What's in a Name?
5 March 2022
ABOVE: 2752, a Volvo B7TL of Transdev’s Burnley Bus Company, is heading for Burnley on the Wizz service (not that you can tell until the display clicks round)! Taken at Wellhouse Road in Barnoldswick, on Friday 13th August 2021.
Go into Derby Bus Station and a couple of things will immediately strike you. First is the tinny sound of the local radio station bashing out the latest hits for us to ‘enjoy’ while we wait for our bus. Second will be the number of bus routes leaving from there that don’t have a conventional route number.
"amberline", "indigo", "red arrow", "skylink", the list goes on. Most bus routes in Britain are known by a number, but some operators try to make some of their services stand out by giving them a name instead.
A few months ago I travelled on Transdev’s "Pendle Wizz" service between Burnley and Skipton. It was probably given that name because, on leaving Burnley, it whizzes along a significant stretch of the M65 motorway, only coming in to ‘land’ at Colne, about seven-and-a-half miles away.
Personally I’m not a fan of buses on motorways, but I must admit that it’s the best way to get a bit of speed onto a trunk route. And, once it leaves the motorway, the "Pendle Wizz" is a very nice ride into Yorkshire.
Trent Barton has probably taken the branding concept further than most. Take a look at its route list and you will find a plethora of brand names. The reasons for some names are obvious: "ilkeston flyer" serves Ilkeston; "the keyworth" serves Keyworth and "mickleover" serves … erm … Mickleover.
Others are branding / marketing tools without an obvious geographical link: "comet" links Chesterfield with Derby, from where one can catch "black cat" to Mansfield. "harlequin" runs between Derby and Heatherton and "mainline" links Nottingham with Bingham.
Trent Barton’s significant presence in Derby is why so many of the routes in the bus station do not have conventional numbers, but there’s also High Peak’s "TransPeak" service to Buxton (the numbers TP2 & TP3 appear in some places, but not on the buses themselves).
The TransPeak route does exactly what it says on the tin, crossing the Peak District via Belper, Matlock and Bakewell, and terminating at Buxton. You can even get a through transfer ticket onto the High Peak 199 bus from Buxton to Stockport. This was ideal for a journey I made last summer from Derby through to Manchester.
ABOVE: High Peak’s 789, a Scania CN230UB, on the TransPeak service at Belper Bus Garage on Tuesday 10th August 2021. Note the "TP" in the rear route number box
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it matters if a route is identified by something other than a conventional route number, as long as the identification is clear and simple, and linked to good branding and marketing (I’m less happy about lower case letters being used on proper nouns, but)…
Trent Barton’s "rainbow one" seems to fail that simple test, though. It’s a route from Nottingham to Eastwood, and then goes either to Ripley or to Alfreton. And the latter is possible by two different routings (Jacksdale or Selston). So the "rainbow one" actually goes three different ways! When you click for a timetable, the first thing you’re asked is to 'choose your "rainbow one" route'.
I think it’s the use of the word “one” that doesn’t sit right with me in this case. If it was the "rainbow" service I think it would be OK; 'choose your rainbow route' sounds alright to me. But if "rainbow one", why not "rainbow two" and "rainbow three"?
That’s an exception though. Most of the Trent Barton routes are sensible and clear. There are "the sixes", for example; a set of routes that run from Derby to Belper, before branching off in different directions. These variants are numbered 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3. The 6.1 runs to Bakewell via Matlock and is a stunning ride. The 6.2 and 6.3 go to Ripley via different routes.
There’s also a 6.4, which seems to turn back to Derby once it has reached Belper, becoming a 6X for an Express return 'non-stop down the A38'. To my logical brain, the latter service might be better as a 6.5, but never mind.
There are examples of named routes all over the country. I have used the "Activ8" service between Andover and Salisbury (via a lot of military establishments and worrying road signs saying “live ammunition in use – keep to main road”), whilst Warrington’s Own Buses have classified some of their routes as the “Cheshire Cat”. Their route 5, for example, (Warrington to Altrincham) is marketed as the "Cat5".
The named service I have used the most is the Stagecoach "Pronto" service between Chesterfield, Mansfield and Nottingham – most recently on the way back home from North Yorkshire. This really is a lovely, scenic double-deck ride – especially at the Chesterfield end.
The problem with using a name instead of a number is that it takes up more space on the destination display, which leaves less room for the other important details. A solution adopted in some cases is to alternate the display between the route name and the destination. But if a bus is speeding towards you and you’re not familiar with it, you have that much less time to confirm to yourself that it’s your bus, before you can hail it down.
Some operators have found solutions to this. The "TransPeak" service just shows “TP” on the front. And "Pronto" is sometimes abbreviated to "Pro"; although the buses themselves do squeeze the full name onto the display, it’s quite small.
ABOVE: 11275, a Stagecoach E400MMC, is loading up at Chesterfield Coach Station on Monday 27th September 2021
The other problem, of course, is that none of these routes will make it into my 100 British Bus Routes series, because they don’t carry numbers in the required sequence. And some of these routes – including the "TransPeak", the 6.1 and the "black cat", really deserve to be in there.
A carefully-marketed name, with good publicity, can be a real success story for a bus operator, and Trent Barton, with the exception of the "rainbow one" service, generally achieves this, as does Warrington’s Own. But if you do it purely as a gimmick, such as on the "activ8", it falls a bit flat for me, I’m afraid.