West Midlands bus livery

[Bletchleyite]

You mean this one? I'm not certain they'll keep it but perhaps you're right. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, not integrating the liveries of bus and tram. Unlike in Manchester or, now, in Leeds.

That is the demand responsive livery. There are some examples of the main bus livery on this Flickr:

Buses in West Midlands Bus Livery

Explore this photo album by tomstransportsphotos on Flickr!

api.flickr.com

The West Midlands seem to have gone for "family" liveries rather than the same across modes. All use a similar set of shapes and symbols, but they have a different colour per mode. It's all fairly new so I would be astonished if they changed it.

 

[43055]

Is there a reason why the red diamond livery hasn't been rolled out that much on the buses compared to the trams and trains?

 

[Mrwerdna1]

Ah thank you for the response. I wasn't aware of the livery in question. I quite like it. Well, I suppose it's always easiest to recycle, but given how the Mayors in the other authorities have enjoyed the publicity aspect of bus franchising, I do wonder whether they won't create a new unified identity going forward, which will include the West Midlands Metro and trains as well?

Yes, technically the trains and trams already have some Transport for West Midlands branding, but to the layman's eye it looks quite different to the bus livery above. So there is still possibility for a new livery rollout. I guess we'll see.

 

[Energy]

Is there a reason why the red diamond livery hasn't been rolled out that much on the buses compared to the trams and trains?

It was only applied to specific routes (31/32, 40 and 42/43) that TfWM had sorted agreements with the operators. The neutral branding was because some routes have multiple operators.

In the original announcement, WM was going to have London-style consistent branding across all modes, but it never really happened with buses. Trams and trains have been rebranded, though the WMR livery isn't the prettiest.

It's a shame they didn't get an agreement with National Express for all new buses to be in the livery. Both NXWM and NX Coventry have had vast quantities of new electric buses; had these been delivered in the TfWM livery, they'd be a decent way into rebranding.

Franchising has been announced in the past couple days, so maybe we'll see this livery expanded. Given how few buses have it I wouldn't be surprised if they go for new colour scheme under franchising given how similar this one is to NXWM.

 

[Mrwerdna1]

I suppose this publicity banner from the press announcement just about confirms it:



I do wonder why the West Midlands are going for distinct liveries for different transport modes. I suppose there is nothing inherently wrong with it, some other cities do it too (London, Madrid or Copenhagen as a few examples). And although it's not uncommon for trains and municipal transport to have separate identities, mostly due those being operated by different operators, in a lot of cities throughout Europe, trams and (municipal) buses do have the same branding. I quite like Manchester's unified branding across buses, trams (and in future trains) and there are a few cities that pull off a common brand across all municipal transport modes really well, such as Berlin, Stockholm and Vienna. Those cities all coincidentally have some of the best public transport provision in Europe. Some cities are also actively moving towards a more unified livery which even includes regional trains, for instance Paris with it's Ilê de France branding.

Personally, I think if pulled off right, a mostly unified livery, such as in the case of Paris or Vienna can look very cool. Distinct liveries can also work, if the different modes all have a strong identity. In Copenhagen s-tog, movia buses and the metro all have a strong visual identity, whilst also being collected under one umbrella branding DOT (din offentlig transport) which is then for the Greater Copenhagen region. West Midlands appears to be taking a leaf out of that book, also somewhat akin to London, though I await to see how exactly they intend to integrate the different modes in future. For urban transport, more integration rather than less generally seems like a good idea.

This development seems to be following in the footsteps of the 2018 announcement regarding the creation of the new West Midlands Transport identity. More evolution than revolution, the, though concerning public transport policy, that's not at all a bad thing.

 

[High Dyke]

And there was me thinking of this livery

West Midlands Fleetline WM Buses 1994-1996 | Flickr

Found on Bing from www.flickr.com

sl.bing.net

Or this one

4773 | WM BUSES PERRY BARR | Flickr

Found on Bing from www.flickr.com

sl.bing.net

 

[PG]

I suppose this publicity banner from the press announcement just about confirms it:

Shame they don't seem to think that the drivers need any kind of uniform. Drivers will likely be more concerned with seeing where they are going when it's raining as the offside wiper looks like it sweeps too low an arc!