Around 18 months ago Stagecoach launched a rebrand of their bus services in the UK - splitting the existing fleet into three distinct liveries, classed as Local, Longer and Specialist.
Prior to that most of their fleet had been rocking the 'beach ball' livery, ably assisted by the Gold service. The former was introduced in 2000, followed by the latter, which according to Wikipedia 'was designed to attract more middle-class passengers to choose bus travel as a method of transport as well as to reward passengers on some busy and popular routes' in 2007.
Prior to that most of their fleet had been rocking the 'beach ball' livery, ably assisted by the Gold service. The former was introduced in 2000, followed by the latter, which according to Wikipedia 'was designed to attract more middle-class passengers to choose bus travel as a method of transport as well as to reward passengers on some busy and popular routes' in 2007.
I think it's fair to say the LLS rebrand received plenty of criticism. Some saw it as a lost opportunity to go down the local route, some didn't like the colours and some didn't understand why they wanted to change things in the first place.
Whatever strategy they chose to follow, someone on social media would have had a pop - so damned if they did, damned if they didn't.
My bus (94 between Gloucester and Cheltenham) was a Gold service but is now of the Amber Yellow variety. And whilst you can debate liveries until the cows come home, from a customer point of view it is hard to deny the buses are both recognisable and memorable. And in my opinion, far more so than their previous guise.
The colour pops as much as on a sunny Summer's afternoon as it does on a dull Autumn morning.
It may lack the design subtleties of its Gold predecessor but the fact my kids now identify it as 'the Yellow 94' as opposed to just 'the 94' proves even though Stagecoach might not have pleased everybody, they're on to a winner in my household.
Whatever strategy they chose to follow, someone on social media would have had a pop - so damned if they did, damned if they didn't.
My bus (94 between Gloucester and Cheltenham) was a Gold service but is now of the Amber Yellow variety. And whilst you can debate liveries until the cows come home, from a customer point of view it is hard to deny the buses are both recognisable and memorable. And in my opinion, far more so than their previous guise.
The colour pops as much as on a sunny Summer's afternoon as it does on a dull Autumn morning.
It may lack the design subtleties of its Gold predecessor but the fact my kids now identify it as 'the Yellow 94' as opposed to just 'the 94' proves even though Stagecoach might not have pleased everybody, they're on to a winner in my household.
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