Your opinion on liveries…

[Wumpty]

Crimson/Blueson and red/white blue/white are just variations on a theme, so I'm not sure why those would be considered seperate liveries.

While grey might be considered 'dull' or 'boring', there's at least a chance of finally having some consistency in the next couple of years.

I've mentioned before how some of the recent repaints into the grey livery look quite smart, and I still believe they do, and hopefully they will stay that way for some time.

In theory, and fresh from the paintshop in daylight, they do look very smart, however take this morning as an example;

Dark and misty in places - I'm sat in traffic and only saw one of WN's B7's last minute when the blinds came into view first. It's not visually a practical livery in darker conditions, though is much more practical from an engineering side.

Does that mean there's a more strategic approach to this, as in it appears to be more cost-effective with the grey being hard wearing, thus saving money with repaints, refurbs etc., even if it doesn't look as good as some previous liveries do like the Blueson, Crimson etc.

There will always be a cost saving the less colours you use - painting will be a one-size-fits-all, replacing panels/body parts becomes easier and the fewer colours means a stronger corporate brand identity, though does dilute the platinum brand (although I'm convinced Platinum was a pre-cursor to this all grey fleet - psychologically, if it looks like a Platinum, then the rest of your journey SHOULD feel like a Platinum experience, even when the bus itself isn't). 

What the crimson/blueson did best was to try and get away from the mish-mash of red/white and hybrid liveries (toothpaste etc) and shade variations of red/white and the weathering of the red that turned it pink against steel/aluminium and fibreglass parts, that still exists. repaints are going at a great rate, older buses in red/white will very shortly disappear leaving a fleet that can be repainted quickly, dispelling further confusion.

Wmt esop livery

@karl724223 I completely agree, and there IS something to be said for special/commemorative liveries, and hopefully, as the fleet changes and older buses disappear, NX will continue the heritage repaints as this is an important nod to the history of local public transport.

Anyway I'm off to look at some photos of the first Timesavers - great livery, weathered very badly!!!!!

[karl724223]

Doesn't help the new livery when panels are put back on after rta and they are the wrong shade of grey load of wolves singles look a mess because of this also pn 47xx buses look a mess from the same thing 

[Wumpty]

Doesn't help the new livery when panels are put back on after rta and they are the wrong shade of grey load of wolves singles look a mess because of this also pn 47xx buses look a mess from the same thing

Are the panels painted locally? This might explain why there's a colour variation, though surely you'd expect the paint supplies to be closely monitored to match the right buses?