(Thanks to all who voted. The survey is now closed. Call back to see the results)
It just goes to show that liveries are a very subjective and emotive thing. routeONE admits that its panel of six judges found it difficult to shortlist the 321 entries in this year’s livery competition into 15 finalists, three in each of the bus, mini/midi and coach categories. This was the first time routeONE had adopted a shortlisting approach. And it’s as well that they did so, as voting over such a wide range of liveries must otherwise scatter the results considerably.
routeONE printed all the hopefuls in this week’s edition though why, I’m not sure, when readers can only vote for the shortlisted entries. It does, however, offer a colourful pageant. See all the entries here, with details of how to vote.
And what about a poll of our own? For whom would *you* vote from among the top five bus liveries? And let everyone know your thoughts via Comments. Like routeONE, we will allocate 3 points for first place, 2 for second and 1 for third. Vote here
The five shortlisted are:
- Johnson’s Bus & Coach Travel
- East Yorkshire (special livery)
- Transdev York
- Newbury Buses
- The Green Bus
Also, we can report that the shortlisted finalists are for coach livery of the year are Robson’s of Kimbolton; Mayne’s Coaches; The King’s Ferry; Redfern Travel; and Bluebird Coaches.For the mini/midi category, they are Johnson Bros Tours; Wardle Transport; Winson Coaches; Reay’s Coaches; and Wilson’s of Rhu .
And here are some statistics. The bus livery of the year saw 67 entries of the 321 total. Stagecoach came in with its Lothian lookalike Interconnect variant. There was a First-liveried coach. Arriva entered a Wardle liveries double deck in red, complete with “cow horns”. Other than a smattering of Go Ahead vehicles, the rest were smaller concerns.Just under half of the coaches entered were in dealer stock white or substantially white. No white coach got through to the shortlist. Between 55 and 60 per cent of mini/minibuses were in dealer stock white.
The most unusual entries were a 1979 AEC Reliance/Plaxton (in white) of Just Travel; an East Lancs rebodied Leyland Leopard (in white) of Plymouth Discovery Tours; a Guy Arab IV/Metro Cammel (not in white) late of Birmingham City Transport and now with Belle Vue; a tri-axle Crosville coach (not in white but also not in green) from Weston super Mare; and a Seaford & District open top Bristol VR largely in cream with green.For those who’ve commented in the past about Stenning lookalikes, observe the new Plymouth Citycoach livery and that of Transdev Coastliner.
i Photos from routeONE. See them in top quality here
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30 comments:
I thought we were nearly going to have one week when you didn't have a go at Stenning. Get over it!!
Since when has Busing ever, ever "had a go at Stenning"??
A couple of commenters have, maybe?
It's interesting, as usually I'd prefer the Stenning liveries, but I am not too keen on the colour schemes in the "jet black" and "Transdev York" liveries.
I must be seeing things all wrong.I prefer the liveries of the non selected few.
Hmm, none of the (very few) I would have chosen are in the finals, so not vote from me! Some of the operators appear to have assumed it was a competition to find the most clutted and complicated livery. Still good news for the vynil makers, I guess.
None of those ones are my favourite - I'd say I prefer the RATP Yellow Buses to all of them.
Generally, I like a conservative livery in a one or two colours, ideally skirt one colour body a different colour, with a local identity of some sort.
TBH, I'd quite like First bus livery plus a local touch (and with no F-in-circle, as it were) if I didn't dislike the purple and pink so much.
I like a professional, competent, understated and efficient bus service run with local management and a local feeling of ownership, and I like liveries to reflect that.
The one exception is that for some reason Stagecoach livery just *looks good*.
Neil
As I have said before I do like a smart, modern, business-like identity - some of the competition entries just seem to be a 'stick your name vinyl' on a white or silver base colour!
Of the entries short-listed by routeONE I prefer the King's Ferry coach livery - simple and effective.
