(21 Jan 2021, 8:19 pm)V514DFT wrote Pink,thats odd

If it is a Connections Citaro... could be a rebrand which links it to the Indigo Washington... like the X-Lines linking to certain local services.

(22 Jan 2021, 6:56 pm)citaro5284 wrote New colours for Washington.....

https://twitter.com/MartijnGNE/status/13...31040?s=20

Look good, I see there's also another Citaro going to be branded up for the Centre of Life vaccine centre as a shuttle service.

(22 Jan 2021, 7:03 pm)Michael wrote Look good, I see there's also another Citaro going to be branded up for the Centre of Life but I can't read the writing, sure it mentions the 56.

Not the Centre for Life - just branding for an upcoming shuttle service to assist with diversions, with the promotion of serving Sunderland's Nightingale Hospital.

Screenshot attached. Can't help with the fading unfortunately.

(22 Jan 2021, 7:05 pm)S813 FVK wrote Not the Centre for Life - just branding for an upcoming shuttle service to assist with diversions, with the promotion of serving Sunderland's Nightingale Hospital.

Screenshot attached. Can't help with the fading unfortunately.

Ah thanks, I couldn't read it

That's good, looking forward to seeing all 3 brands out and about... when we can go out.

New colours for Washington....

https://twitter.com/MartijnGNE/status/13...71716?s=20

(22 Jan 2021, 7:09 pm)citaro5284 wrote New colours for Washington....

https://twitter.com/MartijnGNE/status/13...71716?s=20

The pinks look nice tbf, however the 4 looks horrendous. Very disappointing and sickly looking.

Seems like they couldn't be arsed with washy services so just through an 80s tracksuit on it

(22 Jan 2021, 7:34 pm)JP6004 wrote The pinks look nice tbf, however the 4 looks horrendous. Very disappointing and sickly looking.

Seems like they couldn't be arsed with washy services so just through an 80s tracksuit on it

Pink and blue seems to be the in colour on Citaro vehicles...Uno and GNW.

Just waiting for our resident livery critic to give it the once over

(22 Jan 2021, 7:37 pm)citaro5284 wrote Pink and blue seems to be the in colour on Citaro vehicles...Uno and GNW.

Just waiting for our resident livery critic to give it the once over

Just because someone else had the idea, does t make it a good one

(22 Jan 2021, 7:34 pm)JP6004 wrote The pinks look nice tbf, however the 4 looks horrendous. Very disappointing and sickly looking.

Seems like they couldn't be arsed with washy services so just through an 80s tracksuit on it

Totally agree, although I'm not a big fan of the 'little pinks' name (where's the big pinks?)

(22 Jan 2021, 7:37 pm)citaro5284 wrote Pink and blue seems to be the in colour on Citaro vehicles...Uno and GNW.

Just waiting for our resident livery critic to give it the once over

It looks bloody vile. Looks like someone took a photo of the corporate livery with the wrong white balance. Maybe it's nicer in person, but I'm not a fan

(22 Jan 2021, 8:25 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Totally agree, although I'm not a big fan of the 'little pinks' name (where's the big pinks?)

Wouldnt you like to know 

(22 Jan 2021, 8:25 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Totally agree, although I'm not a big fan of the 'little pinks' name (where's the big pinks?)

All the Elite's we've seen pictured so far have really just been elaborate photoshops. The X9/X10 is being rebranded as the Pink Panther, all interior trim has been sprayed pink and iPods with P!nk's entire library on them have been superglued into the entertainment system of each coach. Drivers have all been supplied with Pink Panther costumes and must communicate in French with all passengers.

(22 Jan 2021, 10:31 pm)JP6004 wrote Wouldnt you like to know 

I manged to resist making that joke

(22 Jan 2021, 10:58 pm)mb134 wrote All the Elite's we've seen pictured so far have really just been elaborate photoshops. The X9/X10 is being rebranded as the Pink Panther, all interior trim has been sprayed pink and iPods with P!nk's entire library on them have been superglued into the entertainment system of each coach. Drivers have all been supplied with Pink Panther costumes and must communicate in French with all passengers.

