(06 Feb 2022, 9:45 am)Dan wrote Sapphire made it to their new website, suggesting it's not buried and gone just yet (otherwise why would they keep promoting it?) even if they are actively moving away from it:
https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/our-services...e-services

It seems like Arriva North East were the division to adopt Sapphire the most (the X1 is incorrectly listed here, as the buses for this were in MAX specification albeit now unbranded I understand).

Website was a rush job where the developers were just told to copy and paste. It shows routes that were taken away from the Sapphire brand long before the site was launched. There's even a page for Max, again, showing routes no longer part of the brand.

Both Max and Sapphire are being axed across the country. The North East as always seems hestitant to do anything to move on.

X1 "became a Sapphire service" when it started interworking with the 1s and 5s I believe. As the Max StreetLites were plug and NSA fitted it didn't make much difference in terms of offering - but as you say, they've been slow on repainting these or anything else.