(05 Feb 2017, 11:18 pm)James101 wrote I don't think any branding necessary improves the passenger experience, or adds any sense of 'premium'. Branding should be there to build commercial awareness. Imagine someone was getting the bus for the first time from Newcastle to Chester-le-Street and they've been told there's an Arriva bus and an Angel bus. There's dozens of mysterious looking Arriva buses around Newcastle but the green bus with a massive image of the Angel on the side is clearly the one they need. If once on board, the new passenger is surrounded by reminders they are on the Angel they'll remember that's the bus to Newcastle. From then, they'll always use the Angel and never contemplate getting the X12. It's the same as ASDA using green and Tesco using blue for signs and uniforms in their stores - to implant the brand in the customer's mind.

The bus networks here are incredibly monipolised, generally. Branding isn't essential because there isn't the need for the edge over the competing parties as they simply don't exist. Look at Stanley depot for example. Everything is pretty simple, even those B9s are untouched inside. The only routes that challenges anything to do with Stanley are the 713 and the EDwhatever to Medomsley (just). Neither carry more than about 10 people (the ED only runs once, too), so businesswise there is no need to invest in the finer aspects of a bus. If you put GNE logos all over the Stanley Omnidekkas, is a single person going to start using service X71 over anything else? No - simply because there is nothing else. Same with the Toonlinks/RKs/Ventures.

If those buses (the brick-like solos) are to be completing contract work, then the chances of there being any competition is slim. Is there another bus administrated by a different company that operates similarly to the 333? Is there a different company that operates the same links from Airport and the surrounding area?

Given the buses size, you should be able to guess that competition is not a factor that is involved in the decision to allocate.

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