There’s nothing more guaranteed to elevate blood pressures than a change of bus livery.
Within months of the departure of former chief executive Neil Renilson, Lothian Buses is moving away from the “harlequin” scheme many associate with the operator’s change of fortune. The Edinburgh, Scotland, operator introduced harlequin to differentiate its low floor buses. Now the fleet is 100 per cent SLF, it’s moving back to a version of its traditional white and maroon livery, a colour described as madder.
In a move that bucks recent trends elsewhere, Scotland's favourite operator* Lothian Buses is adopting a more traditional livery style. It works best on single decks
Pre-harlequin Lothian was sedate rather than thrusting. Harlequin seemed to symbolise all that Lothian Buses has achieved in the last 10 years—a 40 per cent ridership increase, simplified network, modern vehicles and quality at reasonable fares. All this is reflected in the awards it won. A profits scare on the back of fuel rises and tram works disruption has somewhat tainted things recently, though. And it managed to survive a damaging PR disaster regarding buggies.Harlequin wasn’t to everyone’s liking. And neither will the return to a more traditional livery be. Lothian Buses is officially trying to capitalise on two things: the cultural splendour of Edinburgh; and a link with its past. Burgundy and white survived the transition in 1974 from Edinburgh City Transport to Lothian Regional Transport which, in turn, passed till recently to the arms length operator. Says its website, “We have designed a new bus livery to reflect the tradition, culture and elegance of our city.” Oh, and by repainting now, Lothian Buses can influence the tram livery rather than the other way round.
A fairly regal approach somewhat disrupted on double decks by the advertising frame. The swoop tends to focus the eye on the front wheel arch
Before the arrival of the large groups, liveries have always changed but there tended to be a clear pathway from one variant to the next. Lothian Buses’ new style would seem to be a continuation of that trend, save that there was something modern in between. Detractors would argue that this portrays the operator as backward looking rather than forward thinking. If Lothian is the progressive operator gaining peer recognition through awards, is this still reflected in its most public of faces, the livery? Or is it trying to play on the municipal pride of old, generating goodwill in the process?These are very subjective questions, particularly as modern liveries like harlequin tend to date quite quickly. And they divide opinion.
Developed not by some marketing guru or pricey agency but in-house, route-specific sub-branding continues, though passengers may find it difficult to see this from the front. Opinions are at their sharpest as to whether gold and maroon works together
Lothian Buses is asking people to vote on the new livery. This, too, is somewhat chancy. What happens if the overall result is not in favour? Lothian Buses will no doubt have done its homework and management must believe that there’s more than a chance Edinburgh’s subjects will be in favour.
And there will be no denying that in an era when municipal operations are increasingly being privatised, a traditional livery will do no harm in raising the local profile of Lothian Buses.
*—according to the BBC
12 comments:
OK. so some liveries look more attractive ans outstanding than others. Also in the eyes of those within some more in fashion.
However, what independent evidence exists, that bus users are significantly influenced by the livery a bus is displaying?
Maybe I am an eccentric exception in that what I want to travel in is a clean and well presented vehicle that gets me to my destination without hassle. Livery is very low on my list.
Call in Ray Stenning (or whoever) for a flash livery and all our problems will be solved.
Superficial thinking, but the bus industry still thinks this way ...
If traditional red works for London, why not traditional madder in Edinburgh? Tourism is an important part of the local economy. But it's a pity the designer forgot about the rectangular adverts.
Of course livery is not that important, but it is part of the overall presentation.
As we enter an age of austerity one has to ask, whether spending from what will be scarce resources on new liveries, can be justified.
Will not allocating those resources to maintaining existing fleets be more proper?
A nice traditional livery - but isn't the ".com" bit somewhat misplaced, given that Lothian is surely the antithesis of the large bus companies?
I don't think the traditional livery works on modern buses.
And if they want to influence the tram's livery, are we going to end up with a brand new tram system looking like it's 50 years old?
The madder livery is fine, nothing wrong with it, but I really liked the harlequin livery - it suited the buses and was bright and modern and looked just right. Changing it back to madder seems like a regression into the old days of step-entrance buses - and, as Cold Head says, seems something of a waste of money.
(On the other hand, I always struggled with the inside of the Lothian buses, they were just a bit too bright and jazzy, so I hope they tone those down a little bit!
I don't really think that the new livery can be called 'traditional' - the colours may be those used throughout many generations of Edinburgh buses, but the layout certainly isn't. As your post says, the layout seems to have one or two 'issues', and doesn't really seem to work - it makes that usual mistake of not following the lines of the bus.
As for the cost of changing the livery, I presume that buses are still repainted every few years in any case, so the cost in real terms is probably not that great.
I'm curious as to the "waste of money" comments. In this case, the livery was designed in house by its existing staff.
Lothian has a pot of money for repainting vehicles anyway as part of the normal day-to-day operation and ongoing maintenance anyway.
Providing the vehicles are painted as part of the standard repaint schedule then it's going to cost absolutely nothing more than a repaint into harlequin, which the vehicle would have needed as well.
As someone who had fond childhood memories of the old madder and white livery, I always liked it, and thought that, as we moved into the horrid era of the boring Arriva swoop, Stagecoach's awful MkII loops, and other garish designs, I thought it still looked quite distinguished, marking the company as an operation apart.
When the Harlequins came along, I hated it, but I could see the logic. I frankly have my doubts it even had the desired effect, did the travelling public really understand why it was done? I cannot think of many other operators who took such a strategy, Worstbus certainly employed Barbie I/II half-heartedly. I don't know whether it was the transition to more rounded designs like Wrights, or just familiarity, but Harlequins looked better with time, to the point where it almost looked normal to me.
Having not anticipated a return to madder, it really took me by surprise to hear they were going back to it, and I genuinely thought I would welcome it, but as soon as I saw it, I have to say, my immediate reaction was that it genuinely looked regressive.
Somehow, and I'm not sure how, but for me, they haven't nailed the job of making it look both progressive and traditional/tied to Edinburgh at all. It takes the worst of both, it looks too obviously wannabe modern to be modern, but doesn't do enough to manage to look like the old distinguished livery either.
I don't honestly think the combination they wanted was even possible. IMHO, they should have either gone all in for a traditional, distinguished, corporation look, to unashamedly say that in an era of too many swoops and swirls etc, we are not ashamed to look traditional.
Or, in the spirit of a the harlequins, but not the design, they should have gone for a very modern looking design, not restricted to two colour blocks, something truly distinctive to Edinburgh in not just colour, with just a very minimal nod to the madder and gold colours.
But it was definitely time for a change, even though again, I think its dubious value at best to spend three years marking an event nobody really appreciates.
Ironically, I thought the previous Airlink livery was a very good example of a truly modern livery, without going overboard. The new one, is just another overly garish, overly bold but obviously generic, design. The less said about 'blue sky thinking' the better.
The real reason is that Lothian needs to cut costs and it no longer can afford the 2k a time bill from mercury to fit the harliqin vinals. the new livery only uses one vinal gold strip and some lettering. The rest is done by in house roller painting. Much cheaper in the long run. But I can tell you the buses are being repainted faster than the normal schedule. They want them all done by the time the trams are up and running, I think they need not bother rushing!
The new Lothian buses are very nice
including the echo bus.When will
one be on the 44 route.The only
problem is,it is a waste of money so
this better be the last change of
livery for years. by Robert MAY
AGED 9.
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