(20 Jan 2021, 2:03 pm)logidoodah wrote Yeah I agree, 
So I'm guessing on the new liveries are mostly going to have red at the back and their individual colours i.e Crusader/CityRider and probably more to come. Except for the Cobalt&Coast, Xlines, Voltra, Quaycity, and the new version of Indigo. Or is it just a coincedence, as if it is I definately wouldn't have put the orange and red together.

I’d guess it’s just coincidence (not sure they’re the same shade of red though to be honest), but it would’ve been nice if that had been the plan from the launch of the road strip design.
Also I think on some brands the road strips are too subtle, considering they’re the unifying bit.

---

Actually now I look at that picture again maybe the red is the same as on the Crusader.
And looking at the Crusader again I’ve only just noticed the road strips are the same colour as the Corporate livery’s road strips!
Can’t really tell from that one photo if the City Riders yellow road strip is the same shade as the Crusader’s and Corporate’s.
Would be nice if your theory was true, but I’m still guessing it’s just a coincidence because of the recent purple minibus’ livery which doesn’t follow suit.

‘Rider’ doesn’t appear to stand out very well. Classic best impressions. 




https://flic.kr/p/2ku1Qw2

(20 Jan 2021, 3:06 pm)ne14ne1 wrote ‘Rider’ doesn’t appear to stand out very well. Classic best impressions. 




https://flic.kr/p/2ku1Qw2

On the Flickr photo that you've linked I have to zoom in a fair way before most of the thinner text becomes clearly visible. The "to your", is one of the worst bits - a fleeting glance and it would just look like "ride city". The "into" on the black strip under the lowerdeck windows is also borderline illegible. The via points are pretty bad, not helped at all by being diagonal and red on orange with a non-bold font. To be honest all of the thin red text is unreadable without zooming in, if that's going past you at 30 there's not a chance you're going to be able to read any of it.

Its not the worst but the orange and red are a bit much, i would of either gone a lighter orange or a mid yellow similar to what the metro used to use, but its NOT awful

(20 Jan 2021, 2:50 pm)ne14ne1 wrote I’d guess it’s just coincidence (not sure they’re the same shade of red though to be honest), but it would’ve been nice if that had been the plan from the launch of the road strip design.

I don't think they are, CityRiders looks more dark orange than red like the Crusaders. 

I agree it would have been cool if they had the "special swoop" (as I call it), the Xlines, and the individual route colours with red at the back.

(20 Jan 2021, 3:54 pm)mb134 wrote On the Flickr photo that you've linked I have to zoom in a fair way before most of the thinner text becomes clearly visible. The "to your", is one of the worst bits - a fleeting glance and it would just look like "ride city". The "into" on the black strip under the lowerdeck windows is also borderline illegible. The via points are pretty bad, not helped at all by being diagonal and red on orange with a non-bold font. To be honest all of the thin red text is unreadable without zooming in, if that's going past you at 30 there's not a chance you're going to be able to read any of it.

It's something I've noticed with a few of GNE's liveries recently, they (Worst Impressions assumedly) seem to love making things really hard to read.

(20 Jan 2021, 5:09 pm)V514DFT wrote Its not the worst but the orange and red are a bit much, i would of either gone a lighter orange or a mid yellow similar to what the metro used to use, but its NOT awful

Yes, I agree. Would look much better.

Perhaps someone could do an edit?

(20 Jan 2021, 7:56 pm)logidoodah wrote Yes, I agree. Would look much better.

Perhaps someone could do an edit?

Obviously that was aimed at me.
To be honest, I actually quite liked the orange/red combo, but having done a quick edit with a slightly lighter orange I have to admit I do prefer it. If anything, I think it stands out more.

I also never noticed that the GNE logo is yellow. That looks bloody ridiculous. Why not just make it white. 

In fact, the closer I look at it, the less I like it



Original
Go North East Cityrider 6090 / NL63 YHT by kieron mathews, on Flickr

(20 Jan 2021, 1:06 pm)Storx wrote You should look at ways to get arid of the Citaros at Riverside, Omnicities / 09 Versa's at CLS and DFDS Deckers instead as somehow them and Red Kite Streetlites will be replacing them one way or another since GNE won't be getting any new buses before the LEZ comes in rather than focusing on Consett all the time.

