Your favourite bus/coach livery, past or present.

[nonabrow]

I'll get the ball rolling with an independent operator. Skills of Nottingham have an incredibly simple but smart green livery, which for whatever reason, I cannot get enough of. The medilink branding makes it look even nicer too. What livery is your favourite?

Credit to Liam Ball for the photo from Flickr.

 

[Richard Hall]

Northumbria with the big N ❤️

 

[fgwrich]

It’s hard to chose a specific favourite, but I’d say my top 3 are:

Western National Badgers and Flags (aka Skunkbus)

First Bus’s Barbie 2

First Kernow’s Atlantic Coaster and General service Green.

 

[nonabrow]

First Bus’s Barbie 2

This is a strong candidate for me too; nostalgia is probably a large factor, though. I hope it returns as a heritage livery one day.

 

[Open top 80]

Manye's buses of Manchester

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I'm very much a fan of the "Lakes Connection" livery used by Stagecoach on their buses in the Lake District. Think it looks both smart and appealing.

The "Lakesider" livery previously used on their buses for the open-top 599 was also really quite nice.

 

[Magrar]

You can't go wrong with two base colours and a third relief, applied in horizontal fields or lines. No swirls, no angles, no fades. Complementary and yet contrasting colours. The more unique/historical, the better.

Just paint the damn bus/coach with the help of a giant ruler or industrial quantities of masking tape, and then apply the fleetname using a skilled signwriter, or his mate, Nigel the Vinyl. The prettier the better. Two colous as a minimum, where one at least is either black or gold/silver.

Find me a bad livery with that basic spec, and I will call you a fool, a fool I say.

The ancients knew what they were about. The Corporation types. If it 'aint broke.

 

[busesrusuk]

A few choices from me - so many to choose from:

Conservative but classy:

Lothian 411 May10

Princes Street, Edinburgh, May 2010

www.flickr.com

The best of post privatisation London Country liveries:

London Country NE LR23

Edgware Bus Station

www.flickr.com

A modern take on a classic company - simple but effective:

Yelloway M90YEL Jul18

Bottoms, Todmorden. Jul 2018. A simple but very effective livery giving a nod to the original Yelloways coaches.

www.flickr.com

The best of the First Bus liveries:

First Leeds 30790 May13

Park Row, Leeds. May 2013

www.flickr.com

Modern classic?:

Devon General 1402

Exeter Bus Station

www.flickr.com

 

[BULLSAREMAGIC]

The Delaine livery stands fair comparison with that of any operator though as a former Skills driver the latest livery does suit a decker well

 

[Flange Squeal]

Reptons Coaches of Surrey and Xelabus of Hampshire for me.

Reptons SL18 REP

Reptons Coaches new Enviro 200 SL18 REP is seen at Anstey Park attending the Alton Bus Rally along with one of their coaches, REP 916 15/07/2018

flic.kr

Explore August 22, 2026

flic.kr

 

[Magrar]

I wasn't even aware of the Oxford livery until I started collecting scale models. It blew me away with it's class and yet simplicity, the colour choices especially.

Yes you can see preserved examples, but I want a time machine to experience it in its original form, in the wild, in real Oxford climactic conditions, the changing seasons. I bet it was fantastic at all times on all vehicles, as long as you kept the bus/coach clean. As you should.

 

[izvor]

Of the old liveries I liked the Rhymney Valley one (brown, yellow, cream) for being both smart and distinctive.

Growing up in SE England I was lucky to be surrounded by various takes on green and cream (London Transport Country buses, Southdown, Maidstone & District and Aldershot & District) which were all attractive; maybe the A&D version the best.

Going into Tilling territory with just boring red and green was always a downer, and well done NBC for making it even worse.

 

[365fan]

For me, Blazefield in the pre-Transdev era, with this livery at Sovereign Bus & Coach. Not modern and fancy but not ancient. Showed the quality of the product.

Here, vehicle 140 is carrying branding for the SB1, but the base livery was used company-wide at Sovereign - and at Lancashire United too.

 

[Clydeflyer]

Got to be 1980s Stagecoach Stripes. Has to have the original Stagecoach logo/lettering emblazoned on the side... large...

or the original Magicbus logo if you were in Glasgow.

That livery got applied to a whole host of vehicles... Skyliners, Duple/Plaxton coaches, Routemasters, Lodekkas, Alexander Y-type Leopards, The Megadekka... and just seemed to work on every one, no exceptions. Made the SBG liveries around it just look bland (although Kelvin Central's colour scheme was an exception).

Stuck in my ways probably, but ditching stripes seemed to be the start of Stagecoach going downhill.

 

[Nammer]

Southdown Apple Green & Cream and Portsmouth Citybus Red & Cream liveries in the late 80s

 

[Hyebone]

I have a few favourites:

Stagecoach Gold: my absolute favourite. This livery has had a strong presence in my area for a good few years. It's simplistic yet effective at advertising a premium service.

Peak Sightseer: A recent addition to the vast spectrum of Stagecoach liveries. It's bright and colourful, as it should be.

