(27 May 2015, 4:39 pm)Dan wrote Inconsistencies between different services held in the premium "Sapphire" brand is bad enough, but this is something else...It doesn't look brilliant but it's not the end of the world.
We have two "Sapphire" specification services with split allocations. The old VDL Pulsars have normal amber LED destination displays, and the new ADL Enviro400s have white LED destination displays. There is now inconsistencies in the same services held within the "Sapphire" brand - some with white LEDs, and others with amber.
Appreciate there's a cost behind replacing amber with white LEDs, but there are five sets of white LEDs in Darlington's new ADL Enviro400s which could have easily been put into the Pulsars which they replaced, so that all vehicles on the 7 have amber LED displays and all vehicles on the 24 have white...
As a regular passenger of the 7 no passengers have really shown any annoyance about the different coloured displays that I'm aware of.
Arriva isn't the only operator in the North East to have different displays on their branded services, Go North East have also had the old green flipdot? displays on some Prince Bishops and The Highwayman Solars and the East Durham MPDs, I know they are starting to replace these and the MPDs may not be around much longer.