(15 Feb 2015, 5:17 pm)Dan wrote Actually, there is a point in allocating the correct vehicles to bus services.

Since the implementation of the "Sapphire" and "MAX" brands, Arriva North East has placed its services on what could loosely be described as a hierarchy. The services which fall underneath these brands should (in theory) be some of Arriva North East's top performing routes or have the potential to become some of Arriva's top performing routes - making the most profits and/or carrying the most passengers.

The issue with placing services on a hierarchy is simple: there has to be something to separate those services on the hierarchy. Of course, we all know the differences between "Sapphire," "MAX," and a standard Arriva service. Vehicles held under the "Sapphire" brand feature the provision of power sockets, free Wi-Fi, Next Stop Announcements and e-leather seating. Likewise, vehicles held under the "MAX" brand feature the provision of free Wi-Fi and e-leather seating. Customers should not expect any additional features on standard Arriva services, though there are instances whereby some corporate liveried vehicles feature some of the features outlined above.

Services placed under these special brands have seen market growth. Additional features (in the form of new technology) stimulates this market growth. If a service held under one of these special brands is regularly being allocated corporate liveried vehicles - either due to the lack of spare vehicles to the specification of that brand or because they are being allocated elsewhere - then one could argue that customers may look for alternative choices (if possible) and the company may not see the increase in market growth that they had predicted when submitting the capital expenditure to fund the purchase of new vehicles or the refurbishment of existing vehicles in the fleet. The fact that Ashington and Blyth have just received a further branded spare vehicle (for their "Sapphire" and "MAX" services respectively) suggests that management are looking at ways to provide a more constant allocation.

Aside from this, customer confusion is caused. I was on one of Go North East's "SimpliCity" branded Optare Versa the other day, which had been allocated to service 9. Customers on Holmeside put their hands out to signal the driver to stop the bus - not realising that the bus wasn't actually a 2/2A service.

Not even the best depots can maintain a 100% allocation. It should be appreciated that Blyth does have the ability to get buses straight out of the depot and into service to replace a late journey even if it isn't the right type/branded vehicle. Customer confusion can be caused as you have pointed out but that is what the destination is for. Before branding was introduced, all GNE buses looked exactly the same and customers had to rely on the destination displays. Why should branding withdraw the need for passengers to do this? The Sapphire and MAX is an issue but i think it would be wrong to say that they allocate the wrong vehicle types on these services on purpose and is probably down the fact that a bus is VOR. What is wrong is the fact that MAX and Sapphire vehicles get cross-allocated like yesterday for example.