(20 Jan 2021, 10:28 pm)Dan wrote Yes, agreed. A photo will always be different to how it actually looks in reality too.
I think the only tricky thing with moving away from it being orange is that the 56 has always been orange. That's not to say it always has to remain orange going forward, but I think there has to be a pretty compelling case to move away from it. In this instance I'm not sure what that case would be. Reliability on service 56 is very good, so there's no need to move away from the colour to try and change the perception that it's a different/newer bus.
In a normal world, I think the orange double-decker will be perceived on Old Durham Road as being the bus that stops. Despite being some 10 months into the pandemic where express services have began to serve all stops on their route, I still don't think many people hail down an X1, as the perception was always that the red buses, now gold, don't stop.
The 56 has existed for I don't know how many years (40+?) and has only been orange for coming up 15 years - first with the Solars and then the B9's.
The 187 and 188 which was eventually merged with the 56 certainly weren't orange either.
People who need the 56, will use the 56 - regardless of what colour it is.
It maybe makes it stand out in Sunderland, but beyond there, particularly from Nissan and beyond, it's just another bus and for a large proportion of the route, has various common sections.
To keep it orange, because its perceived to be the stopping bus on Old Durham Road seems crazy imo. Particularly as there's a stack of other stopping buses on Old Durham Road. There's blue ones, orange ones (x2), red ones (green on a Sunday) and whatever other colours of the rainbow are thrown about that week which all serve the stretch at one point or another and will get the majority to the same destination.