(03 Jun 2021, 11:49 pm)Storx wrote Yeah that's fair like, see personally I wouldn't class any of them as Gateshead at all but I guess it depends whether we're talking about the council area or the town.
To me Gateshead ends at the A1 on the West side including the little part of Dunston Hill and Lobley Hill with all of the East side being Gateshead with it being split down Durham Road / Sheriff Hill.
Anything West of Durham Road / Prince Concert Road being West Gateshead, anything East of Sheriff Hill / the Flyover being East Gateshead, the small bit in the middle being central.
Who knows, anyone on here from Whickham and the likes do you class yourself as being Gateshead or Whickham?
See personally I'd rather they kept corporate for some routes and then only have the principal routes branded. Branding shouldn't change name wise though imo. Trent Barton nail branding in my eyes and it's worked that well that they've ditched the route number for numerous services alltogether and every bus is a different colour so you can see ooo the green bus that's mine. It doesn't work here (bar the Angel) and everyone just calls them by them numbers because they change them every week so what's the point. Cobalt Clipper was one of the worst for that as there's loads on the Coast who used to refer to it as that so they change the branding now it's just the 309 and Cobalt and Coast is a mouthful and doesn't flow. It's the same with Citylink vs East Gateshead Rider. One flows the other is a mouthful.
https://www.trentbarton.co.uk/network-map - Trent Barton's network for reference; think you'll like their branding aswell better.
I personally refer to branding rather than numbers for a number of routes (Cobalt Clipper/Cobalt and Coast, the Coaster bus, the Angel, Voltra, Quaycity/Quaylink) but locally refer to services by number or location (the 42A, the 74, the Denton Burn bus (X84/X85, sometimes use the number) and the 33/33A) but for example we have a 12 in Fenham, so I say "Go North East 12" whereas I just say 25, 56 etc if Stagecoach don't have a bus with the same number. Branding is an interesting one.