(14 Feb 2014, 9:17 pm)Dan wrote In your anecdote, you gave the example of Durham Bus Station.
Now imagine you're on a cold, dark road - served by a number of Go North East buses, but has an infrequent service on evenings...
You're used to seeing pink buses turning up, but on this freezing cold night, you see a yellow bus approaching. The destination blind is illegible as you're visually impaired.
As you're used to seeing pink buses, you let the yellow one go straight past.
As a passenger, you would care. You've now got to wait 30 minutes before the next bus turns up; in this instance, the wrong coloured bus was not better than no bus turning up at all.
It happens, and this is why branding is vital. Ultimately, passengers do care - GNE's business model is right. It just needs to be applied by depots.
What I was saying is that passengers would rather have a bus turn up than none at all
- And some good points there.