(06 Feb 2022, 9:45 am)Dan wrote Getting back to the original point, as subsequent posts seem to have turned more into a Best Impressions bashing session, it is really quite sad to see Arriva's buses of late. It makes a mockery of their original investment when they don't spend the time to continue upholding the standard once set.
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).
I would agree that if they are being phased out then these should be given priority for repaint but, aside from the recent repaints at Darlington, progress with repaints has been incredibly slow. Locally in the North East, Stagecoach adopted a new corporate livery after Arriva, yet the latter seem to have painted far fewer buses into their new scheme. I'm still perplexed as to why Arriva have prioritised the gas buses at Darlington.
I was thinking that. It's coming up 4 years and I'd be very surprised if it's even close to 50% repainted into the new livery.
I don't disagree with Roger French highlighting it, as to be frank, it looks piss poor and is hardly a welcoming sight for anyone using public transport. This is far from being a Sapphire-only issue, or even an Arriva-only issue for that matter. It's perhaps received more attention because it's being pushed as a premium offering, but I'm sure any of us could use go out and use a couple of buses in the region today, and we'd all find very similar quality issues.
Some MDs clearly care a lot more about the quality aspect than their counterparts elsewhere do, but that doesn't always translate to the ground.
It doesn't surprise me that Ray, with a very opinionated vision on public transport, is highlighting it either, but I am surprised that he continues to do so through his design agency. It's extremely unprofessional to publicly criticise (even former) customers, and I think it'd be a barrier to other companies choosing to use him, if he wasn't part of the old boys network.
(06 Feb 2022, 9:52 am)RMF1254 wrote When Sapphire was rolled out, in my opinion it was one of the best at the time, such a shame it has lost the ‘sparkle’.
The early concepts of Sapphire made it a clear premium offering, and I think the seats had a lot to do with it (see this article). By the time it hit the North East, it had already been downgraded to the same spec as other operators were rolling out as standard - plastic ironing board seats, NSAs, WiFi and power sockets.