[x-posted to uk.transport.buses - coz it's about buses!]

"Roland Perry" wrote:

In message , at 11:39:59 on Thu, 27
Jan 2011, Paul Terry remarked:

Buses don't have the route number painted on them permanently!

They do sometimes. See 3rd photo down at:

http://www.showbus.com/gallery/lt/lubdart.htm

Another lesson that usenet is the place to weed out edge cases. Well done!


Not so fast Mr Perry! ITYF there are many examples of where route specific
branding has been used on buses around the country - so it's not really an
edge case. No current examples from London readily spring to mind, but a
number of Routemaster operated routes (e.g. 12, 36, 18, 73) used to go in
for it (from the 90's onwards I think, i.e. post split up and privatisation
of the LT buses operation) as did some other routes.

There's even a Flickr group called "Buses With Route Branding" here...
http://www.flickr.com/groups/994991@N25/

At first glance some of the entries in this group perhaps don't seem clear
cut, others are of what one could deem as belonging in some sort of special
category e.g. P&R and airport link buses, and others still don't show a
route number but do display a list of destinations served, or else a route
name (e.g. "Coastliner") - however I've had a quick gander and picked these
out which all fit the bill of having the route number as a permanent fixture
(well, permanent in a relative sense)...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52952806@N05/4905163784/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8615623@N04/5252015953/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52952806@N05/5263851251/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuthbus/5286871782/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eybusman/5289299775/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eybusman/5286983755/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8615623@N04/5317022334/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnoram/4508428816/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/km_edinburgh/5336223964/

No route number but I like the name...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcw1987/5270789917/

This webpage shows several route number branded buses in Reading:
http://www.buszone.co.uk/OmniDekka.html

Many other examples (both on that Flickr group and elsewhere) there should
one wish to forage around for them - I think broadly speaking they're
commonly flagship routes or else routes that have had some sort of relaunch
(or indeed a new route).

I assume the advantage of route branding that doesn't actually show the
route number (of which there are many more examples) is that if that bus
ends up 'off route', passengers are less likely to get in a muddle about
what number the bus actually is (i.e. what route it's operating).