Rather see a generic livery across all operators in the North East under the following brands but I'll only do GNE routes.

Express - Fast routes connecting longer distance customers (X1, X6, X10, X20, X21, X30, X31 only)
Connect - Journeys connecting one or more towns with small communities in between (1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 309, 310, X5, X15, 21, 25, 56, X45, X46, 47, 60, 61, X70, X71, X72 and so on)
Local - Local journeys connecting one main town and small communities (5, 12, 39, 35, 51, 52, 55, 57, 58, 82, V1 and so on)
Electric - Different colour but still in their respective brand (53, 54)

Make the brands say on the tin what they actually do rather than some buses being XLines/MAX which aren't express and so on.

I'd also go further and brand each of the local with their respective name where it's based so SunderlandCity, Washington Locals, Consett Locals, North Tyneside Locals, NewcastleCity, Tynedale Locals and so on.