Livery Problems - Metro

[ScaniaL94UB]

Metro has recently had some problems and changes with their livery. I noticed a Scania Ansair Orana on Friday in town with the yellow diagonal stripe removed half way on the rear-sides. Also someone has decided to burn part of the AOA off #301 (7HOFM) that bus could be part of Metro Tas history in years to come. Tell me what you think?

[1whoknows]

In my opinion they should have left the livery as it was 20 years ago with the yellow and green blocks. The move to having signwriting on the skirt instead of above the waist was just stupid - gee whiz where does the bus get hit the most?? All white was totally crap and yellow front was an improvement only for the fact that some colour was reintroduced. But it really needs something completely new.

Its ironical that the best looking "Metro" buses are actually the Oranas with Merseylink.

Can't someone be sent on a study tour to New Zealand to see how citybuses can be done in nice colourful liveries, rather than white with decals, which assist in branding the service into the local conciousness. have a look at Auckland's various liveries for each part of the city (though they are starting to standardise on just one now) - or Wellington's and dunedin's yellow, Mana's green, Red Bus in Christchurch etc etc. So very refreshing.

Of course its not just Metro or even Tassie. Whilst Aussie bus operators have many good qualities and delivery standards, when it comes to liveries, regrettably they seem to have the collective imagination of a cow.

Perhaps when you stop voting in idiot greens and get the chance to fix your state budget then something may be done. Can't see it otherwise.

Also at present purchasing rates, Metro is also well on target to be the only citybus operation which will be not DDA compliant by 2020. Needs a good 50 bus order in the next few years to be in the ballpark.

[burrumbus]

I do agree with 1Who Knows re bus liveries.The progressive movement to white with decal "liveries"does absolutely nothing to create a brand for bus public transport services in an area.After all one white bus looks exactly the same as the next operators white bus.Services and operators just became invisible.A colourful well thought out livery brings attention ,and if done right repair costs for dings would not change.Is for example yellow paint more expensive than white paint?

[Daz]

Charter and small operators must be excluded from that, as who has 10 bags of sand to spray a vehicle their own way for the bus to become unsaleable or have the scheme raped by a future owner??

Daz

[Tas Bus Nut]

In my opinion they should have left the livery as it was 20 years ago with the yellow and green blocks. The move to having signwriting on the skirt instead of above the waist was just stupid - gee whiz where does the bus get hit the most?? All white was totally crap and yellow front was an improvement only for the fact that some colour was reintroduced. But it really needs something completely new.

Its ironical that the best looking "Metro" buses are actually the Oranas with Merseylink.

Can't someone be sent on a study tour to New Zealand to see how citybuses can be done in nice colourful liveries, rather than white with decals, which assist in branding the service into the local conciousness. have a look at Auckland's various liveries for each part of the city (though they are starting to standardise on just one now) - or Wellington's and dunedin's yellow, Mana's green, Red Bus in Christchurch etc etc. So very refreshing.

Of course its not just Metro or even Tassie. Whilst Aussie bus operators have many good qualities and delivery standards, when it comes to liveries, regrettably they seem to have the collective imagination of a cow.

Perhaps when you stop voting in idiot greens and get the chance to fix your state budget then something may be done. Can't see it otherwise.

Also at present purchasing rates, Metro is also well on target to be the only citybus operation which will be not DDA compliant by 2020. Needs a good 50 bus order in the next few years to be in the ballpark.

Goodness. Very vocal Mr 1whoknows

[danielb]

Even if they did do them white, they could at least do all the buses ha. Look at 705,707 and 708 - all painted white, retired, whilst 714 and 715 are faded green. Seems a bit backwards to me.

[yoda]

Also someone has decided to burn part of the AOA off #301 (7HOFM) that bus could be part of Metro Tas history in years to come.

Vehicle damage happens. I would be very surprised if 301 still had that AOA on it in years to come.
What about 235/236 - they used to have red read bumpers, 315 is missing part of its Hurricane's livery - I'm sure once the sticker guys (aka "signwriters") are made aware of it, it will be fixed.

The move to having signwriting on the skirt instead of above the waist was just stupid - gee whiz where does the bus get hit the most??

This allows adverts to take up the entire side of the vehicle without the loss of the company logo.

Its ironical that the best looking "Metro" buses are actually the Oranas with Merseylink.

The original ones, yes - but they are going to white when repairs are made.

The progressive movement to white with decal "liveries"does absolutely nothing to create a brand for bus public transport services in an area.After all one white bus looks exactly the same as the next operators white bus.

And that is why Metro introduces the yellow front and TassieLink introduced the green front bumper.

Is for example yellow paint more expensive than white paint?

Probably not. But when you know a front panel is going to be yellow, side/rear panels will be white, you can have replacement parts ready to be bolted on in case of accident damage (without stocking an entire bus worth of spares) which in turn reduces vehicle downtime.

Look at 705,707 and 708 - all painted white, retired, whilst 714 and 715 are faded green. Seems a bit backwards to me.

Not backwards at all. The two door artics were all in the rolled gold livery with the red band. 714 was the first 3 door and received the two tone green paintwork.
People have forgotten that the two tone green paintwork was to indicate a passenger operated rear door(s). This is now irrelevant to the travelling public as they know how to operate the doors, compared to their introduction 20+ years ago.
The reason that 704-713 were painted white was to phase out the rolled gold livery.
716-722 were all refurbished (716 only externally) which is why they became white. Obviously you would do this to the newer vehicles as they will remain in the fleet longer.
This leaves 714 and 715 in their original livery - not to say that won't change if (and a big if due to their age) they decide to refurbish them.

[Tas Bus Nut]

The move to having signwriting on the skirt instead of above the waist was just stupid - gee whiz where does the bus get hit the most??

Don't know about other states, but actually, this panel area gets very little damage, compared to the REAR CORNERS. I very RARELY see the LOWER panel between the wheels damaged, however in saying that, (1) was damaged on Saturday when a car came out of an intersection too far and scrapped the bus only over the logo/panel Possibly NOT even bad enough to get fixed immediately, but you know 'torchman'

Is for example yellow paint more expensive than white paint?

I've always been told, it's not expense of paint, but the fact with different colours, you can only paint (1) colour at a time, so if (2) different colour panels are damaged, obviously twice as long to repair, as yoda says, extra downtime. That's a MAIN reason the two-tone apple green was phased out quicker than expected, THREE colours to repair, and WHY MOST repairs had the lower skirt & rear painted the darker green (like #134)

What about 235/236 - they used to have red read bumpers, 315 is missing part of its Hurricane's livery

YES, #315 DOES looks bad at the moment. As for #235/#236, the rear hopper window has ALWAYS been a bed-bug for me, due to ar#eholes peeling off the clearvision, but THEY are getting very FADED, and should be re-done (IMO). Even NOW, I still think the UniBus logo/livery is one of the BEST AOAs Metro has had. LOVE the Tassie lion

People have forgotten that the two tone green paintwork was to indicate a passenger operated rear door(s). This is now irrelevant to the travelling public as they know how to operate the doors, compared to their introduction 20+ years ago.

I DID NOT KNOW THAT I just thought it was a new livery change for "Fastcars" who was the current CEO

[yoda]

Not at all Mr Nut. It was an easy, common sense way to distinguish the different vehicle.