Rebrand NXCoventry to NXWest Midlands

[JoNi]

Travel Coventry was created in 2002 to start over again after Travel West Midlands had gained such a bad reputation in the city due to poor service reliability in part brought about by managers who were unable to cope with effects of revised conditions of employment for new employees which resulted in industrial action.

The livery of local buses is part of the character of town or citys, think of London's red buses, Edinburgh's madder  and white buses, Nottingham's green buses, Brighton's red and cream buses, Plymouth's red buses. In many cases the liveries have been modernised but remain instantly recognisable with the city they serve.

Travel Coventry's insipid sky blue of the local football team is dreadful, compounded when later adopted by the council after the Conservatives won control of the authority in 2006. They replaced all building and city signs with sky blue ones to reflect the fact the tory's had taken control of the council. These remain since their departure from power in 2010.

Far from repainting Coventry's buses in NXWM uninspired livery, Best Impressions should be engaged to create a new corporate livery with individual variations for each garage group reflecting the former corporations. Birmingham would be dark blue, Wolverhampton would be green, Walsall light blue, West Bromwich would be it's own two tone blue, Pensnett could be "Midland Red", Coventry would be red (handily reflecting the hue of the council). 

Routes such as the 51, 87, 120 and 126 to name but a few would instantly stand out in places such Birmingham and give garage's and route groups identities within a corporate standard.

An opportunity was lost when 4453 was not given a 21st century Coventry Corporation livery as an experiment.

Bring on Best Impressions Ray Stenning!

[ilovetea4370]

Surely though if they rebranded them as NXWM, they would have to charge the same ticket prices as Birmingham (otherwise you would have a lot of confusion with the 900s advertising one price and local buses advertising another, wouldnt go down well with tourists and out of town folk). The Black Country has Black Country only Travelcards available but the on board cash prices are exactly the same as everywhere else. Can't see that going down too well in Coventry for the sake of a different colour!
I mean I can see some of the benefits in rebranding, but the upfront cost for repainting the buses, and relaunching all the posters and just generally spreading the word, would it be worth it for NX?

[RebrandCovBuses]

I take on board all of the comments so far, I think it would be worth it. The issue surrounding the ticket prices are not a big issue at all, it was fine when it was TWM so it would be fine with a rebrand to NXWM.

A rebrand may not improve any reliability or punctuality like mentioned in a post on the previous page but it will show consistency across the whole county with one brand.

[ilovetea4370]

Haha consistency from NXWM, that's a joke in itself they have about 8 different livery variations knocking about atm and counting ;) If thats anything to go by trust me you dont want a rebrand :P

[RebrandCovBuses]

Cov buses are the same, they are still in the Travel Coventry and NXC livery.

[wulfrun]

The 'West Midlands County' doesn't have a motto any more because it is no longer an officially recognised county. Locally branded buses do help with passenger goodwill considerably look at the problems First had has recently with people on other topics on here slagging first off for not being local.

The West Midlands Name has stuck a lot better than some other 1974 invented county names. No one in Wigan would say they are in Greater Manchester, No one on Bristol says they are in Avon. Other counties that no longer have any administration

Come on Tony, what are you saying! :) The West Midlands is an official County – if now only a ceremonial one - but it does exist. My avatar is the County flag. You see it used in WM Police and WM Fire services crests. Stop caving into Shireist propaganda. ;) Those dark days are over - we were liberated in 1974 and should never look backwards - but Forwards and in Unity! ;)

Wigan is a unitary authority in the Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester. People who think Wigan is in Lancashire are WRONG. They don't contribute ANYTHING to Lancs County Council - so how can Wigan be in Lancashire? A unitary authority has only one tire of local goverment. Thus Wigan is not administered by any county. But Wigan is in a county - with no powers.

The unitary authorities of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry all contribute a proportion of their Council Tax to pay for Fire, Police and Transport services that cover the whole of the county these authorities are in. These services are administered by a joint Authority formed by councillors from each of the Unitary Authorities in the county. Such as the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority which oversees transport. These authorities do the job the County Council would have done, if it were not abolished in 1986 by the government in London.

Only the County Council was aboilished, not the County.

[RebrandCovBuses]

Very well said Wulfrun  :D

[bwsau cymru]

I am both for and against the idea. I a very for buses having a local identity but I think this can be achieved by having a companies buses in one colour like first have done recently. I feel that having local identity is something we seem to be loosing more and more and buses being so big can advertise a communities identity. the cost of rebranding the buses would be very little too!!

[Discodave]

To add another point what about cascading buses to other not so profitable depots it would cost money just to put a bus into service when it could just go straight out in a uniform livery and make money.

[bwsau cymru]

How about rebranding all of national express uk bus as national express bus have tye buses in plain white like the airlink citaro's down south? Maoe it even easier to move buses around and could also swap them with airlinks?

[notepanel]

How about rebranding all of national express uk bus as national express bus have tye buses in plain white like the airlink citaro's down south? Maoe it even easier to move buses around and could also swap them with airlinks?

I think all of the airport operations fall under the UK Coach Division, with just West Mids, Coventry & Dundee making up UK Bus.