Personally, I like what Stagecoach have done with their X47 branded ALX300s. With simple tag lines and a few vinyls, it is easy to distinguish an X47-branded bus from a corporate-liveried example. I think they do something similar at Brighton & Hove, where a few large vinyls on the bus make it easy to tell which brand it is, while it maintains the corporate livery to some extent. I think Lothian Buses have something similar, with a red swoosh at the front of some deckers and then the classic madder and white livery. I personally think some of Go North East's brands should be more like this, where a corporate livery is still recognisable but the brand of the vehicle is too. I'm not trying to say the brands aren't good in any way, some of the more recent brands are outstanding in my opinion, but I'd like to see if this would work. It seems to work fine for some of the other operators who do similar. Another pro to this, is that with just minor branding; I think allocations can be slightly more carefree. I'm not trying to suggest that branded buses should always be off-route because they look closely like corporate-liveried buses, as the whole point of branded vehicles is to keep them on one route and one route only, their own. What I'm trying to say is that with just a few vinyls, a branded bus can look very much like a corporate vehicle, and such a fuss might not be kicked up. How many times have people gone into orbit about a ''Sapphire'' appearing on a ''MAX'' route? A bit random but hopefully somebody knows what I'm trying to say.
I'm not usually one to post in these debates, but I thought I may as well.
