(16 Feb 2015, 8:38 am)Dan wrote You seem to have adopted the mindset that "a bus is a bus" in the eyes of customers - and I totally disagree with you.

Customers can tell the differences between buses. Whilst the size of the vehicle is the main contributing factor to customers differentiating between buses, branding also assists with this. Whenever new buses are launched, customers are able to identify that the new bus is a "posh bus". Whether it's to do with the size of the new vehicle, the smell, or the lack of rattles and squeaks - you do not need to be a bus enthusiast to know the difference between an Optare Solo and an ADL Enviro400.

Although my friends can't turn around and say, "this is an ADL Enviro300", they know the difference between said vehicle type and ADL Enviro200s and Alexander ALX300s. Why? The seating! Those of my friends from school who travel home using South Shields' E1/E2/E6 routes know that buses are usually allocated with three sideways-facing seats behind the driver's cab. They know when it is not one of those buses because no other bus has that seating arrangement; as such, they have to locate another seat on the bus.

I think we're underestimating the ability of customers to differentiate between buses. I can appreciate that not all customers will care about the vehicle type which is allocated to their bus service; however, some do, and this is what some of us seem to be failing to realise. My friends know that "the blue buses on the 60" are equipped with free Wi-Fi - they know that the silver ones allocated to service 61 aren't, so guess which bus they usually get to school?

The point of this debate is for me to prove that there is a point to allocating buses to the correct routes. I have covered the potential for an adverse outcome in the event of the wrong vehicles being allocated to services on a hierarchy, and I have covered the element of customer confusion. Just because you wouldn't trust that an orange bus had been allocated to the "Diamond" services as opposed to another does not mean to say that your next door neighbour Betty or Bill wouldn't. Your neighbours could have poorer eyesight than yourself and have become accustomed to identifying their service in advance of it arriving thanks to route branding. If there was other services which stopped outside of Betty or Bill's front door and one of the vehicles which was supposed to be allocated to that route was in fact allocated to the "Diamond" services means that they could have decided to let the bus go. Going back to my previous example - I'm inclined to suggest that those customers on Holmeside, Sunderland, who put their hand out to signal the driver of my 9 (which had been allocated a "SimpliCity" branded Optare Versa) to stop, may well have raised a complaint due to the fact that what they thought was a 2/2A service didn't stop for them. Obviously, that was not the case, but they're none-the-wiser as they saw a purple bus which should have been allocated to their bus service...

Branding on buses can be a great thing if it's implemented and managed correctly. If it isn't managed correctly, it can be quite the opposite.