Bordesley Garage

[Gareth]

The omnilinks get full to the brim because the 55 is and always has been a very busy and popular route. And Claribels have not run early mornings, late evenings and Sundays for almost 20years, so I've always thought the branding on the 55 to be a little pointless especially as currently NXWM operate a newer fleet on the 55 which for a while wasn't the case.

[monkeyjoe]

About time they sorted out the 94's Claribels are much better standard on that corridor vs NXWM.

[Gareth]

We're getting a lot more refurbed Gemini's these days and they still look pretty smart inside compared to the ALXs. Would be nice to get something newer than 11year old buses, but I think that day is still a long way off. :(

[monkeyjoe]

Damned if I ever see them, lol.

[Sh4318]

I wonder if the 8 will get branded now

[the trainbasher]

Come on! Didn't think it would be me saying this but be fair to NX. All the recent brandings look nice. Important route info is highlighted on a smartly refurbed bus. People will be able to identify their bus in the street and the comparison with Trentbarton is unfair. Yes I like them but their branding is for longer distance many of them interurban routes not frequent city services. A fair comparison is say NCT but personally I find the NX approach far, far clearer.

I actually prefer Trent Barton/GNE/Best Impressions style branding as it's more catchy and gets people on the bus. Diamond has something similar on the 002 which again is more catchy and stands out more to possible future passengers.

[PM]

Come on! Didn't think it would be me saying this but be fair to NX. All the recent brandings look nice. Important route info is highlighted on a smartly refurbed bus. People will be able to identify their bus in the street and the comparison with Trentbarton is unfair. Yes I like them but their branding is for longer distance many of them interurban routes not frequent city services. A fair comparison is say NCT but personally I find the NX approach far, far clearer.

I actually prefer Trent Barton/GNE/Best Impressions style branding as it's more catchy and gets people on the bus. Diamond has something similar on the 002 which again is more catchy and stands out more to possible future passengers.

Yeah, but as someone who uses GNE buses regularly, they can be daunting for a new user or non-enthusiast with the multitude of colours which does nothing to convey a network, as Arriva do...

[Tony]

Come on! Didn't think it would be me saying this but be fair to NX. All the recent brandings look nice. Important route info is highlighted on a smartly refurbed bus. People will be able to identify their bus in the street and the comparison with Trentbarton is unfair. Yes I like them but their branding is for longer distance many of them interurban routes not frequent city services. A fair comparison is say NCT but personally I find the NX approach far, far clearer.

I actually prefer Trent Barton/GNE/Best Impressions style branding as it's more catchy and gets people on the bus. Diamond has something similar on the 002 which again is more catchy and stands out more to possible future passengers.

Yeah, but as someone who uses GNE buses regularly, they can be daunting for a new user or non-enthusiast with the multitude of colours which does nothing to convey a network, as Arriva do...

And Nottingham is even worse with two different operators using multiple liveries knowing which is which.

Imagine in Birmingham if both NX and Rotala started random liveries for each route. You have a day ticket for one operator, but you would be unable to tell which operator it was approaching if you were a sttranger to the area

[PM]

Come on! Didn't think it would be me saying this but be fair to NX. All the recent brandings look nice. Important route info is highlighted on a smartly refurbed bus. People will be able to identify their bus in the street and the comparison with Trentbarton is unfair. Yes I like them but their branding is for longer distance many of them interurban routes not frequent city services. A fair comparison is say NCT but personally I find the NX approach far, far clearer.

I actually prefer Trent Barton/GNE/Best Impressions style branding as it's more catchy and gets people on the bus. Diamond has something similar on the 002 which again is more catchy and stands out more to possible future passengers.

Yeah, but as someone who uses GNE buses regularly, they can be daunting for a new user or non-enthusiast with the multitude of colours which does nothing to convey a network, as Arriva do...

And Nottingham is even worse with two different operators using multiple liveries knowing which is which.

Imagine in Birmingham if both NX and Rotala started random liveries for each route. You have a day ticket for one operator, but you would be unable to tell which operator it was approaching if you were a sttranger to the area

Precisely-I'm glad I'm not the only one to think that. I guess moving to a new area drives it home-when you have multiple colours and even multiple routes on one colour it makes it extremely confusing. To a non-resident of Birmingham, the public transport system would seem very easy to understand with mostly one operator with buses (soon to be) in all one livery. The problem with GNE route branding is more attention is given to the brand than the actual destinations!! Plus, with Nexus displaying route numbers only, passengers on a route like "Prince Bishops" will know it by the name and not the number. A problem, seeing as all bus stations display numbers. If you are going to do route branding then you have to at least include the number somewhere in the branding eg nifty50. Branding every route also seems pretty pointless and the other thing I absolutely hate is multiple services under one brand. A brand should cover one route at the maximum, not a few extra peak variations etc. It does make it confusing.

[arrifirststage]

In an ideal world ALL branding would be banned by law.
Passengers should just read the destination screen (or LED or whatever the latest name is) and the route NUMBER ,not name.
On my quite frequent visits to Derby I always have the impression of one major operator (Arriva) and a multitude of small independent operators with no apparent connection to each other.
Is Black Cat (for example ) a small operator or what.
Hopefully,this mad craze for branding and (even worse ) naming of buses will be seen to have been just another passing fad.

[Tony]

In an ideal world ALL branding would be banned by law.
Passengers should just read the destination screen (or LED or whatever the latest name is) and the route NUMBER ,not name.
On my quite frequent visits to Derby I always have the impression of one major operator (Arriva) and a multitude of small independent operators with no apparent connection to each other.
Is Black Cat (for example ) a small operator or what.
Hopefully,this mad craze for branding and (even worse ) naming of buses will be seen to have been just another passing fad.

There is nothing wrong with branding vehicles, see the article about advertising and branding in the current edition of 'Buses' by someone who knows what he is on about. I couldn't agree more with that article.

[the trainbasher]

@arrifirststage and that's why you'd never be a politician. Places like Nottingham have, according to stats I've read, had a increase in ridership since deregulation. Branding services may have had a positive effect on that.

[PM]

@arrifirststage and that's why you'd never be a politician. Places like Nottingham have, according to stats I've read, had a increase in ridership since deregulation. Branding services may have had a positive effect on that.

Actually, many politicians in the North East are saying the opposite about branding. I don't agree with them re-the re-regulation of buses, in fact, I'm one of the most pre-deregulation people you will find. I just think you need the best bits of branding and the network approach combined. The NX 17 branding does this brilliantly

[John]

http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/1750-1953/1790.html

Saw it in the flesh today. It does look better for real than the pictures online

[Stuharris 6360]

In an ideal world ALL branding would be banned by law.
Passengers should just read the destination screen (or LED or whatever the latest name is) and the route NUMBER ,not name.
On my quite frequent visits to Derby I always have the impression of one major operator (Arriva) and a multitude of small independent operators with no apparent connection to each other.
Is Black Cat (for example ) a small operator or what.
Hopefully,this mad craze for branding and (even worse ) naming of buses will be seen to have been just another passing fad.

There is nothing wrong with branding vehicles, see the article about advertising and branding in the current edition of 'Buses' by someone who knows what he is on about. I couldn't agree more with that article.

Problem i feel is that branding vehicles at a small garage such as Bordesley means that you have limited flexibility with your buses, branding such be restricted to larger garages.