No mention of Consett

Just trying to think more realistically rather than focus on Consett where the level of demand probably isn't established enough yet to make decisions given the current climate.

6045-47 being replaced by 6084-86 (if 6071-83 get refurbished) with 6001,49,50 as backups for TVT & Crusader would make more sense.

6043-48 would then go on the 25. The 25 is a "secondary route" to speak so if it was split from the 13, the PVR of 6 would be covered. At most, they'd just need a thorough deep clean & the ex TVT examples repainted.

Then whatever is remaining from 6149-61 (depending how many is needed on 93/94) could displace older B7TL's & OmniDekkas.

So the allocation's would be

Riverside:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 9x B9TL 
- 27 = 11X B9TL
- Spare = 2x (as well as 6377 if not needed on X9/X10)

Hexham:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 7x B9TL
- Spare = 1x (as well as either 6336/37 if not needed on X84/X85)

Chester Le Street:
- 25 = 6x B9TL
- Spare = ??? Anything would be fine for the 25

(20 Jan 2021, 7:54 pm)streetdeckfan wrote It's something I've noticed with a few of GNE's liveries recently, they (Worst Impressions assumedly) seem to love making things really hard to read.

Yet on some liveries, it's done brilliantly: https://flic.kr/p/2ke1jvA. Everything on that is visible easily (bar the "bring your bike" at the rear), there's a good contrast between the colour of the text and the base it's on top of. Look at that X-Lines, or any of them really, then at the CityRider and the ease of reading the text is night and day. 

I think it's been said before, but I think bus companies are becoming overreliant on Best Impressions. Some of their stuff is very good but some design elements are getting a bit stale and, with the amount they churn out, some designs will inevitably be poor.

Judging how easy something is to read when photos taken on a day like today is pretty funny. The livery looks fine, in person, the lettering is easy enough to read.

Only criticism is the fact that it's still an orange double decker, so doesn't stand out immediately as being that different to the Fab 56.

(20 Jan 2021, 10:21 pm)deanmachine wrote Judging how easy something is to read when photos taken on a day like today is pretty funny. The livery looks fine, in person, the lettering is easy enough to read.

Only criticism is the fact that it's still an orange double decker, so doesn't stand out immediately as being that different to the Fab 56.

Yes, agreed. A photo will always be different to how it actually looks in reality too.

I think the only tricky thing with moving away from it being orange is that the 56 has always been orange. That's not to say it always has to remain orange going forward, but I think there has to be a pretty compelling case to move away from it. In this instance I'm not sure what that case would be. Reliability on service 56 is very good, so there's no need to move away from the colour to try and change the perception that it's a different/newer bus.

In a normal world, I think the orange double-decker will be perceived on Old Durham Road as being the bus that stops. Despite being some 10 months into the pandemic where express services have began to serve all stops on their route, I still don't think many people hail down an X1, as the perception was always that the red buses, now gold, don't stop.

(20 Jan 2021, 9:54 pm)L469 YVK wrote No mention of Consett :)

Just trying to think more realistically rather than focus on Consett where the level of demand probably isn't established enough yet to make decisions given the current climate.

6045-47 being replaced by 6084-86 (if 6071-83 get refurbished) with 6001,49,50 as backups for TVT & Crusader would make more sense.

6043-48 would then go on the 25. The 25 is a "secondary route" to speak so if it was split from the 13, the PVR of 6 would be covered. At most, they'd just need a thorough deep clean & the ex TVT examples repainted.

Then whatever is remaining from 6149-61 (depending how many is needed on 93/94) could displace older B7TL's & OmniDekkas.

