(17 Sep 2020, 9:59 am)tcts24 wrote In 38 years of being alive, at no point do I ever remember assuming 2 different services went to the same places because of similarities in route number. When I was a child, United service 10 from Middlesbrough went to Hartlepool, United and Northern joint service X10 went to Newcastle (as it still does), so it's nothing new.
Route numbers exist for customers to differentiate between what bus goes where. Stood in Sunderland and looking for a bus to Souter Lighthouse, having buses with only a destination of "South Shields" on it's and no number isn't too helpful as they all take seperate routes. As they're numbered either 20, E1, E2, or E6, then it's easy to identify that I'd need to be on the E1 to South Shields. Those four routes could respectively be numbered 974, 74G, EGY74 and D74J and it would would make no difference at all, because I'd still know which bus I'd need to catch to Souter Lighthouse, regardless of whatever route identifier it's displaying.
The use of dots and dashes is novel, but could potentially cause the confusion your trying to avoid between a 1.1 and 11. The use of alphanumeric indentifiers for route variations are more legible on a destination board.
And suggesting that it's "fair enough" for seperate operators to number their routes similarly is bizarre. From my experience of talking to people, the average person on the street can not identify one operator from another. This is especially relevant when dealing with Go-Ahead, who constantly swap and change routes, route numbers, bus colours (both inside and out) and bus types. While you and I can tell the difference, the only non bus spotters that'll care about the two service 8's in Sunderland are those that use them and they will already know whether they need to be on a 8 to Stanley or an 8 to South Hylton. On average, the colour of the bus or who's name is plastered across the side of it won't matter in the slightest and probably won't even get noticed.
Some people are extremely stupid though and don't bother to read destinations properly. That wasn't a comment directed at you, this was directed at the people who can't read a basic timetable and those who get on a 21 to Chester Le Street and ask if it goes to Durham for 2 examples. There will be some idiots who see X10 and think oh that must be the 10 and it doesn't help when GNE add X's to routes for no reason bar branding reasons (X5, X15, X45, X46, X47). There's enough numbers around there's no need for a 1 and X1, 10 and X10 when it's not needed.
That's a valid point with the 1 and one I didn't think of, maybe only use it where there is no service with the same number so with the 10's it could work.
You misinterpretated the comment on using the same numbers I meant in the sense that in the whole of GNE, numbers shouldn't duplicate anywhere so every route should be different, the same with Arriva Northumbria / North East (they're two different companies as they're not connected) and Stagecoach's each little area nor should there be an express of a bus route has a local service of the same number. There certainly should be no duplicates in the same bus station or town though but the fact GNE have a 57 in Gateshead and Arriva have a 57 in Whitley then there's no issue there as their far enough apart or even the example such as the GNE 47 and Stagecoach X47 in Eldon Square (the two X47's is stupid though). It wouldn't be sensible to ban the same number everywhere in the North East.