All companies introducing branding must have their business plans completely wrong - Stagecoach included! Clearly my mam isn't a 'customer' either...

Customers really aren't as daft as you make them out to be. Have you ever been on a bus when brand new? Heard customers talking about the brand new buses and comparing them to the old ones?

Branding, noises from the bus, on-board facilities such as Wi-Fi and power sockets, even the location of the emergency exit door, all suggest how old a bus is to normal customers - or at least from personal experience on-board brand new vehicles from various companies, this is the case... Clearly you think differently!

Got to agree here, some of our customers still think the Cadets are brand new because they see a nice clean, recently (ish) refurbished bus! Despite the fact they're 14 years old now.

Got to agree here, some of our customers still think the Cadets are brand new because they see a nice clean, recently (ish) refurbished bus! Despite the fact they're 14 years old now.

One thing I've noticed when travelling on SNE 27740, is that passengers seemingly think there's a correlation between leather seating and the bus being new.
I'd argue that it's not really a new bus anymore (given that so many new buses have been introduced to SNE's fleet since), but on almost every occasion when I've travelled on it, I've heard an older person mention that it's a new bus because of the leather seats.

Can't remember now, but I'm fairly sure that Arriva's "Max" upgrade has leather seating involved in the bundle too? Could only assume that they're on the same wavelength as customers in that respect, if so.

I bet the cleaners enjoy cleaning 27740 and 19194/6/7 because leather is a lot easier to clean than fabric seating, since leather only needs wiping, not a good scrubbing.

You seem to think the seats get cleaned.......trust me, they don't lol

Can't remember now, but I'm fairly sure that Arriva's "Max" upgrade has leather seating involved in the bundle too? Could only assume that they're on the same wavelength as customers in that respect, if so.

It does. I'd asked in the order thread and tyresmoke confirmed.

22489 working 52 in Stockton today

Hartlepool Enviro 39674 was seen on service 1 earlier, normally home to Pointer Darts

E400 19194 is also on the "E" services, with its rear display showing "A6" instead of "E6". This must be the same E400 that shows "34" instead of "X34" on its rear display.

This happened during the Olympics too. All of the Enviros loaned had A1/A2/A6 on rear.

Service 4 operated by a mixture of Enviros today - some of the older 36xxx ones, some of the new 36xxx ones and at least one gas bus (I saw the one with no rear branding on the window).

22067 was on the "E" services today. It operated the 16:10 E1 from Park Lane Interchange - which was running approximately 10 minutes late at the time.

27732 spent the day on 17/18 yesterday

39729 covering for a similar ADL example on service 4 in Sunderland today. The MAN examples have been everywhere this week, including service 8, 12 and 13. Only real unusual one was service 12 though, which was 39727 on Wednesday if memory serves!

I've just caught a glimpse of a 'Sunderland Bus' branded ADL example on service 5 too.

37 branded MAN 22063 on service 13 today, probably off for paint I would guess

27732 and 27739 on the 17/18 today

36-branded E300 24103 on 13s (0847 from Salters Lane).

Hartlepool E200 39669 on service 1 today, 1015ish from Middlesbrough

Second E300 wandering - 24109 is spending the day on 58s then onto 52s until midnight.

24113 on 11s

27736 on 17/8

According to the SNE twitter page, the 12:05 service 17 from Whiteleas Shops broke down. So that E300 may have replaced the broken down bus.

In addition, the 15:35 Service 30 from Boldon ASDA has apparently broke down as well, so its turning out to be a bad day for South Shields Depot. Though, it will give the engineers plenty of work to do.

coincidently i saw it on the 17

Like normal the 4 is allocated a gas bus, which i think is 28016.

Second E300 wandering - 24109 is spending the day on 58s then onto 52s until midnight.

Alas it didn't stay on there til now - instead the xx50 52s this evening are in the hands of 37-branded ALX300 22062 (which means 22061-3 are all out this evening) while the xx20 trips, which this morning was allocated 22197, instead has 24111 which replaced 17027 at 1920.

22012/210 are both on 36s this evening - 22210 was a replacement for 22062!

36-branded E300 24103 on 13s (0847 from Salters Lane).

And on the same working today we have 24107.

24115 on 13 to

27732 on 17/8

21155 was on the 40 this morning.

22413 on 62/63