(04 Mar 2016, 9:29 pm)Jimmi wrote when Go North East originally had the contract to run the 37 before Gateshead Central Taxis they used Solo SR's in Nexus livery and the buses carried some Go North East logos on the side and . . . but some people will have probably grown to identify it as a "Go North East brand" and now you have Gateshead Central Taxis running buses around in the same livery so I guess this is where some of the confusion lies, doesn't help that GCT have no company names on their buses . . . and I imagine most of the passengers will be totally oblivious to who runs the service.
When you get significantly different liveries running the same route (Arriva, Stagecoach, GNE orange and GNE red and GNE Tynedale links yellow on the '85' route to Newcastle from Hexham) the average passenger doesn't consider that they represent different operators.
It's only when they try to board with a return ticket issued by a different operator (and get refused) that they get confused.
Oh! and the confusion was there when Arriva and Stagecoach were the sole operators of the 685 - back then the tickets weren't transferable (I believe that they are now).
Passengers stand at a stop and look at the destination blind - if it reads what they expect to see then it's 'their bus'.