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+--- Forum: Go North East (https://northeastbuses.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=54)
+--- Thread: VOLTRA (/showthread.php?tid=3163)
RE: VOLTRA - JP6004 - 09 Nov 2020
Dan's posted pix on twitter of the billboards etc advertising VOLTRA. The branding looks......odd
RE: VOLTRA - Adtrainsam - 09 Nov 2020
(09 Nov 2020, 9:33 pm)JP6004 wrote Dan's posted pix on twitter of the billboards etc advertising VOLTRA. The branding looks......oddI agree. Most of it looks ok, now that we’ve got used to it for a while. I wasn’t keen when they went for a “swoop” instead of the stripes (thought it was about having a uniform look), but I understand they are new and electric etc.
What I don’t like is the VOLTRA signage on the side, it’s weird having it sideways... I mean how are we supposed to read that? It looks a bit odd imo. Also they’ve put the 54 underneath the 53 on the side of the bus. Personally, I’d think it would look better if the 54 was placed next to the 53 instead of underneath. Perhaps streetdeckfan could do one of his photoshops to sort that out...
RE: VOLTRA - streetdeckfan - 09 Nov 2020
(09 Nov 2020, 9:33 pm)JP6004 wrote Dan's posted pix on twitter of the billboards etc advertising VOLTRA. The branding looks......odd
I honestly hope the livery is nowt like the one on the billboard, looks like absolute crap
RE: VOLTRA - JP6004 - 09 Nov 2020
(09 Nov 2020, 9:48 pm)Adtrainsam wrote I agree. Most of it looks ok, now that we’ve got used to it for a while. I wasn’t keen when they went for a “swoop” instead of the stripes (thought it was about having a uniform look), but I understand they are new and electric etc.I mean at a quick glance, youd make the mistake of calling it OLTRA. I dont mind the swoop livery at all and the quaycity looks really good. However the Yutongs are butt ugly and dont suit silver. They just look like a tubby adolescent citaro
What I don’t like is the VOLTRA signage on the side, it’s weird having it sideways... I mean how are we supposed to read that? It looks a bit odd imo. Also they’ve put the 54 underneath the 53 on the side of the bus. Personally, I’d think it would look better if the 54 was placed next to the 53 instead of underneath. Perhaps streetdeckfan could do one of his photoshops to sort that out...
(09 Nov 2020, 9:50 pm)streetdeckfan wrote I honestly hope the livery is nowt like the one on the billboard, looks like absolute crapWell cant imagine them to advertise the brand and for it not to be the same on the bus
RE: VOLTRA - Malarkey - 09 Nov 2020
The logo on billboard looks better than the one on the side of the bus for me, cant understand why they've done it like that mind.
I was expecting something a lot more for the amount they've invested in advertising over the 2 months with the teasers across social media, might aswell of kept the Saltwell Park branding as its a poor gimmick for me.
RE: VOLTRA - streetdeckfan - 09 Nov 2020
(09 Nov 2020, 9:57 pm)JP6004 wrote I mean at a quick glance, youd make the mistake of calling it OLTRA. I dont mind the swoop livery at all and the quaycity looks really good. However the Yutongs are butt ugly and dont suit silver. They just look like a tubby adolescent citaro
Well cant imagine them to advertise the brand and for it not to be the same on the bus
The Yutong have grown on me, they're bland, but at least they don't look like they're having a stroke.
(09 Nov 2020, 10:04 pm)Malarkey wrote The logo on billboard looks better than the one on the side of the bus for me, cant understand why they've done it like that mind.
I was expecting something a lot more for the amount they've invested in advertising over the 2 months with the teasers across social media, might aswell of kept the Saltwell Park branding as its a poor gimmick for me.
I agree, I still laugh at the amount of people that just responded 'What's Voltra' when GNE started teasing it.
RE: VOLTRA - PH - BQA - 09 Nov 2020
(09 Nov 2020, 10:21 pm)streetdeckfan wrote The Yutong have grown on me, they're bland, but at least they don't look like they're having a stroke.
These ones still look a tad odd with the full enclosure on the roof pod, imo First Leeds' examples look brilliant. The styling of the bus itself looks better, and the livery is bang on (and actually makes clear that its eco friendly!).
