Messages

Do you seriously believe that passengers in other areas are concerned by (or even interested in) any posters etc from other areas ?
Most passengers won't have a clue as to whether the bus also covers that area - and many people have little geographical knowledge anyway.

I suppose not, although regarding the first example, Leicester also has services 5 and 6, so I think there is a potential for confusion, although 3119's branding is only on the offside and often covered up.
But I think this is more about presentation, generally speaking. Obvious leftover branding is a bit of a giveaway that the bus is second-hand, and that the company doesn't pay (enough) attention to the presentation of their vehicles and, by extension, their service.

I also forgot to mention that 3119 still carries branding on the offside for the Milton Keynes 5/6, which is usually concealed by an advertisement but reappears every now and again, such as when I last spotted it (in Coalville last month).
Some of the other MMCs also have branding on the ceiling inside for the Harlow to Stansted 508/9/10. And I wonder what the folks down south will do about 4102's internal branding for Yorkshire.

It takes a few minutes to place a Diamond sticker over the Midland Classic name

Except many of them still have prominent Midland Classic logos, with Diamond fleetnames generally only being stuck over smaller logos in corners. Quite unlike after they acquired Johnsons, with large temporary fleetnames on the sides.

I think the answer as to why is pretty obvious - they are at Thurmaston! The ones that had branding removed and were repainted are Hinckley's, who seem care more about presentation of their buses. Not that that's an excuse! xD

You do have a point, as the last two services that did have route-branded buses, the X6 and 158, were both Hinckley services.

It does seem to be going quite slowly. 40521 is supposedly being repainted but was last tracked 2 months ago. Would of thought it would be back now.

And many of the buses that are in the Diamond livery were simply transferred in from elsewhere.

With regards to the pulsars, Arriva seem to not like painting buses much older than 10 years unless it's necessary. I don't understand why they don't just pull the 158 vinyls off though, leaving them as unbranded sapphires. That's exactly what Aylesbury did with the 280 branded E400s

What's even more puzzling is why it was the three surplus buses that haven't had anything done to them.

Spotting a bus broken down isn't exactly a "breakdown experience".

Unfortunately I've observed that this thread has indeed been more about spotting broken down buses than the experience of being on a broken down bus. Thankfully, regarding the latter, I have only one such incident.

Can't believe after all this time buses still carry Midland Classic fleet names

Yeah, after nearly two years! Rather sluggish progress in my opinion.

Not rocket science is it, 158 requires 3 buses, 3 buses in Sapphire 158 branding, transfer them to Hinckley then.

Absolutely no excuse whatsoever as they triumphed them to be for the 47/48 50/51 anyone bothered to tell the scheduler, same as the 3 Sapphire's (pointless brand)branded for the 158 are never on the 158, why do bus companies brand buses then not use them on the dedicated routes

I think the 158 requires six buses now, but formerly nine. Rather ironic, though, that the surplus buses are the ones that still haven't been repainted, and the rumours that swirled around about them going south never seem to have actualised.
I think that eventually the electrics will go across the whole network just like the 72-plates (which routes were the 72-plates originally intended for again?)
Sapphire is quite dead around here, seems to have been ditched across the Midlands at large. The only time a route becomes a Sapphire route is if it has a low PVR and a handful of Sapphire buses happen to be put on it on the same day. For instance, the Sapphire 16!

4767 wasn't looking too happy today. I spotted it earlier this afternoon limping along Epinal Way in Loughborough with its hazard lights on as it was overtaken by 4436, and I found it parked on Greenclose Lane in the town centre shortly afterwards.
UPDATE: Now tracking on the 104.

Does anyone know what happens to 4752 in the Midland Fox livery did it just get scrapped

Was withdrawn last summer, so almost certainly scrapped now.
4750, 4753, 4762 and 4770 have been sold to an as-yet unknown customer, '50 being for spares as it was withdrawn due to accident damage.

As they've been produced later than Arrivas batch and the earlier firsts batch it would be nice to see them in facelift version, but honestly they've probably specified the old front when the order went in!

They might be inclined to keep on ordering the old version for parts commonality. That, though, would probably backfire eventually once they stop making the old version. Personally, I would switch as soon as possible. Needless to say, though, the former sort of behaviour has sometimes produced interesting results.

doubt theyd send a DB300 down to leicester, probably heading further south to kent to replace ALX400s since they already have a fairly sizeable fleet of vdl geminis

What I do know is that 4532 has gone to Liverpool in exchange for 4412, which will be renumbered 4437 once it arrives in Leicester.

Looks like 8000 has entered service today if Bustimes is correct

Has been tracking on Bustimes since Saturday

Based on the current plans it is looking like the longer term idea is for Leicester to have 162/163 buses (I assume 162 as I don't see one solitary Olympus staying despite the rumours so far talking about 12 leaving) including 1008 which isn't used in public service and 4 coaches for the X6. Given Leicester has an approximate PVR of 150 at a quick count and a lot of the fleet will still be on the verge of life expired this seems like a disaster waiting to happen as it gives approximately a 7.5% maximum rate of unavailability before services have to be cancelled which gives very little room for any issues.

We don't thank Liverpool for their bus age limit, it just drives older buses elsewhere, as has happened here in Leicestershire, with a rather large chunk of the double decker fleet being built before 2010.
Perhaps the lone Olympus might stick around as the two remaining Eclipse Geminis, also Volvo B9TLs, don't seem to be going anywhere at the moment. Besides that pair of Eclipse Geminis, we also still have three random Streetlites, so not impossible that the last Olympus will stay!