I have mixed views on route branding, if it's done right then it really can make a difference but I feel now in places it's just done for the sake of branding and cos industry people spout that it's such a good thing.

I feel the biggest way to make an impact with a service is to really drive promotion of services such as leaflet drops, social media posts and general word of mouth, with route branding at the likes of Go North East on some routes it feels like they introduce liveries and then do very little with it beyond that.

One thing I hate with a lot of these new liveries is the service number is nowhere to be seen (although some companies have ditched service numbers altogether with some routes), another thing is the company names has also disappeared or is so miniscule it might as well not be there, one of the main things people identify a service with is the service number.

I personally ain't a fan of local identities as if there's multiple identities crossing one another, it begins to become confusing (especially if a bus with an identity strays onto another local identities route), I remember having an issue with a Transdev driver once on a branded route with no local identity applied and as I was unfamiliar with the area at the time I had no clue which Transdev page to direct the complaint to, is it Burnley or is it Blackburn?! Since then it could be Rosso and don't even ask where a complaint for their Ribble Country services go.

My favourite form of route brandings are ones that don't stray too far from a standard identity/livery, one of my personal favourites over the years was the 'Metro Coastlines' brand that Blackpool Transport adopted in the noughties where each route had the same yellow base accompanied by another colour (eg Line 1 was orange, Line 5 was red) and they also stated the main destinations served and also showed the service number: https://flic.kr/p/72wZdu .Many independents have a stronger recognised brand than most of the big firms do these days, you can see the likes of Weardale's fleet from a mile off (admittedly diluted slightly with much of the service fleet being just dealer stock White with just a logo on the front and maybe the rear).

I think constantly chopping and changing service numbers / liveries doesn't build up a strong profile for a route, about one of the biggest branding success stories is the 36 between Ripon, Harrogate & Leeds operated by Transdev, there's been little done to the route and the livery since they started, think they're on their third? proper livery adoption in 18? Years for the service with only so some small changes but sticking with marketing as a premium offering, then look at something like the Sunderland 61, the liveries have changed multiple times in half that time that Transdev have including having silver base liveried Citaros with no branding for a while and there's even more liveries to add when you include Sunday interworkings causing wrong brand workings such as Silver Arrow and Berries and then they made it service 9 for a while only to then go back to the 61 a short while later.