![[Image: 50521193383_f850b0bbd5.jpg]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50521193383_f850b0bbd5.jpg)
YD70 CGO (68804) First Leeds by Joe Dobson (66757), on Flickr
RE: VOLTRA - BeachBoy99 - 10 Nov 2020
I don't get why they've gone and created a completely separate identity for the electric buses. This is just lacklustre. I thought the idea of the 2019 house style was so that every brand they later introduced would follow it in order for customers to recognise the vehicle they were about to board as a Go North East bus. I get X-lines for the interurban express routes and the gold colour scheme to emphasise high quality vehicles and speedy journeys, but even that has the stripes despite being reversed. To now make a third style, with a swoop, which completely differs from the other two, purely for the purpose of them being electric buses, makes no sense. There would have been nothing wrong with applying the stripes in accordance to the house style introduced last year, and making the brand stand out via the assortment of LED lights around the cant rails and roof. They should have followed Leeds City's approach with a green livery, like they did with Green Arrow, which actually communicates the message of eco-friendly vehicles on the services. Then there's the spare vehicle — what is that going to look like, as all of the Yutongs have the swoop? To answer my own question, there are technically now going to be two fleet liveries as well. It's quite stupid and essentially makes the house style of the stripes redundant after less than 2 years. They have just gone back to their old ways, which doesn't work now that 95% of the fleet is standardised. Personally, I'm not impressed by this whatsoever.
RE: VOLTRA - Drifter60 - 10 Nov 2020
I don’t know what it is but judging by those promos the new electric buses look a bit bland in terms of branding. Is the livery on the buses going to have a bit more about it? Without seeing one physically branded, if that’s literally it, it feels a bit underwhelming and lacklustre. I can’t help but feel the silver base colour doesn’t stand out. The Voltra logo itself and dark blue used in the promo materials looks really good. I think that the dark blue should have been the base colour. I’m not sure why it’s gone away from the house style of the ‘road stripes’ either which they incorporated to every other brand. Hasn’t the previous leadership being subtly criticised for branding loosing strategy? Slippery slope springs to mind.
Perhaps controversially, I do wonder how many people care about the use of electric buses? Basing the whole livery around it may be overkill, is Brenda in Bensham going to use the bus more because it’s greener? Obviously a vast majority use buses out of necessity, but other things like comfy seats, wifi availability, plug sockets, affordable fares, social distanced buses in the current climate and quick-ish journey times seem like the things that would attract people to buses. Aren’t bus companies telling us their regular buses are greener than my car anyway? So the use of an electric bus does little to encourage me to use buses. I’m not saying the electric buses shouldn’t be mentioned, I think it’s certainly something that should be reflected on the livery, I’m just questioning to what extent.
VOLTRA - streetdeckfan - 10 Nov 2020
So... does anyone actually like what we've seen so far of the Voltra livery?
I get the impression that we all don't
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RE: VOLTRA - JP6004 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 9:03 am)streetdeckfan wrote So... does anyone actually like what we've seen so far of the Voltra livery?Not a great fan, doesnt mean the wider public wont like it
I get the impression that we all don't
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RE: VOLTRA - James101 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 9:03 am)streetdeckfan wrote So... does anyone actually like what we've seen so far of the Voltra livery?
I get the impression that we all don't
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Not withstanding we’ve not seen an actual finished vehicle yet; as a stand-alone livery and brand, yes I like it. As a cohesive part of GNE, yet to be convinced.
RE: VOLTRA - streetdeckfan - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 9:38 am)James101 wrote Not withstanding we’ve not seen an actual finished vehicle yet; as a stand-alone livery and brand, yes I like it. As a cohesive part of GNE, yet to be convinced.Totally agree, my main issue is when you look at the style, the last operator you think of is GNE, GNE's new corporate style is straight lines and angles, Voltra and Quaycity are all swoopy. Nothing alike.
If anything, it's not that far off East Yorkshire corporate livery.
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RE: VOLTRA - Storx - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 12:40 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Totally agree, my main issue is when you look at the style, the last operator you think of is GNE, GNE's new corporate style is straight lines and angles, Voltra and Quaycity are all swoopy. Nothing alike.
