First Manchester

[Quackdave]

RE: First Manchester

(12/02/2019 23:24)gilesbus1 Wrote:  Depends though if it can always make profit which no company can guarantee forever, they can't even guarantee it next year.

True, but if services really can't pay their way, then they'll be cut back, regardless of whether private or public, until such as is left does pay its way (or is deemed socially necessary, in which case the taxpayer would be subsidising it anyway). My point was that only the public sector would be willing to break even - and therefore might be able to cut back slightly less.

(12/02/2019 23:24)gilesbus1 Wrote:  I want to be able to identify the bus without needing to look at a blind at the front and know that is my bus, I want the staff to be the same and I also want the interior to be clean and tidy, I don't think that is a big ask.

Each to their own - personally I loathe route- or corridor-specific liveries or branding, they just seem to me to cry out inefficiency, and a lost opportunity to present a smart, uniform image. Call me traditional, but I don't think it's a big ask to look at a bus's destination display to find out where it's going!

There may well be a correlation between networks that are performing well and those that have branding, but correlation does not equal causation - I remain sceptical that the livery of a bus is ever going to be the make-or-break factor as to whether anyone chooses to travel on it. Branding is generally part of a much wider package of quality and publicity, and probably the element that provides the least additional value for the highest cost. There are counter-examples too - Blackpool being the one that springs to mind, they tried corridor colours and it didn't work for them, they reverted to a smart corporate livery and seem to be doing OK. And I notice that you conveniently omit to mention London, with one of the plainest and most uniform liveries in the country (and a merciful lack of route branding), in your list of areas where usage is stable or growing.