I'm with Anonymous @ 09:19 though I prefer some of non-selected (Xelabus coach!, Excelsior Coaches, First(Green Line) d/d and even the Arriva-ised Wardle Transport scheme)
And to follow up from Neil's comment about Stagecoach's current scheme - it seems infintely adapatable - for the example the 'eco' green scheme and the purple and gold jubilee scheme. Stagecoach Lincolnshire still the latter for their 'Inter-Connect' services - the buses look good
It would be interesting to hear what the passengers thought of the bus liveries.
Has anyone every done an independent study to find out if liveries and branding actually have any affect on usage,both existing or generated? Obviously the design agenices,and some bus companies will tell you it's vital, but I wonder how much.
How did that special EYMS livery make the shortlist? There's too much lettering, much of it in the same font and the colours are dull and drab.
I'd go for the Reading one out of the shortlisted few.
Nice to see a VR in the entries though!
I think most passengers are not worried about the livery as long the operator gets the basics right - the bus is in decent nick, turns up on time and the service is as advertised (i.e. they can rely on it).
'more' from W&D does seem to be successful branding exercise - but a brand needs to be kept 'fresh' otherwise it will slip back into anonymity after a while
For all most people care the buses can be rainbow coloured - except in Bournemouth of course where it needs to mostly yellow. We Bournemouthians are a bit conservative LOL
As ever - Much Ado About Nothing. A criticism which sums up the generally wearying 'huff and puff' approach of Route One.
The best of the bus liveries are the Delaine and Safeguard offerings. Special praise to Delaine for managing to 'extend' their livery onto the normally black area on the front between the upper and lower deck windscreens. I'm afraid none of the shortlisted examples really caught my attention.
There seem to be so many liveries which have swirls, stripes, diagonals, etc, which clash with the general design of the vehicle, that a plain two or three colour livery that follows the lines of the bus is an exception, and some could justifiably claim to have the 'wow' factor that the judges seem to be looking for. The plain white with vinyl stickers approach is also so common that it no longer has any real impact (if it ever did!)
"The plain white with vinyl stickers approach is also so common that it no longer has any real impact (if it ever did!)"
Plain white with a small, understated logo and maybe a coloured skirt works - *if* you keep it clean.
As regards Stagecoach, the way you can vary the colours to provide a local or other specific identify while keeping it recognisable works for me.
One other exception to the "not too brash" thing is that while I don't really like route branding (as it looks *immensely* stupid if you can't keep your vehicles on route, which from experience seems to be much of the time[1]) I do quite like the "local touch" of theming a bus on a local attraction and adding photos etc to a basic livery to do that. I can't think of a bus livery that does that off the top of my head, but Northern Rail are quite into it.
[1] I was quite a vocal critic of Arriva/MK Metro for this - but thinking back I'm pretty sure what they were actually doing was phasing MK Metro yellow and blue out quite cleverly - first, route brand in route colours with the blue skirt, then drop the blue skirt, then once all the yellow and blue has gone start repainting into Arriva colours.
Neil
I'd agree that Stagecoach is probably one of the very best. Of those shortlisted I suppose at least the Green Bus looks bright and cheerful - no idea why that drab EYMS is included.
I like the Johnsons Bus & Coach livery the best. Other liveries not listed that I like are Webberbus's Taunton Park & Ride:
http://www.optare.com/images/hi_res/webberbus.jpg
and their Weston-Super-Mare operation (shades of Badgerline):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ABn-ravPkHA/S-CSpunDLAI/AAAAAAAAA_M/LLxI2XQA4d8/s1600/45543.JPG
Can we have an article on just *how* does Stagecoach manage to maintain such a consistently good appearance ?
Most of the fleet is consistently spotless. Panel damage is quickly rectified and vinyls on windows are replaced properly - somthing that most others fall down on.
I assume that Stagecoach feel it worthwhile to have sombody at each garage specifically responsible for the external appearance - other operators must have it much further down their list of priorities.
A disappointing shortlist when you read that one of the judging criteria was for the livery to have the 'wow' factor. Not so much 'wow' as, well, nothing much at all.
I think the large numbers of 'vinyls on a white base' entries have a 'wow' factor - "wow, what a lack of imagination" :)
@yorkshireman
“How did that special EYMS livery make the shortlist? There's too much lettering, much of it in the same font and the colours are dull and drab.”
