 am)Dan wrote As much as you love a pop at them!

(21 Apr 2022, 1:22 pm)ne14ne1 wrote https://flic.kr/p/2nfMwCD

(21 Apr 2022, 1:24 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Yeah, looks awful!

Why couldn't they stop the blue just a bit higher, at the end of the panel, would have looked a bit better. The shadow is what ruins it for me

(21 Apr 2022, 1:22 pm)ne14ne1 wrote https://flic.kr/p/2nfMwCD