(21 Jan 2017, 6:34 pm)thetravelman wrote This may of already been mentioned so my apologies in advance..
Above.. Dan confirmed a total of 21 Streetlites have been purchased, Ten for Durham Diamond and eleven for services 49/49A.
Is there a hint there that the 49/49A are No Longer "Blaydon Racers" since it was detailed as the route number rather than brand. Also the Streetlites that seem to be arriving are in either Durham Diamond colours or in the New GNE corporate livery. Also the fleet lists state that the next ones On Delivery are also Blue & Red colour.
Unless of course the "Blaydon Racers" are going to be given an updated brand look, which seems similar in colours to corporate brand.
Yes - it is something that I noticed myself and brought up on the forum, although in far less detail than yourself.
Could it have done purposefully to refrain from confirming that there will be a change to the brand of the 49/49A, leaving that job down to the Marketing team at Go North East instead or until the first vehicle that will be branded is spotted at Heysham/is delivered to the company? By showing all vehicles as being Red & Blue, it can easily mislead people and stop things from being released onto the public domain before the company wants to.
I only suggest that because it is very rare for them to purchase brand new vehicles for a route that will be unbranded. I don't really see the relevance of the Blaydon Racers brand being attached to the 49/49A anyway, only one of the services actually goes to Blaydon (49), I think they'd be better off dropping the Toon Link brand from the 12/12A and transferring the Blaydon Racers brand over, it would have much more relevance and would give people 1 less reason to moan about the company. No idea what replacement brand I would suggest for the 49/49A though.