I don't know, but they did exactly the same last year with the Petuaria Express - a very, very similar design theme on a single branded route based on an old name for the town at the end of the line. It was carp on the Petuaria Express, and it's carp on the Wicstun Express ... in other words, I smell something fishy.
Anon at 09:37 here again... I have to say that I agree with RC169 - the Safeguard and Delaine liveries were the ones that stood out for me as well - simple, elegant and timeless.
Having seen the latest issue of BUSES, I do like the new silver and pink First livery on page 99, it sounds awful but looks superb. It's so simple and providing they don't ruin it with excessive lettering and branding, it should stay looking stylish and fresh.
RC169 at 1301: "Special praise to Delaine for managing to 'extend' their livery onto the normally black area on the front between the upper and lower deck windscreens. I'm afraid none of the shortlisted examples really caught my attention.
There seem to be so many liveries which have swirls, stripes, diagonals, etc, which clash with the general design of the vehicle, that a plain two or three colour livery that follows the lines of the bus is an exception, and some could justifiably claim to have the 'wow' factor that the judges seem to be looking for. The plain white with vinyl stickers approach is also so common that it no longer has any real impact (if it ever did!)"
I totally disagree. That traditional Delaine livery fails to follow the lines of the vehicle too - they've just carried on the dead straight lines around the front, which on a curvy Wright Gemini looks atrocious. I dislike the black glass being covered up too. I'm afraid I don't like traditional liveries - nothing says bus travel is outdated than an old livery. The Delaine Volvo has silver surrounded windows which look terrible. There Wrightbus are, trying to make good looking modern buses, than Delaine try and cover it all up with an outdated livery which doesn't suit.
Buses need to look modern. The "swirls, stripes, diagonals" you so dislike are the way this is usually achieved, when things are designed right. Think Stagecoach, think Brighton & Hove, think Southern Vectis.
Yes, definitely Brighton & Hove along with Stagecoach.
And I know for a fact that Best Impressions designed the liveries for Stagecoach, Brighton & Hove and Southern Vectis.
Thank god though that there are companies like delaine that have liveries that stand out i personally find modern liveries much of muchness
"And I know for a fact that Best Impressions designed the liveries for Stagecoach, Brighton & Hove and Southern Vectis."
Though Stagecoach doesn't look like a typical Stenning job. I suspect they were quite careful in their specification (as always).
Neil
As for what Neil just said, his suspicion is merely his suspicion, not necessarily a fact, and if there are similarities between some of Best Impressions' liveries, how do you know that's not what the customers wanted?
It's very dangerous to make assumptions on a blog, however entertaining!
I didn't say it was a fact - I don't work for Stagecoach or Stenning so I have no idea whether it is or not!
However, it is true that many of the Stenning liveries look very similar to one another (call it a "family resemblance" if you like), and that Stagecoach is an exception to this, for whatever reason this may be.
I should note I have nothing against Stenning - indeed - many of the liveries look rather good.
@ Anon 1458:
Can we have an article on just *how* does Stagecoach manage to maintain such a consistently good appearance ?
Most of the fleet is consistently spotless. Panel damage is quickly rectified and vinyls on windows are replaced properly - somthing that most others fall down on.
Agreed- it is very rare to see a Stagecoach bus out with vinyls missing. They keep on top of it. I just wish they wouldn't use so much contravision- every double decker in Newcastle has it, pretty much, and it means in wet weather you can't see out of the upper front windows.
@ Neil
One other exception to the "not too brash" thing is that while I don't really like route branding (as it looks *immensely* stupid if you can't keep your vehicles on route, which from experience seems to be much of the time[1]) I do quite like the "local touch" of theming a bus on a local attraction and adding photos etc to a basic livery to do that. I can't think of a bus livery that does that off the top of my head, but Northern Rail are quite into it.
Go North East are good at keeping branded buses on the correct route, in general. You may see unbranded buses on branded routes, but it is very rare to see a branded bus on the 'wrong' route. There are a couple of routes where it is timetabled to happen (usually late evening stock balancing moved) and they even footnote which branding will appear.
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