(19 Jul 2020, 7:44 pm)mb134 wrote This is why Belmont need to seriously sort themselves out. They have multiple Sapphire routes yet their leading drivers clearly have absolutely no clue what buses are branded for what - though they've been a complete joke for years to be honest. Contrast that to, for example, Ashington who virtually always have their X21/22 fully Sapphire allocated.

GNE are always spot on with allocations for the most part, though I wonder what punters on the 21 and Cobalt services are making of the open-toppers...

(19 Jul 2020, 8:00 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Yeah, you never know what's going to turn up on the Arriva 6, could literally be anything! 

Honestly, you rarely see GNE run vehicles with the wrong branding, if one of the branded vehicles isn't running, most of the time it's a corporate liveried one of an equivalent spec.
Then again not that long back I seemed to get more OmniDekkas than StreetDecks on the X21!

tbf this is an operational choice at Blyth and Newcastle and I assume it's the same in Durham to keep buses on time or running. It's why Arriva should never brand routes as it doesn't work but personally I prefer it this way rather than curtailing services short at Gateshead or the Metro Centre or running around in threes like Stagecoach. I could understand for those into branding why they'd hate it though.