Ngl, that sounds great.

On the newsletter it says:

Red for Sunderland and South Tyneside alongside purple for Peterlee (as we already know) - I wonder if this means we'll be saying a red local livery for those areas?

Looks like different colours for certain area's, back to good old days, of Wear Buses etc

(23 Jan 2021, 10:43 am)Michael wrote On the newsletter it says:

Red for Sunderland and South Tyneside alongside purple for Peterlee (as we already know) - I wonder if this means we'll be saying a red local livery for those areas?

Looks like different colours for certain area's, back to good old days, of Wear Buses etc

And of course North Tyneside is blue

(23 Jan 2021, 11:35 am)GNE6312 wrote And of course North Tyneside is blue

Ye, couldn't be bothered to name them all

(23 Jan 2021, 10:43 am)Michael wrote On the newsletter it says:

Red for Sunderland and South Tyneside alongside purple for Peterlee (as we already know) - I wonder if this means we'll be saying a red local livery for those areas?

Looks like different colours for certain area's, back to good old days, of Wear Buses etc

This concept of linking colours is never going to work in practice. Chester-Le-Street, Durham & Newcastle aren’t mentioned in that newsletter; what colour are they? Also QuayCity being treated as standalone service above all others is bizarre. I’ve heard the rationale but I’m not agreeing sorry. 

Buses travel around, the Coaster is a blue bus (for North Tyneside) but it ends up at the MetroCentre; but Gateshead is Green? 
The number 2 is Black Cats (Red) - but it’s just as much a Washington local service past Penshaw just as much as it is a local Sunderland bus; so why isn’t it pink? 
Does the Drifter 60 become a purple bus (linking into the minibus network for Peterlee/Seaham) but it ends up at Sunderland which is ‘red’. 

Creating a nice colour scheme for area sounds good, but that’s all it is, just sounds good. Doesn’t work in practice. Better off have a few core brands that sit above a ‘key services’ branded individually keeping the road stripes to tie everything in. Then other buses are corporate services or where appropriate join the ‘mini bus’ local brands.

(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.

Here is my shot of 6090 and I think the branding is quite easy to read - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalark...ed-public/

My only issue is the layout of via points, I think these should be kept uniform and in the same format layout as the X-Lines branded vehicles, other than that I quite like it, looks much better in person.

(23 Jan 2021, 7:56 pm)Drifter60 wrote This concept of linking colours is never going to work in practice. Chester-Le-Street, Durham & Newcastle aren’t mentioned in that newsletter; what colour are they? Also QuayCity being treated as standalone service above all others is bizarre. I’ve heard the rationale but I’m not agreeing sorry. 

Buses travel around, the Coaster is a blue bus (for North Tyneside) but it ends up at the MetroCentre; but Gateshead is Green? 
The number 2 is Black Cats (Red) - but it’s just as much a Washington local service past Penshaw just as much as it is a local Sunderland bus; so why isn’t it pink? 
Does the Drifter 60 become a purple bus (linking into the minibus network for Peterlee/Seaham) but it ends up at Sunderland which is ‘red’. 

Creating a nice colour scheme for area sounds good, but that’s all it is, just sounds good. Doesn’t work in practice. Better off have a few core brands that sit above a ‘key services’ branded individually keeping the road stripes to tie everything in. Then other buses are corporate services or where appropriate join the ‘mini bus’ local brands.

Have to agree with this tbh, like they say Gateshead is green and Hexham is orange; yet the 56 which serves Gateshead and Sunderland is painted in Orange..? I also thought the point was to stop painting stupid colours for the sake of it yet we're starting again with 'Little Pinks' etc which means nothing to no-one.

Also if Gateshead is green then why are the green X-Lines in Consett, why is the Pink X-Lines between Durham and Sunderland yet the red X-Lines which is 'supposedly' Sunderland in Washington.

