(23 Feb 2026, 2:52 pm)Drifter60 wrote At this point X Lines and all other branding has failed in my opinion. I was one who actually liked the branding of routes, I think eye catching buses did capture something and GNE routes that were branded - in most cases - stood out against an ‘ordinary’ stagecoach or arriva bus. But everything got too diluted, buses appeared off route too often, routes added into brands to suit interworking patterns and anything with an X included in X-Lines despite some cases of neither being fast nor express.

I’d actually say just go back to one livery across the board, remove all the brands at this point. Even Voltra I think is missing the mark slightly, it’s almost as if Voltra is the operator! It doesn’t feel very Go North East…

In 2021 when it felt like a new brand was being released every week throughout the whole year it just make some routes have branding for no particular reason. For example the 38 in Sunderland, "Blonde" which was a 1 Bus route apparently felt the need to have branding. The Covid Shuttles apparently felt the need to have branding and lastly contracted routes that got branded. It just wasted more money because they inevitably were going to be repainted into fleet or another brand.

Also yeah. Voltra feels like an operator look now. Because of the new look making it be an Advertisement not a Brand for a Route. They can't just advertise every single new Electric Bus as "Voltra" because you don't want to end up with the Voltra Sainsburys S2 service. Stagecoach does it well with their electric Yutongs. Stagecoach Fleet Livery with small sub-branding of 100% electric. You don't have to look at it but its there for anyone interested

If they want to do branding which there is not anything wrong with it. They should go back to doing the Fleet Livery with Sub Branding. Like the 49