If anything, it's not that far off East Yorkshire corporate livery.
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tbh Arriva's livery is Arriva / Arriva Max / Arriva Sapphire, Stagecoach's livery is Stagecoach anything else is GoNorthEast for the general public in the North East. They change the brands too much imo that they don't mean anything nowadays. Everyone knew the Saltwell livery was the bus which strangely went to Saltwell / Saltwell Park now we're calling it Voltra which means absolutely nothing to the general public and as someone said above do people 'really' care that they're electric.
The old management got critised for the brands but quite a few of the earliest brands meant something about the area - I admit that over time they went out of control and turned stupid and irrelevant even on the earlier days.
The Loop, Saltwell Park, Route 19, Cobalt Clipper, Red Kite, Quaylink, The Angel, Diamond, Durham Swift, Washington Locals, Prince Bishop, Waggonway, Crusader, Centurion and so on.
Now we've got
N/A, Voltra, Little Coasters, Coast and Cobalt, X Lines, Quaycity, The Angel, N/A, X Lines, Indigo, Prince Bishop, N/A, Crusader, Cobalt and Coast (Kinda) for those.
I've heard people use the top batch for naming routes but nowadays it's not the same as they're not good or there's batches of buses in the same brand so it doesn't really work ie you can't say get the Cobalt and Coast buses to Cobalt as most of them don't go anywhere near it in the same way you can't say get the X-Lines bus to the Metro Centre from Consett as the whole network is branded in them so you just use the numbers anyway nowadays. You might aswell just brand them all corporate imo as there's no benefit in them being branded unless your trying to hide who you are which tbf GNE don't need too.
Edit: I've just done Cobalt and Coast wrong there, shows how much that brand means...
RE: VOLTRA - Michael - 10 Nov 2020
Everyone hates the brand, yet, not one person has seen it in RL yet, and only seen it on the billboard.
I'm waiting to see it in RL, before judging it.
RE: VOLTRA - Andreos1 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 12:40 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Totally agree, my main issue is when you look at the style, the last operator you think of is GNE, GNE's new corporate style is straight lines and angles, Voltra and Quaycity are all swoopy. Nothing alike.
If anything, it's not that far off East Yorkshire corporate livery.
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I'm starting to wonder if punters will realise that GNE are the operator and not some new fancy start up.
I don't necessarily agree with the comments which state the livery is boring (although I did see those comments about uniform liveries and understand where people are coming from with that one).
I do wonder if the lack of 'Go North East' on liveries, advertising and promo and focus on the actual brand is leading people to disassociate GNE as the operator of the 53/54.
If that is the case, surely it goes against everything the company are trying to achieve with pushing the organisation name, along with liveries which are similar across the fleet.
RE: VOLTRA - PH - BQA - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 1:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm starting to wonder if punters will realise that GNE are the operator and not some new fancy start up.
I do wonder if the lack of 'Go North East' on liveries, advertising and promo and focus on the actual brand is leading people to disassociate GNE as the operator of the 53/54.
If that is the case, surely it goes against everything the company are trying to achieve with pushing the organisation name, along with liveries which are similar across the fleet.
I think this is an issue that cropped up in the peak of their "let's brand everything" phase. Recently the move to a company standard with the stripes, in my view, makes clear that it's a GNE bus and it coincides well with their "Better Than Ever" campaign.
The Voltra, and Quaycity for that matter, liveries strike me as a step backwards in terms of brand identity - and in the case of Voltra especially that seems very counterproductive.
On a slightly different note, that flooring shown in MGs tweet is certainly something else...
RE: VOLTRA - Michael - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 1:51 pm)mb134 wrote I think this is an issue that cropped up in the peak of their "let's brand everything" phase. Recently the move to a company standard with the stripes, in my view, makes clear that it's a GNE bus and it coincides well with their "Better Than Ever" campaign.
The Voltra, and Quaycity for that matter, liveries strike me as a step backwards in terms of brand identity - and in the case of Voltra especially that seems very counterproductive.
On a slightly different note, that flooring shown in MGs tweet is certainly something else...
I think it looks good, its different, which is what they're trying to provide, the idea of having the stop announcement in the wheelchair area is a good addition, the one of 2 on the bus.
