(24 Jul 2020, 7:03 am)James101 wrote It just seems like confirmation that Sapphire is now just a spec checklist for vehicles, with nothing behind it. When Sapphire was first launched, it was a fully implemented concept - livery & mod cons bus also uniforms, marketing and detail cleaning. Also back then the seating, WiFi & USBs genuinely make Sapphire stand out, like the Darlington 7. Now those features are widely standard, the Sapphire spec should have moved with the times. 2020 Sapphire could have been maybe skylights, at leat phone cradle, push stop & light, tables, wireless charging?

I’d say the only Arriva route I can think of that still carries the ‘spirit’ of Sapphire is the 1 between Chester and Wrexham.

Been having this discussion on Facebook a few times recently and I can't help but feel many of these Premium brands like Sapphire, Platinum from National Express West Midlands/Coventry or Palladium in Blackpool are a bit outdated now as they aren't particularly special anymore, Blackpool in particular is a case of the whole fleet is Palladium now so where do you go from here? Will just be a case of adding little bits to buses with a brand that doesn't stand out anymore.

There are a few exceptions to where this has been done right IMO, such as Transdev Harrogate's 36 as it looks and feels pretty premium and there isn't a fleet full of identical buses in that area to that spec. I feel GNE somewhat get away with X-Lines particularly as it's currently a newly developed brand and IMO isn't too heavily emphasised on being 'premium' it's more geared towards the express elements of the routes and at least they haven't used a very drab grey colour either.

I'd just get rid of Sapphire now as it's somewhat meaningless in terms of being premium now, it's just another brand, I would ditch it and put everything in the new standard livery which although I'm not a fan of, it would at least look fresh and come across like some effort is being put in as quite a lot of the fleet is at a point where they look incredibly shabby now.