Pride: Lots of fun colours whilst carrying an important message I very much support.

East Yorkshire: The colours work really well to show off a coastal theme.

Merseytravel Metro: My favourite of the franchise liveries so far. The colours work and it's much better than the plain and boring washed-out yellow of the Bee Network.

 

[mangad]

I'm very much a fan of the "Lakes Connection" livery used by Stagecoach on their buses in the Lake District. Think it looks both smart and appealing.

Lakes Connection is one of the best liveries going. Fits in wonderfully with the scenery. When you see a normal Stagecoach liveried bus in the Lake District, it feels so very wrong.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I did like this rather different livery for First Kernow. Even though I thought it was non workable (just four buses that were often used on other routes), I thought it was attractive. (retrobus on flickr)


However, the one that I really liked as it was so much better than what it replaced was Cleveland Transit's deregulation livery. Courtesy of NedBasher on flickr, this shows the fresh new green, white and yellow livery on one of the Fleetlines and the dowdy green and jonquil livery that it replaced. Apart from the Northern Counties Bristol VRs (which were a bit ungainly), it had different applications that suited every vehicle type too.



I will make a special mention for Midland Fox. It might not be my favourite and without wishing to sound condescending, it might be difficult for those younger than 45/50 to really appreciate how ground-breaking this was. In a world still dominated by rather staid NBC and PTE liveries (even if the coaching colours were getting more experimental), it was a real departure and as the photo by David Beardmore shows, it suited deckers and minibuses equally.

 

[TheSel]

Surely has to be the post-deregulation Wilts & Dorset livery. Red, white & black. Absolutely superb.



[my pic, above, of preserved Wilts & Dorset Bristol VR/ECW 4455 - KRU455W - at an event in Liverpool a few years ago]

 

[TR673]

For a traditionally styled livery that's still in use today, my favourite is Marshalls of Sutton-on-Trent and their cream and two-tone blue.


(my picture)

And for nostalgic reasons the absolutely crazy livery as used by TrentBarton in the early 2000s to promote a travel offer called FRIO, which I remember seeing when I was a few years old and being fascinated by.
(link to Flickr photo by Bob J B)

 

[nick291]

Bristol City Line from the 90's/early 2000's! The red, yellow and dark blue will always be nostalgic to me!

 

[gazmark]

Biased for me and that's Terrier

 

[Mal]

The instantly recogniseable madder and white of Edinburgh Corporation was simple and classical until that awful Harlequin livery was inflicted on Lothian buses.

 

[co-tr-paul]

Just going to leave this here.

 

[duncombec]

Hmm... I've always had a soft spot for the immediately pre-Arriva livery of London & Country (LCSW as was), and the original Metrobus blue and yellow. For much the same reason I expect Boro'line Maidstone's blue and yellow would have been found equally appealing. I've always liked pictures of Strathtay orange and blue, but have never seen it in the flesh.

 

[ian1944]

Classical peacock blue and cream of Ashton u L corpy pre-Selnec, just perfection.

 

[Magrar]

The instantly recogniseable madder and white of Edinburgh Corporation was simple and classical until that awful Harlequin livery was inflicted on Lothian buses.

And yet it's one of the literal handful of non-traditional efforts I really like.

And what's not to like? It's bold, it’s pretty, it’s fun, the colours used are complementary.

I think they over-estimated how many people knew the reason for it.

But in isolation, love it. I even love the fact there was a first version, and then they simplified it. I genuinely can't pick a favourite.

The lack of consistency in the so called traditional efforts that replaced it, is what disturbs me as primarily a fan of traditional schemes.

 

[PeterC]

I wasn't even aware of the Oxford livery until I started collecting scale models. It blew me away with it's class and yet simplicity, the colour choices especially.

Yes you can see preserved examples, but I want a time machine to experience it in its original form, in the wild, in real Oxford climactic conditions, the changing seasons. I bet it was fantastic at all times on all vehicles, as long as you kept the bus/coach clean. As you should.

The old COMS livery was pure class.

The London Transport country livery looked really good on singgle deckers.

 

[BULLSAREMAGIC]

OK motor services of Bishop Auckland had a livery that looked smart and seemed to suit the wide variety of vehicles to which it was applied. Neighbouring Lockeys of St Helens Auckland’s livery was pure class and copied by Yorkshire heritage bus

 

[Mal]

And yet it's one of the literal handful of non-traditional efforts I really like.

And what's not to like? It's bold, it’s pretty, it’s fun, the colours used are complementary.

I think they over-estimated how many people knew the reason for it.

But in isolation, love it. I even love the fact there was a first version, and then they simplified it. I genuinely can't pick a favourite.

The lack of consistency in the so called traditional efforts that replaced it, is what disturbs me as primarily a fan of traditional schemes.

I really liked the 'swoops' livery of a few years back and though the 7xx electrics revived the traditional layout of madder and white bands, the lower deck needs the gold band below the windows to make it a 'real' Edinburgh bus. (Mind, I could be sentimental for the old days!)