SYT/ Mainline/ First - is one livery better or local ones? (Read 709 times)

[dougie]

What’s the plan livery wise? And what would you like it to be?

Fair enough if First are replacing the Sheffield/ Doncaster/ X78 with just one, but that doesn’t need to be going back to Olympia (especially when so little of the national fleet is in that pale lilac monstrosity, most other regions seem to have adopted local alternatives themselves)

The operation in this neck of the woods seems to be almost too big for one brand (there’s not just one livery for West Yorkshire) but almost too small to sustain multiple (especially with the complication of Rotherham routes now being run from Sheffield or Doncaster)

Each municipal fleet used to be separate (navy and cream in Sheffield, predominantly red in Doncaster with a little purple, a blue based liberty in Rotherham?)

Then we had years of SYT across the region

Then local Sheffield/ Rotherham/ Doncaster versions of Mainline (red/yellow, blue/yellow, red/silver)

Then one version of Mainline (basically the red/yellow Sheffield version with a little blue and silver to represent the other two)

Then First came in and put “Sheffield” on the side of the Olive Grove vehicles (next to a much larger First logo), I think they had “Rotherham” and “Doncaster” versions?

Then UK-wide livery and branding (with reference to “South Yorkshire” in publicity material and colourful route branding for certain corridors during the Overground/ Metro eras)

Then large pink Sheffield/Rotherham/ Doncaster when Olympia came in, replacing Barbie (but still one livery nationally)

Then (with Midland Road closing) we’ve had various versions of blue for Sheffield and a couple of versions of red for Doncaster-plus the return of red and yellow for the X78

Now, it’ll apparently be moving to one livery and branding across SY again?

I know that some will say that passengers don’t care and just want an affordable reliable bus service, some will appreciate a local identity, some people will only want something if it reflects the colours from when they were a lad… What do you reckon?

[overground]

In my opinion local liveries are nice but with how often buses get shuffled around the country one livery nationwide is better

[teapot42]

The idealist in me says different liveries, even down to role-specific ones, similar to Stagecoach Gold.

However, the realist knows that these days everything is run on minimum resource there is no longer the luxury of having a spare for everything and you end up with the wrong livery in the wrong place.

What I would like is for the design gurus who come up with these flamboyant liveries to think about one that could be easily customised. If that means making it simpler then no harm there. Even if it's a base livery where a single colour can be chosen for a particular depot or operating area that at least helps differentiate and gives a better clue what might be your bus amongst several.

As a child I could always tell a United from a Northern for example by the proportions of red and white, even though both were NBC companies.

[norbut]

put the buses back into council colours made it easier to know which bus was each area

[Solo]

In an ideal world we'd have a single livery with variations for depots. From a passenger perspective a bus is a bus and if it does the job then great, but even passengers want to be attracted by a good brand identity which includes a livery. For that a standardised livery whereby the passenger notices the company straight away is good, and for the enthusiast a variation can bring excitement as a nod to perhaps previous opcos, photo opportunities or a unique identity which makes them feel proud to catch the bus they're on.

It's not really a good idea to coat many different localised paint jobs when your fleet is completely national. Take the mishmash of liveries from recent transfers like the York ones whereby it's suitable to ignore much needed repaints even though a vehicle is EOL (to be fair Leeds repainted theirs as did Hudds) but that fetches another factor based on depot expenses that I could go on about yet you get the idea. But for branded routes it's good, as the X78 is a prime example, and if a striking livery was wanted it's perfect to experiment with. Flagship routes deserve their identities and should be the sole ones to receive a livery and decals.

[The Captain]

Poppy Red.

[vrman]

My view is if it’s a corporate group and you know you’ll be moving buses around go for one scheme but keep it refreshed and keep buses repainted regular. First seemed pretty incapable of this with Barbie buses knocking around years after it was replaced. Stagecoach seem to manage this better around the country

However if places like Cornwall Essex Leeds and Bradford are getting their own schemes why shouldnt we. I love the two schemes that have been created but do think maybe having two separate ones for one fleet that’s often swapping buses hasn’t proved to be the most practical shout especially with Rotherham routes

Given the goodwill attached to it maybe reviving Mainline was the way to go. However, if the buses are going to go the way of Manchester there seems little point making fundamental change now

Seems for Sheffield at least anything that comes from outside in a regional livery will get painted blue and Olympia/other first purple based schemes will be left/tarted up. Be interesting to see what happens if anything green etc ends up in Donny