(22 Feb 2023, 5:39 pm)Jimmi wrote I've thought this for a while too tbh, brandings is something that is far too heavily banked on, I imagine it has some benefits but not as much as some would have you believe. Have seen a figure on another forum that suggests the cost to Best Impressions has been in the ballpark of £236k over the last 2 years.

As for Coastliner, supposedly the 843 to Scarborough does alright but "Britain's Most Scenic Bus Route" the 840 section between Malton and Thornton-le-Dale/Whitby doesn't so much, apart from some points in peak summer, I see somewhere in the region of anything from 10-30 people on it when I've seen it depart Whitby, most of whom are concession pass holders with NYCC providing one of the worst rates for bus pass reimbursement rates across the country (supposedly a few year back they tried to class the 840 as either an express or tourist service so that concession bus passes couldn't be used for free travel but that never took off). I'm sure the 840 used to have some level of council support on the Thornton-le-Dale to Whitby stretch in the winter months but unsure if this is still the case. It seems heavily pushing people to vote in a Twitter poll to win some title that looks good on articles/publicity potentially isn't enough to save a service and retain/grow passenger numbers either!

I've seen suggestions in a leak that York depot was losing in the region of £500k a year whilst Malton was losing around £1 million in a year. The total loss in 2022 was suggested to be £4.9 million overall once fuel and living wage costs/rises plus reduction in fuel duty rebates were factored in.

£5 Million YIKES 

Also £236K over two years just to make liveries on paper, that is going to drop. 

How much do they charge per livery, surely someone could just make one inside GNE