Then on top of that Blue is in North Tyneside so the 4 in Washington is painted with blue at the back. Total mess and at the end of the day no-one excluding enthusiasts will pick it up anyway so it's totally pointless.

(23 Jan 2021, 7:56 pm)Drifter60 wrote This concept of linking colours is never going to work in practice. Chester-Le-Street, Durham & Newcastle aren’t mentioned in that newsletter; what colour are they? Also QuayCity being treated as standalone service above all others is bizarre. I’ve heard the rationale but I’m not agreeing sorry. 

Buses travel around, the Coaster is a blue bus (for North Tyneside) but it ends up at the MetroCentre; but Gateshead is Green? 
The number 2 is Black Cats (Red) - but it’s just as much a Washington local service past Penshaw just as much as it is a local Sunderland bus; so why isn’t it pink? 
Does the Drifter 60 become a purple bus (linking into the minibus network for Peterlee/Seaham) but it ends up at Sunderland which is ‘red’. 

Creating a nice colour scheme for area sounds good, but that’s all it is, just sounds good. Doesn’t work in practice. Better off have a few core brands that sit above a ‘key services’ branded individually keeping the road stripes to tie everything in. Then other buses are corporate services or where appropriate join the ‘mini bus’ local brands.

(23 Jan 2021, 8:53 pm)Storx wrote Have to agree with this tbh, like they say Gateshead is green and Hexham is orange; yet the 56 which serves Gateshead and Sunderland is painted in Orange..? I also thought the point was to stop painting stupid colours for the sake of it yet we're starting again with 'Little Pinks' etc which means nothing to no-one.

Also if Gateshead is green then why are the green X-Lines in Consett, why is the Pink X-Lines between Durham and Sunderland yet the red X-Lines which is 'supposedly' Sunderland in Washington.

Then on top of that Blue is in North Tyneside so the 4 in Washington is painted with blue at the back. Total mess and at the end of the day no-one excluding enthusiasts will pick it up anyway so it's totally pointless.

I'd 'like' these posts, but the function seems to have been removed, so I'll have to comment instead.

Totally agree with the points raised here. 
Can understand some of the rational behind the painting, but then you have the orange 56, the green 78... Then the blue 60 which doesn't go anywhere near whatever area 'blue' is.

(22 Jan 2021, 7:09 pm)citaro5284 wrote New colours for Washington....

https://twitter.com/MartijnGNE/status/13...71716?s=20

The livery on the Citaro is very smart imo, good to see the branding continue to be streamlined into one style with the stripes at the rear. Makes the Quaycity stand out as the odd one out a bit more though, obviously Voltra too but there seemed to be more logic behind that one with them being electric.

Share some concern with those later on in the thread about the Little Pinks seeming like branding for the sake of branding, personal opinion mind but I still think for instances such as those a corporate livery with sub-branding would more than suffice.

(23 Jan 2021, 9:04 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'd 'like' these posts, but the function seems to have been removed, so I'll have to comment instead.

Totally agree with the points raised here. 
Can understand some of the rational behind the painting, but then you have the orange 56, the green 78... Then the blue 60 which doesn't go anywhere near whatever area 'blue' is.

I’m personally not sure what the difference here is between current colours for area strategy versus the now much maligned and failed route branding for everyone strategy of the early 2000s.

Mixing Sunderland and South Tyneside is an odd one too. Tho it does highlight how GNE has destroyed what was a fairly decent and comprehensive network in that area.

Heworth, Gateshead and Newcastle are going to look like a cascade of colour...at least the Angel will fit in with green Gateshead...

If they are going with coloured branding based on the area would it not have made sense to try and have these align with their coloured zones. So green branded buses in and around Durham, purple for Newcastle/Gateshead etc. Instead this opens up the door to more confusion in my opinion.

(24 Jan 2021, 12:56 am)Ambassador wrote I’m personally not sure what the difference here is between current colours for area strategy versus the now much maligned and failed route branding for everyone strategy of the early 2000s.