So the allocation's would be

Riverside:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 9x B9TL 
- 27 = 11X B9TL
- Spare = 2x (as well as 6377 if not needed on X9/X10)

Hexham:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 7x B9TL
- Spare = 1x (as well as either 6336/37 if not needed on X84/X85)

Chester Le Street:
- 25 = 6x B9TL
- Spare = ??? Anything would be fine for the 25

Be very surprised if the ex London deckers go onto school duties, they've had Euro 6 mods and I'll doubt that'll be allowed in their contract. Not think some of them might go on the 6 or have extra spares at Percy Main that do the 327 aswell btw. Easy way to clear some Citaro's off and wasn't it rumoured for the 09 Versa's to be going aswell which are at CLS atm and replaced the Omnicity's to Percy Main.

(20 Jan 2021, 10:28 pm)Dan wrote Yes, agreed. A photo will always be different to how it actually looks in reality too.

I think the only tricky thing with moving away from it being orange is that the 56 has always been orange. That's not to say it always has to remain orange going forward, but I think there has to be a pretty compelling case to move away from it. In this instance I'm not sure what that case would be. Reliability on service 56 is very good, so there's no need to move away from the colour to try and change the perception that it's a different/newer bus.

In a normal world, I think the orange double-decker will be perceived on Old Durham Road as being the bus that stops. Despite being some 10 months into the pandemic where express services have began to serve all stops on their route, I still don't think many people hail down an X1, as the perception was always that the red buses, now gold, don't stop.

Not a dig or anything but you might want to announce that more, that's the first I've heard of that and the timetables online still has it as an express service.

(20 Jan 2021, 10:07 pm)mb134 wrote Yet on some liveries, it's done brilliantly: https://flic.kr/p/2ke1jvA. Everything on that is visible easily (bar the "bring your bike" at the rear), there's a good contrast between the colour of the text and the base it's on top of. Look at that X-Lines, or any of them really, then at the CityRider and the ease of reading the text is night and day. 

I think it's been said before, but I think bus companies are becoming overreliant on Best Impressions. Some of their stuff is very good but some design elements are getting a bit stale and, with the amount they churn out, some designs will inevitably be poor.

It's really hit and miss. 
The cove vinyls on the VOLTRA buses are particularly horrendous. Some idiot decided that having a dark grey background with a slightly lighter dark grey writing was a good idea.  It's not. I physically could not read some of the writing

Go North East Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini II 6154 has returned to service after repaint

Flickr (High Resolution) : https://flic.kr/p/2kuaUWY


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(21 Jan 2021, 11:04 am)Xlines 6335 wrote
Go North East Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini II 6154 has returned to service after repaint

Flickr (High Resolution) : https://flic.kr/p/2kuaUWY


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm really not a fan of the new font they're using for the fleet numbers, looks very odd

(21 Jan 2021, 11:04 am)Xlines 6335 wrote
Go North East Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini II 6154 has returned to service after repaint

Flickr (High Resolution) : https://flic.kr/p/2kuaUWY


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice pic.  

(21 Jan 2021, 11:04 am)Xlines 6335 wrote
Go North East Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini II 6154 has returned to service after repaint

Flickr (High Resolution) : https://flic.kr/p/2kuaUWY

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That looks really bad imo and they've gone for the lazy approach that Arriva tend to do in house. The red/blue around the windows should be black as they're designed otherwise it gives a really weird look which looks even worse on that because of the air unit.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186695346@...020443982/ - See the difference there and it looks much better imo.

(21 Jan 2021, 11:54 am)Storx wrote That looks really bad imo and they've gone for the lazy approach that Arriva tend to do in house. The red/blue around the windows should be black as they're designed otherwise it gives a really weird look which looks even worse on that because of the air unit.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186695346@...020443982/ - See the difference there and it looks much better imo.

I personally think it looks way better with it being red/blue. When it's just black it looks like they've missed a patch

(20 Jan 2021, 10:28 pm)Dan wrote Yes, agreed. A photo will always be different to how it actually looks in reality too.

I think the only tricky thing with moving away from it being orange is that the 56 has always been orange. That's not to say it always has to remain orange going forward, but I think there has to be a pretty compelling case to move away from it. In this instance I'm not sure what that case would be. Reliability on service 56 is very good, so there's no need to move away from the colour to try and change the perception that it's a different/newer bus.

