Monday 4 January 2016

Bubbling over - Reading Buses' Claret Spritzer


Reading Buses have whole-vehicle route branding for many of their routes, including route names as well as numbers.  Jet Black, Lime 2, Leopard 3, Lion 4, Emerald 5/6, Scarlet 9 and so on, creating a colourful kaleidoscope/menagerie on the streets of the Berkshire town.  Route 21 is named Claret, with buses in an appropriate deep red.  The 21 passes through the University of Reading on its way to the Lower Earley suburb.  However, the University portion of the route generates more demand, which Reading Buses have the route 21a, and has been branded Claret Spritzer.  The brand and livery, as well as associated publicity, is the work of Best Impressions.  No self respecting public transport operator dare put a swirl or a swoosh on their vehicle without getting Best Impressions to make the most of it!  The Claret Spritzer has taken some mid-life 12m long Scania double deckers (at 12m, about 1-1.5m longer than most double deck buses) and developed a concept to appeal to student travellers......

Claret Spritzer 21a certainly is mixing up travel.

From the outside, an ordinary Scania bus, albeit with a bright livery, typical of the style used by Reading Buses.

Upstairs is where the Claret Spritzer comes in to its own.  At front is the 'work zone.'   Behind the work zone is the 'play zone', four tables with a bay of four seats around each. To the rear is the 'lounge zone'.  More on these follows.....

The Work Zone features 2+1 seating in a comfortable leather(esque, I suspect) moquette.  Yes that is a book shelf, with a borrow/replace honesty system.

Little distractions in the Play Zone.  Lego on this table....

....Connect 4 on this table.....

....and pure genius building Angry Birds game in to this table!


To the rear is the Relax Zone.  A 'U' shaped sofa wraps around the rear of the vehicle.  There are two USB charging stations (in opposite corner, each with two USB points) and two wireless charging points.  This isn't particularly innovative for Reading Buses though as USB charging facilities are standard on their vehicles.    Oh, I didn't get a picture of the jukebox just off the bottom left corner, but passengers can Bluetooth their phone to the bus.....

For anyone for whom the Spritzer is all a little bit too much, there are plenty of conventional bus seats downstairs.  Wood laminate flooring is becoming the new standard, whilst birds flying across the rear of the bus is rather more unique!

Whether the Claret Spritzer is a gimmick, whether the features are going to be used, whether the game of Connect 4 will loose all its pieces, who knows, but it's sure one smart vehicle to get people talking, and create a sense of 'engagement' with the customers.  It's not a bus for everyone, many bus users would shun such a vehicle, or dismiss the 'waste of space' upstairs but some features, USB charging, Wi-fi, even the presence of litter bins in the vehicle, are genuinely useful.  Bay seats of 4 always go first on trains, anecdotally they are popular on buses too.  And as a 12 metre vehicle, compared to most double deckers that are shorter, there's not that much space wasted.....

Sunday 3 January 2016

The Great Western Railway....Thames Turbo





On Friday 1st January 2016 I made a rare venture out in to Great Western territory.  A "body on the line" delayed my departure somewhat, but I can't fault the announcements from the guard and then his patience explaining to every customer alternative travel options.  However the purpose of this post is the surprise I had when I went to catch a train from Reading to Newbury.  The train was formed of 3-car Class 166 "Thames Turbo" (as was) 166205 painted in the new Great Western Railway (GWR) branding, replacing the lurid First Great Western (FGW) livery.  I think the dark green and grey is quite understated and very smart.

I expected to find the interior unchanged, with the blue/purple/pink FGW seats, scruffy carpets, dingey doorways.  What I found was a real surprise, which was a fully refurbished interior.  Whilst the seats themselves are the same base, the first class has been reupholstered in a grey leather, which whilst sounding bland looked quite appealing to sit in.  Only had a standard class ticket however, where the seats remain 2+3 but reupholstered in a green and two-tone grey moquette, again far from the worst seat pattern out there.

Further down the train the toilet area has been completely rebuilt, presumably taking advantage of the refurbishment to meet forthcoming accessibility regulations.  This area includes dedicated space for wheelchair passengers, and in a nice touch has a half-height partition between the toilet and the wheelchair area: I always feel the wheelchair area stuffed next to a toilet (as on the Electrostars that GWR will be getting) is unwelcoming at best.


Bodyside detail, unusual way of showing the operator name in a matt green band, but it works.  No 'flying F' logo either!

Overview of the GWR 166.  Quite an appealing livery I think, nothing can be done about the big yellow end which looks out of place!

GWR 166 First Class.  I believe these are the original seats but rather more welcoming,

Overview of reupholstered Standard Class seating and new carpets.

Disabled toilet and wheelchair area.  The wheelchair area is partitioned from the toilet (good) but doesn't have any further comfort factors such as a small table or drop down seat for travelling companions.

The new paler moquette is sadly easily stained, and in my short time on this train I overheard a couple of negative comments from passengers about these.  If only passengers would treat trains like their own house eh.  Nonetheless this shows these refubished units will be a challenge to keep presentable and suspect a darker moquette will be required.

The rebrand from First Great Western is not an overnight hit: most trains still carry the purple FGW livery, a lot of signage is still FGW branded, staff still wear FGW uniforms and some leaflets are still FGW stock (timetables being an exception as these are reprinted regularly).  The delayed train and compensation leaflet is in new GWR green, but explains compensation for delays in terms of whether you are on a former First Great Western, First Great Western Link or Wessex Trains service!  These three came together to form the current franchise on 1 April 2006.  Reference to former TOCs is as good as meaningless, it's been nearly ten years since two of them existed.  This should be simple one for the DfT to sort as part of the franchise extensions on GWR....you'd have thought.....

Darlington bus brands

Passing through Darlington at Christmas it struck me just how many brands there are associated with the buses in the town.  This isn't  case of competition confusion, or of smaller operators providing niche services, rather, it seems to be over-active marketing departments.  All services are provided by Arriva, but the customer is faced with these brands:

  • Arriva
  • Frequenta
  • Sapphire
  • Max
  • Whoosh
  • Darlington Borough Council
  • Localmotion
  • Connect Tees Valley

All seems a bit excessive to me!

The most common brand is 'Frequenta' on the buses around the town, mainly longer Opare Solos.  Once upon a time this was United 'Roadranger'.

Max is an Arriva brand that no one really understands - theoretically older buses refurbished to a higher-than-average-but-not-quite-Sapphire standard, but these Streetlites don't fit the age criteria.

Sapphire is an Arriva service proposition that makes your everyday journey sparkle!

Frequenta buses aren't just turquoise Solos, they are also green MAN gas buses.

However the green MAN gas buses can also be 'Whoosh' buses if you're going to Peterlee/Sunderland. 

Bus stop flags are primarily branded 'Connect Tees Valley'.  Many of them carry a haphazardly-placed Frequenta sticker, but does make you ask whether only Frequenta (town, local, 'Roadrunner'.....) services stop there.  The statement 'All services' is particularly unhelpful as it actually means 'All services that are planned to stop here'.  At least at-stop timetable information is reasonably good.

However the at-stop information is branded by Darlington Borough Council and Localmotion.  Localmotion was the project name for the DfT 'sustainable travel town' demonstration project a few years ago.
Wouldn't it be good to rationalise this confusing array of brands (and no doubt websites) and focus on one brand for town services (Localmotion sounds better than Frequenta, and has a bit of local history to it), and  for the wider Arriva to work out what Max is.  This would work if affected parties adopted the spirit of cooperation, but I suspect for as long as different bodies have responsibility for running, buses, installing flags, and printing publicity, they'll all want their own brands(s) promoted.