Trivia: Route With The Most Brands

[tbtc]

From the GNE thread (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/gonorth-east.205340/page-9), where we were talking about the 2 from Sunderland to Washington:

Think this is something like the 4th brand in less than 10 years - silver arrows, simplicity, black cats and now this

...which begs the question, which route/corridor has had the most different brands (since deregulation)?

Branding must be applied externally to the vehicle (rather than just something on the website) - I'll accept branding that was spread across more than one corridor (e.g. in the case of GNE, they had the same "ToonLink" branding on local services from Newcastle to Blaydon as well as expresses to Stanley), but not a livery used for all routes in a depot (e.g. First are in the process of repainting/ rebranding Doncaster's services as "Doncaster's Red Buses", rather than confining that branding to only certain routes from the Doncaster depot)

In the way that "away goals count double" in some football competitions, maybe we should have a rule that "non Trent Barton/ Blazefield/ GoAhead brands count double" (since my hunch would be that these three organisations have done the most branding and re-branding!)

 

[cnjb8]

From the GNE thread (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/gonorth-east.205340/page-9), where we were talking about the 2 from Sunderland to Washington:



...which begs the question, which route/corridor has had the most different brands (since deregulation)?

Branding must be applied externally to the vehicle (rather than just something on the website) - I'll accept branding that was spread across more than one corridor (e.g. in the case of GNE, they had the same "ToonLink" branding on local services from Newcastle to Blaydon as well as expresses to Stanley), but not a livery used for all routes in a depot (e.g. First are in the process of repainting/ rebranding Doncaster's services as "Doncaster's Red Buses", rather than confining that branding to only certain routes from the Doncaster depot)

In the way that "away goals count double" in some football competitions, maybe we should have a rule that "non Trent Barton/ Blazefield/ GoAhead brands count double" (since my hunch would be that these three organisations have done the most branding and re-branding!)

TrentBarton are quite good for sticking with brands to be fair. Only real change is when they binned Rainbow.
However one TB example is the service from Nottingham to Bingham, first branded as Xprss and the slower service as Radcliffe Line, then Rushcliffe Greens (which merged Xprss and Radcliffe Line), then split again into Rushcliffe Mainline and Rushcliffe Villager, then just Mainline and Rushcliffe Villager, all in the space of seven or so years

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

The Red Arrow Route, has Derby's extensive range of buses like the Spondon Flyer, the Sixes, Arriva, The Villager, Transpeak, and a few more numbered buses in special colours by Trent Barton. Then Nottingham has everything from Rainbow 1 to Skylink, also Sherwood Arrow, and Pronto.

The Humber Flyer (250) has it's own livery, it passes Stagecoach, East Yorkshire buses, Humber Fast Cat, and.... several differently painted individual topless "Seasiders" in Cleethorpes, Rocky, Shelly, Sandy, Lolly, Splash, Pierre and the like (but this year those are in Skegness due to the pandemic).

 

[Flange Squeal]

The 1 between Aldershot, North Camp, Farnborough, Frimley and Camberley has had four identities, although I guess the last two might be questionable in terms of "brands" for the purposes of this thread.

• "Blackwater Valley Link" on Stagecoach stripes (name later applied to swooped ALX200s)
• "Route One" on Stagecoach swoops
• "goldline"
• "Stagecoach Gold" (now carried by replacement Enviro 400MMCs)

Are we just talking complete name changes/brands of routes, or are we including rebrandings with new liveries but the same route 'name'?

 

[WillPS]

Midland Fox/Arriva X99 -> Premiere X9 -> Premiere Red9 -> Kinch 9 immediately springs to mind

Most of the others I can think of are routes which had a number scheme applied in the 90s then gained a brand in the 00s - for example Stagecoach/Trent's 7x7 services which were rationalised to become Pronto.

 

[SCH117X]

The Harrogate - Leeds Bradford Airport service has had a number of brands.
The original service operated by Harrogate & District as "Bus 2 Jet", then Dales & District operated it as "Airport Express". It then got linked with services from Bradford, originally via Shipley but now via Greengates, becoming part of the Centrebus "Airport Direct" brand, Yorkshire Tigers "Flying Tiger" brand and now Transdevs "Flyer" brand.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

X10 Middlesbrough to Newcastle went from Tynelink to Expresslink (worn by Go Ahead vehicles whilst United/Tees continued with Tynelink) to unbranded Northern to TyneTeesExpress to X9/X10 to XLines

So just the six brands in 40 years

 

[swifty]

The main routes between the University of the West of England campus (UWE) at Frenchy, the student halls in Bristol city centre and the Bower Ashton campus south of the city have had a fair few rebrands over the years.

Priot to the mid 00's First operated routes to UWE in standard CityLine livery, following intense competition with local independent Swiftlink. In the mid 00's First Bristol operated the 70, 99 and X84, whilst the inter campus shuttle and student halls shuttle were operated by South Gloucestershire Bus (SGBC), both with 'GET ON AT UWE' branding.

H980PTW by David Oakley, on Flickr

For September 2005 SGBC's inter campus and student halls shuttle buses gained updated 'GET ON AT UWE' branding as worn by the ex Airbus Olympians SGBC purchased from Ensign, the First vehicles being replaced with Barbie vehicles.

L333 SGB: South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach, Patchway (originally N119 UHP) by Richard Simons, on Flickr

Following the sale of SGBC's bus contracts to Rotala, Wessex Connect picked up the revamped UWE contract in 2007 with a batch of new B7RLEs in ULink livery. All first year students in halls gained a free Ulink bus pass which detracted from First's 70, 99 and X84 which were run in standard barbie livery.

FJ57CYW by David Oakley, on Flickr

For the 2009 academic year the ULink livery was replaced, in line with UWE's rebranding, to the U+WE better together livery, whilst First introduced a new fleet of B7RLEs on the 70 in barbie livery.

Wessex Connect 7508 FJ57CYT by jonathon, on Flickr

Wessex rebranded again in 2012 when the WessexRED brand was introduced with a wider network of services following further reductions on First UWE network leaving just the 70 along Gloucester Road.

Home Found by Nick, on Flickr

In 2015, following a major relaunch and revamped effort from First (see below) the last ditch WessexStar brand was introduced, which was to be the final calling for Wessex, having lost the funding that suported the UWE network (the free passes were also discontiuned).

40030 - BU52UWE by David Oakley, on Flickr

First on the otherhand relaunced their long standing 70 and introudced the accompanying 71 service with fushia fronted Streetdecks in Urban 2 livery alongside teal electricity branded E400MMC VE buses on the newly launched 72 and Olympia buses on the encahnced X14 UWE express.

35110 : SO15CUK by Buses and Trucks, on Flickr

The UWE Express has since been replaced by metrobus services following the completion of the metrobus network in 2018.

First 'metrobus' 39483, YN69DSY - m1 by King Flick, on Flickr