Mixing Sunderland and South Tyneside is an odd one too. Tho it does highlight how GNE has destroyed what was a fairly decent and comprehensive network in that area.

Heworth, Gateshead and Newcastle are going to look like a cascade of colour...at least the Angel will fit in with green Gateshead...

I'm assuming the allocation of vehicles at each depot is going to be stable for a significant period of time too. 
Frequent fleet changes of the past can't be repeated as often after such an intensive re-painting period.
Would hate to see a Gateshead coloured Versa end up being shifted to Chester or a Peterlee Solo allocated to Deptford and the whole colour scheme going out of the window almost immediately.

I suppose it also means that the B9's allocated to the 26/27 are also needing a repaint in to the new colour scheme. Despite just having a re-paint.
I'd guess it is going in South Tyneside colours as the majority of its route - is South Tyneside. Or will it be Gateshead colours, with it being operated by Riverside - even though the route as a whole, only takes in a small proportion of the town.

An absolute farce.
Sort the route and network out before going on some sort of titivating exercise that means naff all to the majority of the customers.

Anymore Cityrider B9's returned from repaint/refurb?

(24 Jan 2021, 12:48 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm assuming the allocation of vehicles at each depot is going to be stable for a significant period of time too. 
Frequent fleet changes of the past can't be repeated as often after such an intensive re-painting period.
Would hate to see a Gateshead coloured Versa end up being shifted to Chester or a Peterlee Solo allocated to Deptford and the whole colour scheme going out of the window almost immediately.

I suppose it also means that the B9's allocated to the 26/27 are also needing a repaint in to the new colour scheme. Despite just having a re-paint.
I'd guess it is going in South Tyneside colours as the majority of its route - is South Tyneside. Or will it be Gateshead colours, with it being operated by Riverside - even though the route as a whole, only takes in a small proportion of the town.

An absolute farce.
Sort the route and network out before going on some sort of titivating exercise that means naff all to the majority of the customers.

I can't help but feel this is a total over-reaction? I'm shocked: I really don't understand why everything has to be taken so literally.

South Tyneside and Sunderland are deemed to be red, what colour is on the back of the Crusader? Red! Repaints have been aligned to this strategy for the past two years (this isn't a new thing!)

Clearly a route contained entirely within one area will be that colour predominantly, but this doesn't work for every service as there are many which cross between several different coloured zones.

(24 Jan 2021, 5:14 pm)Dan wrote I can't help but feel this is a total over-reaction? I'm shocked: I really don't understand why everything has to be taken so literally.

South Tyneside and Sunderland are deemed to be red, what colour is on the back of the Crusader? Red! Repaints have been aligned to this strategy for the past two years (this isn't a new thing!)

Clearly a route contained entirely within one area will be that colour predominantly, but this doesn't work for every service as there are many which cross between several different coloured zones.

At least you are trying to coordinate serives/repaints etc... Instead of doing them randomly. I would rather Xlines, Swoop and Roadstripes then different branding altogether for each route. It provides a level of consistency/uniformity of the fleet

(24 Jan 2021, 5:14 pm)Dan wrote I can't help but feel this is a total over-reaction? I'm shocked: I really don't understand why everything has to be taken so literally.

South Tyneside and Sunderland are deemed to be red, what colour is on the back of the Crusader? Red! Repaints have been aligned to this strategy for the past two years (this isn't a new thing!)

Clearly a route contained entirely within one area will be that colour predominantly, but this doesn't work for every service as there are many which cross between several different coloured zones.

If it's not a new thing, why hasn't anyone noticed it before? Too subtle perhaps? Or just flawed?
Why the random mixture of colours that don't correlate to any of the strategy at all and an apparent inconsistency across the fleet? 

