(06 Feb 2022, 12:49 pm)Adrian wrote The early concepts of Sapphire made it a clear premium offering, and I think the seats had a lot to do with it (see this article). By the time it hit the North East, it had already been downgraded to the same spec as other operators were rolling out as standard - plastic ironing board seats, NSAs, WiFi and power sockets.

Those types of seats were only specified by Arriva Buses Wales, the plan was always to use Civic V3 seating elsewhere, with various colours, variations and cushions being trialled across the UK.

Sapphire always seemed to be a "look at us, we're no longer running pov spec crap on these core routes" brand, with a "luxury" tag. As Arriva upgraded their standard specification in 2014 (e-leather), 2015 (3-pin plugs/USB) and 2016 (USB), with the localised options for headrests and next stop announcements, Sapphire really just became a marketing package for what Arriva offered as standard, rather than a true premium service.