(08 Feb 2017, 6:24 pm)S813 FVK wrote I would argue that the X46 did dilute the MAX brand, as the brand was expanded to include the service.

Think of it as that orange (other flavours are available) squash you can buy in shops. You fill 1/4 of the glass with the orange juice. This will represent services X10/X11, the first MAX services to be launched in the North East. Without water, the drink is now at its strongest but once you start to add water, the drink rises close to the top of the glass but also dilutes it until eventually, it has been diluted so much you may as well just have a glass of water on its own. In Arriva terms, as more and more services have been added to the brand, the overall meaning of the brand has been weakened, the X46 has contributed to this, as has every service that has been/is going to be upgraded to MAX after the initial X10/X11 launch.

I suppose it is arguable that any service which did not have an "X" as part of the service number prior to going MAX saw the brand being stretched to incorporate it...Yet the 75/6 and 46 are really the only two examples of this to date. In theory Arriva should have stuck to the services they had already deemed worthy of the "X" as part of the route number to signify an "express" route (though I still use the word express loosely even so!)

Regardless, I do see the X46 as the threshold between using the brand appropriately as an identification of an express/interurban route and exploiting it for profitability (and thus branding routes for the sake of it!)