Northern Soul – The Angel

Omnibuses2.0's been on holiday again, spending just over a week in
the North East...

When last spring former Transport Advisory Service (TAS) Consultancy chairman Peter Huntley surprisingly took over as Go North East's MD, his bold promise was to turn the business around in a year, or quit.

He didn't quit. His first and most important change was to brand individual key routes or groups thereof, Trent Barton-style. Out went much of the old GNE livery, in favour of some interesting paint-and-vinyl jobs and local names. This differentiated GNE, who shares many routes with neighbours Arriva and Stagecoach. And it’s contributed significantly to growth. In place of the complex three-colour GNE livery is a series of sub-brands such as The Prince Bishops, Derwent Ranger, The Diamond, the Magic Roundabout, and Blaydon Racers.

Contrast this with fellow Go Ahead Group subsidiary Southern Vectis. Vectis has taken the opposite road, by re-branding as a unified network what was till this year a colourful yet disparate group of sub-brands, with resultant growth as striking as GNE’s.

Different emphases but the same result. Why the opposites? Vectis is a naturally monopolistic, territorial supplier, now benefiting from a total network approach. On the Isle of Wight, there is a stronger argument for single rather than multiple branding. In fact, the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.

Passengers see less value in the GNE brand. They have, however, appreciated more individual route branding. This, indeed, is an important element for GNE where some 80 per cent of its mileage is said to be shared with others.

The latest GNE routes to be rebranded were completed this month. Now known as “The Angel”, they are the 21/22, Newcastle-Gateshead-Chester le Street-Durham-Bishop Auckland, operating a combined 7½-min service past Gateshead’s major international tourist attraction, the ten-year-old Angel of the North. It’s interesting, though, that GNE’s timetable doesn’t actually trumpet the Angel and neither is it a timing point. Tourists looking for the correct route can’t miss the huge brown Angel on the already pink buses, though. And that’s the point.