RE: VOLTRA - Andreos1 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 1:51 pm)mb134 wrote I think this is an issue that cropped up in the peak of their "let's brand everything" phase. Recently the move to a company standard with the stripes, in my view, makes clear that it's a GNE bus and it coincides well with their "Better Than Ever" campaign.
The Voltra, and Quaycity for that matter, liveries strike me as a step backwards in terms of brand identity - and in the case of Voltra especially that seems very counterproductive.
On a slightly different note, that flooring shown in MGs tweet is certainly something else...
It popped up prior to then when they created all of the regional sub divisions (Coastline, VFM, Wear Buses etc). They then fixed it, broke it again in the era you mention and before this and the Q3 branding, appeared to be fixing it again.
RE the 53/54. All I'm seeing is the brand. Very little about who is behind it. In some cases, nothing at all.
What is said about the operator is in tiny writing. Almost conveying that it's not important or irrelevant. Which when you're building up the brand, creating some sort of identity, fixing the decisions made previously and pushing a network of services - seems a bit contradictory.
https://twitter.com/Dan3942/status/1325904078921232385?s=19 just some examples.
RE: VOLTRA - Michael - 10 Nov 2020
Will Voltra be allocated to a different service on a night and Sunday's, when the 53/54 drops its PVR?
RE: VOLTRA - PH - BQA - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 2:18 pm)Michael wrote I think it looks good, its different, which is what they're trying to provide, the idea of having the stop announcement in the wheelchair area is a good addition, the one of 2 on the bus.
The NSA in the wheelchair bay is great for accessibility. The seats also look vibrant, imo more appealing than the ones in the new X-Lines. However the flooring already looks scuffed to bits in the 4th pic. Maybe other people will have different views, but on a cold December morning the grass effect floor covered in water isn't going to be as nice as full wood effect.
RE: VOLTRA - ne14ne1 - 10 Nov 2020
4 maybe 5 electrics now out front at Riverside.
RE: VOLTRA - pbjd - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 3:00 pm)Michael wrote Will Voltra be allocated to a different service on a night and Sunday's, when the 53/54 drops its PVR?
No, permanent 53/54.
RE: VOLTRA - Michael - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 3:24 pm)pbjd wrote No, permanent 53/54.
Ah shame, would of gave them a proper opportunity to trail them on other Riverside services, such as the 49/49A/57/58/93/94.
(10 Nov 2020, 3:17 pm)ne14ne1 wrote 4 maybe 5 electrics now out front at Riverside.
Thanks for the information.
RE: VOLTRA - Andreos1 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 3:24 pm)pbjd wrote No, permanent 53/54.
Range issues?
RE: VOLTRA - streetdeckfan - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 1:51 pm)mb134 wrote I think this is an issue that cropped up in the peak of their "let's brand everything" phase. Recently the move to a company standard with the stripes, in my view, makes clear that it's a GNE bus and it coincides well with their "Better Than Ever" campaign.
The Voltra, and Quaycity for that matter, liveries strike me as a step backwards in terms of brand identity - and in the case of Voltra especially that seems very counterproductive.
On a slightly different note, that flooring shown in MGs tweet is certainly something else...
I think the word you're looking for is vile. They might as well have just used artificial grass, it probably would have looked better!
I really don't see why they insist on making them so different, at the end of the day it's just a bus. I understand making the outside stand out, but why the inside!
RE: VOLTRA - pbjd - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 3:31 pm)Andreos1 wrote Range issues?
53/54 have their own rota now, so limited number of drivers will get famil.
RE: VOLTRA - Rapidsnap - 10 Nov 2020
So much negativity. Give the vehicles a chance to enter service first rather then judge off a few photos / drawinings. Things may look better with your own eyes.
RE: VOLTRA - BeachBoy99 - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 7:12 pm)Rapidsnap wrote So much negativity. Give the vehicles a chance to enter service first rather then judge off a few photos / drawinings. Things may look better with your own eyes.
Yeah, right.
RE: VOLTRA - Michael - 10 Nov 2020
(10 Nov 2020, 7:12 pm)Rapidsnap wrote So much negativity. Give the vehicles a chance to enter service first rather then judge off a few photos / drawinings. Things may look better with your own eyes.
100% agree.