The 26/27 branded Geminis are red at the back - so that apparently allows them to qualify for the strategy for the red area (wherever the red area is), yet the 4 branded Mercs are pink at the front - allowing them to qualify for the strategy. But not the back, cos that's blue and despite the back end of some buses being included in some areas - with other parts of the fleet, its the front end.

Some strategy! 

As I've said before, I'd rather (and I'm sure many other passengers across the region would too) to have a network of services that works for me. That takes me to where I need to be, without the need to faff on changing buses and hoping there's some sort of connection within a relatively short period of time.
I'd rather that, than see the operator prioritising repaints and faffing on with the blind displays - swapping formats and ignoring best practice.

A network that works for passengers may get more likes on social media too and not just likes from enthusiasts or even colleagues in other parts of the country - intent on carrying on the apparent industry habit of slapping each other on the back at any given opportunity.

I'm sorry if honest and constructive feedback from a customer perspective shocks.

(24 Jan 2021, 5:14 pm)Dan wrote I can't help but feel this is a total over-reaction? I'm shocked: I really don't understand why everything has to be taken so literally.

South Tyneside and Sunderland are deemed to be red, what colour is on the back of the Crusader? Red! Repaints have been aligned to this strategy for the past two years (this isn't a new thing!)

Clearly a route contained entirely within one area will be that colour predominantly, but this doesn't work for every service as there are many which cross between several different coloured zones.

Well I think Andreos1 hit in on the head, if this isn't a new strategy then its so subtle - or ultimately flawed - even this forum hasn’t picked up on it and we literally document every repaint/brand change! 

Are South Tyneside and Sunderland really red? Prince Bishops 20 travels through both, it’s purple. Will it go red at some point? Will the ‘green’ Coast and Country 78/8 be painted too as Green is for Gateshead and it goes no where near? As you know, I could go on.

And you’re right it is taking the strategy a little literally but that’s because I think the strategy is flawed. Lets take Consett for instance, I’d be forgiven for thinking Green was the colour with the X45/X46 and the X30 plus the 78. What’s actually yellow in Consett? The Venture network and the ‘back bit’ of the X5/X15; anything else? Will the Durham Diamond go yellow? 

I’m assuming the goal of all this is so people associate the ‘red buses’ as Go North East if you’re in Houghton, South Shields or Jarrow which is a good idea in principle but if it works as suggested you’re also the failing to let people know that the 20, 78 or the 4 are part of the same company too.

(24 Jan 2021, 11:09 pm)Drifter60 wrote I’m assuming the goal of all this is so people associate the ‘red buses’ as Go North East if you’re in Houghton, South Shields or Jarrow which is a good idea in principle but if it works as suggested you’re also the failing to let people know that the 20, 78 or the 4 are part of the same company too.

Surely this should be the job of a corporate livery? 

Majority of the non-enthusiast bus users would be able to know the difference between Arriva (blue) and Stagecoach (beachball/new corporate) if they were the two operators in their area, for example. It baffles me that GNE would go "nah, we've got a decent corporate livery, but what will really work is to paint everything into the rainbow again", it seems a tad confusing given how they seemed to very much be on the path of cutting unneccessary brands and bringing everything into a few defined styles (X-Lines, corporate/Crusader etc stripes, Voltra/Quayity swoop).

It also begs the question of what happens to corporate liveried vehicles operating in, for example, the green or orange zone? Do GNE not want that bus to be associated with them?

I wonder if Mr. Stenning was struggling for income over the pandemic, he can't be now!

(24 Jan 2021, 11:09 pm)Drifter60 wrote Are South Tyneside and Sunderland really red? Prince Bishops 20 travels through both, it’s purple. Will it go red at some point? Will the ‘green’ Coast and Country 78/8 be painted too as Green is for Gateshead and it goes no where near? As you know, I could go on.

While I agree with a number of the points being made, I do think it's perhaps a bit unfair to be using brands that were designed before any geographical colouring strategy was dreamt up as means to criticise it.

This scheme is going to take some time to roll out fully - there are going to be exceptions to the rules running around the region for a while yet.