(11 Apr 2022, 8:54 pm)Storx wrote It's not the only bus route Sunderland has a few of them imo.
The 20 and 55 should ideally be one brand or similar as it's the same route from Houghton and Sunderland which is a fair chunk of the route. Similar to the 2 and 39/39A which is the same route from Chester Road all the way round to Grangetown.
Branding wise I always liked Trent Barton's Sixes would work well with the 2 and 39/39A imo - https://www.trentbarton.co.uk/services/sixes. Have something like:
2 - 2.1
2A - 2.2
39 - 2.3
39A - 2.4
and push the 7.5 minute frequency through the core section with a route diagram of what the .x means as let's be honest it's only going to be locals using the outliers really anyway.
Ironically the 8/78 shouldn't be the same brand they're two different bus routes which make no sense being together which makes the branding in Stanley / Sunderland and Chester Le Street, 3 of the main points a total waste of time.
Oh dont like that Sixes thing at all - would be better if they were consecutively numbered though on similar routes IMO - like the 61-64 in Killingworth used to be etc. More annoying though is a service using a single Service number with multiple route variations/termini (X-lines X1, Stagecoach 3 in Sunderland, now the 62 in Newcastle) - there's no reason for it as there are plenty of unused numbers and just causes confusion.
2/39 have literally just been removed from the common brand of Black Cats.