A Coloured Route That Leads From Leeds (1)?

But First - A Middlesbrough P.S.

"Why didn't he ask at the Travel Shop?" - fbb can hear the implied criticism of his chum Peter concerning yesterday's blog.

It was closed - of course.

How about this from when the bus station opened?

Pegboard technology rules OK!

And then the big question. Is it a bus or a coach?

This issue has always been a contentious one. When fbb was nobbut a lad and he travelled to school on a Bedford OB, the vehicle was originally a "coach", i.e. used for private hire and excursions, but had been "demoted" to life as schoolday duplicate to the scheduled double decker. fbb tried to explain to his mother that he journeyed to school on a bus - but she insisted that it was a coach.

So when a blog comment writer re-opened the debate ...

Man of Kent - 21 July 2020 at 09:09
The illustrated coach is a bus! Look carefully at the seats...

The real coaches were painted orange and cream.

... fbb became uneasy all over again.

Certainly (Cleveland) Transit operated a "coaching" unit with vehicles painted orange instead of green. But the boundaries were fuzzy with at least one double deck bus ...

... and minibuses in orange.

And this orange "coach" ...

... has bus seats and is on a bus route.

fbb remains fairly convinced that the vehicles on the New Marske express, like those that he spied in Middlesbrough all those years ago, were in "bus" green and, if the old man's memory can be trusted, the bus (or coach) below was on the (X)94 and parked somewhere at New Marske.

Maybe?

There again, Man of Kent is usually right!

And So To Leeds - In Colour!
fbb would guess that large scale bus branding was a child of privatisation and competition in the bus market. He well remembers the introduction of the motorway express services between South and West Yorkshire (X31 to X36). They were "branded" White Rose Express on some stops and on printed publicity; but you would hardly know it when meeting a vehicle on the M1.

Sheffield Transport bought coaches for their share of this joint venture ...

... but retained "normal" livery (with the exception of stainless steel fleet names); and that was much the same for the other participants. Sometimes any old bus would do!

Later, in PTE days a few sticky labels sufficed ...

... but "brand loyalty" was often compromised as here on the X48 between Sheffield and Manchester ...

... not a "White Rose" route, of course.

Later again, there was an attempt to jazz-up the service ...

... but this "Gold Rider" - in shades of blue - is on the X6 between Leeds and Huddersfield; again not an M1 route.

In Leeds, as with many other First Bus city networks, one craze was "The Overground" with branding on the blinds only ...

... on the Overgound map ...

... and on the PTE leaflets.

But The Overground seemed to sink slowly under ground and disappear from view.

Recently, however, we have seen the renewed onset of route branding from First Bus in Leeds.

Pulse has pulsated off into obscurity ...

... silver grey has become tarnished ...

... and "express" blue can be inconsistent.

The X84 bus is on service X85 - of course! (seems to be common practice).

The Park and Ride livery is definitely a far cry from First Bus livery boredom ...

... but bus watchers have become exited in recent rimes with the arrival of fleets of brand new buses for city routes in two-tone green with the barest of hints at a standard post-Barbie livery.

But things developed further with different front end "wedges" accompanied by matching diagonal stripes towards the rear.

In no particular order, we have GREY ...

... DARK BLUE ...

... RED ...

... and YELLOW.

The base green does seem to photograph quite differently in varying light conditions but, honest, it is the same green in every case.

So might we expect this "brand colour" to be carried forward onto printed publicity and route maps.

We might expect it - but it isn't.

Here, for example, is the current on-line route map for the "yellow wedge" services to Garforth and Thorpe Park.

The only reference to the YELLOW is on the logo at the foot of the leaflet.

 Or what about that bright RED wedge?

That is for buses to Holt Park in the north of the city ...

... and Beeston to the south.

No red roads revealed here.

Red on the map ...

... is DARK BLUE on the buses!

Confused.com!

But we don't want to give you that!

In tomorrow's blog comes a proposal that, if implemented, will change things yet again.

 Next Leeds Colours blog : Friday 24th June