(02 Aug 2018, 8:33 pm)BeachBoy99 wrote I love having discussions on here.   

As much as I like their liveries, Arriva are terrible with them - in this region especially.

The "new" Sapphire livery was launched early last year, yet there are still only two brands in the North East which have been refurbished to the new specifications (1|5|5A and X21|X22). Even these brands still have vehicles in the old livery, which is odd. I don't see how the new Sapphire livery "adds more sparkle"... the interiors of the vehicles and the general experience of to the ride in the new livery are no different from that of the old. Perhaps if the flooring texture looked realistic to sapphires, WiFi had no data limit to passengers, USB and power sockets actually worked, and the seating could be cleaned more often and easily, then the new Sapphire brand would be a huge step-up for Arriva and be worth rebranding. Sadly, this isn't the case so a pointless rebrand has come out of it.

What is Interurban - is it another name for MAX?

Interurban is not another name for MAX, It is a slightly updated version of the previous Arriva livery. The difference being that with interurban there is not a cream front.

Photo 1 - Previous Version

Photo 2 - Interurban

Both of the liveries above should now be outdated and should be being phased out but with Arriva who knows. 2817 being painted into the frequenta base (which is interurban without the painted cream horn) suggests that maybe these buses will not receive the new standard livery before the end of their lives and 2817 was done to better match the rest. As always with Arriva I feel its just a guessing game as buses such as 1924 get the new livery but 7524 - 7528 remain in the old livery rather than matching to 7541 - 7552.