In a normal world, I think the orange double-decker will be perceived on Old Durham Road as being the bus that stops. Despite being some 10 months into the pandemic where express services have began to serve all stops on their route, I still don't think many people hail down an X1, as the perception was always that the red buses, now gold, don't stop.

The 56 has existed for I don't know how many years (40+?) and has only been orange for coming up 15 years - first with the Solars and then the B9's.
The 187 and 188 which was eventually merged with the 56 certainly weren't orange either. 

People who need the 56, will use the 56 - regardless of what colour it is.
It maybe makes it stand out in Sunderland, but beyond there, particularly from Nissan and beyond, it's just another bus and for a large proportion of the route, has various common sections.
To keep it orange, because its perceived to be the stopping bus on Old Durham Road seems crazy imo. Particularly as there's a stack of other stopping buses on Old Durham Road. There's blue ones, orange ones (x2), red ones (green on a Sunday) and whatever other colours of the rainbow are thrown about that week which all serve the stretch at one point or another and will get the majority to the same destination.

(21 Jan 2021, 11:54 am)Storx wrote That looks really bad imo and they've gone for the lazy approach that Arriva tend to do in house. The red/blue around the windows should be black as they're designed otherwise it gives a really weird look which looks even worse on that because of the air unit.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186695346@...020443982/ - See the difference there and it looks much better imo.

Gasket glazing always looks horrible regardless

(21 Jan 2021, 12:05 pm)JP6004 wrote Gasket glazing always looks horrible regardless

Yeah agreed tbh, guessing they're cheaper no doubt.

Looks like GNE are repainting a Connections 4 Citaro at Saltmeadows. New brand or just a one off like the Peterlee Local Solo? Can't be the ex-Crusaders as other Citaros have the emergency exit door at the back...
https://twitter.com/Dan3942/status/1352194395076964354

(21 Jan 2021, 12:52 pm)Adtrainsam wrote Looks like GNE are repainting a Connections 4 Citaro at Saltmeadows. New brand or just a one off like the Peterlee Local Solo? Can't be the ex-Crusaders as other Citaros have the emergency exit door at the back...
https://twitter.com/Dan3942/status/1352194395076964354

The Peterlee Local isn't a one off and rest due to be done this year. Cant say citaros look good in pink....unlike those gorgeous angel omnicities

(21 Jan 2021, 11:27 am)logidoodah wrote Nice pic.  

Thank You !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(21 Jan 2021, 12:58 pm)JP6004 wrote The Peterlee Local isn't a one off and rest due to be done this year. Cant say citaros look good in pink....unlike those gorgeous angel omnicities

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98620506@N05/48968170651 - They look alright in pink I think, similar colour aswell. Nice something bright for a change the blue was a bit drab and the connections 4 is a horrible brand.

(20 Jan 2021, 9:53 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Obviously that was aimed at me.
To be honest, I actually quite liked the orange/red combo, but having done a quick edit with a slightly lighter orange I have to admit I do prefer it. If anything, I think it stands out more.

I also never noticed that the GNE logo is yellow. That looks bloody ridiculous. Why not just make it white. 

In fact, the closer I look at it, the less I like it



Original
Go North East Cityrider 6090 / NL63 YHT by kieron mathews, on Flickr

Try ditching the Red and doing it in the lighter Orange see how that looks

(21 Jan 2021, 1:41 pm)Storx wrote https://www.flickr.com/photos/98620506@N05/48968170651 - They look alright in pink I think, similar colour aswell. Nice something bright for a change the blue was a bit drab and the connections 4 is a horrible brand.

Looked nice when they first arrived....7.5yrs ago. Think the 4 Citaro is more of a nipple pink 

Let's see what it looks like after it's finished

(21 Jan 2021, 12:52 pm)Adtrainsam wrote Looks like GNE are repainting a Connections 4 Citaro at Saltmeadows. New brand or just a one off like the Peterlee Local Solo? Can't be the ex-Crusaders as other Citaros have the emergency exit door at the back...
https://twitter.com/Dan3942/status/1352194395076964354

Going by Bustimes.org (although not 100% accurate), 5358 hasn't been in service since the 15th January.

5365 - 18th January
5368 - hasn't been in service for a long time.

Pink,thats odd