Variagated First Bus
It was good to observe more and more Sheffield buses n the new "standard" lvery for the City ...
... and to note that both sngle and double deckers had a couple of diagonal flashes of stainless steel plast attached. Whether Joe public would notice or would care eve if they did is doubtful - but fbb appreciated it!
Likewise Doncaster has a similar scheme but in red ...
... which looks particularly smart on the single deck version.
Again, for those who notice these thngs, both have a hint of Doincaster Corporation's purple stripe livery.
Infortinately, heat and old age prevented the chubby one from spending a great deal of time scurrying arouns Sheffield taking pictures of buses; but ...
Oh dear, oh dear, what a mess it is for First.
The old man did not actually see a First Bus in Buses for Sheffield livery ...
... but there were still new-liveried double deckers route branded for service 20.
What is, or was, so special about service 20? Who knows, but it is the only such route to be so emblazoned in addition to the new city colours! And it looks like an amteirish afterhtought.
Then there were several of these running around.
They are Leeds cast-offs, some on which the shape of the vinyl reading "Leeds" is clearly visible. Poor!
But buses like these were the most obviously "wtong"..jpg)
They first appeared on the X78 to Doncaster which then ran every 10 minutes, so there are lots of them around. They were then moved to the X1 and rebranded accordingly. So here is one branded for the X1 on service 80 between Killamash and Chesterfield!
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The first attempt at red was very similar to buses in Stoke on Trent ...
... but fbb thinks they were Yorkshire local!
After losing its "Steellink" branding, the X78, now reduced to every 20 minutes has gained its own livery ...
... shown here as X78. It is X3 now!.jpg)
Yet again, a good persistent image to encourage passenger use.
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Then this has appeared from time to time ...
... perhaps another experiment like the red fronted single deckers..jpg)
But it is not the same colours as the X78/X3 or the same as the "standard" Doncaster scheme.
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Why?
Do the passengers from Conisbortough and Denaby really know what a Donny Spare is? Do they care?
These appeared, but fbb does not know why and whence!
Neither does he know whether this still exists..jpg)
It was for HMQ's Platinum Jubilee.
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fbb is not a party to First South Yorkshire's vehicle policy (if the company has one) but he would have thought that there should be (should have been) a more determined effort to rid the city of wrong liveries. Surely a coat of paint is cheaper than a loss of passengers through confusion?
Then there is the problem of nice shiny repaints with nasty dull interiors, again experienced last week by fbb on several Sheffield vehicles.
Of course, fbb does remember when ALL Sheffield buses wore the same livery, commended in a recent First Bus heriitage job (actially not that recent!).
Whatever the vehicle type, or its age, the blue stripes on cream were a truly iconic brand..jpg)
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Oh, all right - some did once use a different style!
And it was the tram livery as well.
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Sadly, Stagecoach's attempt to create the traditional scheme on supertram was something of a failure. It was the wrong blue and a watery "single" cream!
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Even in the PTE era, after a few experiments with weak, medfium and strong coffee (!!) this looked tidy and consistent in Sheffield Doincaster and Roitherham.
Talking of Rotherham, when will First Bus be revealing the Rotherham version of the new Sheffield or Doncaster livery?
Now that would look very smart!
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But here endeth the main reports from the fbb's visit oop noorth.
Meanwhile In Glasgow Route 1
Route 75
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Route 77
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It seems to be goodbye to route branding!
P.S. The fbbs' poll cards arrived yesterday ...
... just in time to remind them that the last date for applying for postal votes is on 19th June.
Encore Un Prolongement : Thurs 4th July
Do keep up at the back, fbb! The purple and grey colours are the new First corporate livery, initially used on electric buses and now being rolled out to the rest of the fleet, eliminating many of the local liveries in the process.
ReplyDeleteFirst appears to be reverting to a single corporate livery, as the recent trend to electrify whole networks or depots in one go, driven by Government funding, means that there will be many more vehicle movements and fleet cascades than previously.
ReplyDeleteThe local liveries all look great, but they are coming up against the reality of a fleet that is frequently shunted around the country, hence the edict from Aberdeen that 'thou shalt follow the corporate policy' which once again seems to be First policy in other directions too. The 'Donny spare' bus is no more; it was repainted in a yellow based Pride livery a couple of weeks back. Sheffield also has some deckers in a scruffy pink livery (sent from York and with branding for said University still visible) as well as buses with blue fronts ex Glasgow. There would never have been a Rotherham livery because there is no discreet Rotherham fleet any more- any Olive Grove bus could turn up on Rotherham services.
ReplyDelete