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Bus Liveries & Football Teams (local colours for local people)

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tbtc

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Rather than divert the First South Yorkshire thread further, I thought I'd start a new one....

blue also runs the risk of alienating half the population of Sheffield (given the United/ Wednesday thing - the depot at Olive Grove is roughly where Sheffield Wednesday started out, but is fairly close to the United ground).

I’d completely overlooked the colour issue vs the tribal aspect of football teams. Perhaps they should’ve gone for Terrier green and yellow?

When have local bus liveries coincided with local football colours?


In the days when each town/city had a local bus livery, there were some times where it coincided. Maybe that was due to the long established civic colours, maybe that was just coincidence.

Growing up in Scotland I was aware that Edinburgh had two bus companies - one predominantly maroon and one green/white - and also had two football teams - one predominantly maroon and one green/white. Presumably at least some people would have preferred one company over the other due to the colour of scarf/shirt they wore.

Tayside Travel in Dundee had dark blue, like Dundee FC, whilst Strathtay Scottish had a combination of "Dundee" blue and "Dundee United" tangerine

Given the importance of football in north eastern England, I can understand why Go Ahead have some Tyneside services branded as "Toon Link" (with black/white livery) and Wearside services branded as "Black Cats" (with red/white livery).... whereas it's maybe understandable why Busways went for a neutral yellow/white scheme in both cities to avoid causing any offence.

Sometimes it'll just be coincidence, of course - given the popularity of red as a colour for NBC/SBG operators and football shirts there are going to be places where it just happens that one football team in the region where a bus company operates has the same base colour as the shirt - so maybe the more interesting examples would be with the less common colours.
 
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PaulMc7

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Mcgills have a lot of ties with Morton in Greenock and their livery is the same colours as the home kit of Morton although the blue on the bus is a darker shade. I know they also used to provide the team bus for Morton too. Think they still might but not seen it since I was at a Celtic game against Morton in the League Cup 7 years ago now
 

Ianno87

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Travel Coventry / National Express Coventry use the same Sky Blue livery as Coventry City.
 
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I was watching a football programme a few years ago. The presenter was interviewing the chairman of Altrincham town. He said words to the effect' I hear you do many jobs at the club, including the team bus@ To which the chairman replied 'I drive the team coach'!
 

Flange Squeal

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Portsmouth Football Club is associated with the colour blue, and on many kits also the colour gold for the star and crescent symbol (which is also the civic logo). Two of First’s routes in Portsmouth are branded ‘The Star’ and use a blue/gold livery (although the first incarnation was much the same as that used on the Mendip Explorer routes in Somerset and no doubt also elsewhere).



Located 20 miles to the west is Pompey’s south coast derby rivals Southampton FC, who are associated with the colour red. The rivalry here is so strong that when Spinnaker Tower’s sponsor Emirates proposed to paint the Portsmouth landmark red, there was a massive public outcry! Southampton Corporation used red buses, as did the subsequent arms-length council owned Southampton Citybus operation set up post-deregulation. By coincidence(?), the Hants & Dorset operation switched from green to red during the NBC days. First Group purchased Southampton Citybus from the council and corporate took over, however in recent years the network has begun rebranding as ‘City Reds’.

 

Shimbleshanks

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As a Charlton Athletic supporter I can confirm that the entire London bus fleet, north and south of the river, has long been painted in its colours. We are, after all, the greatest team the world has ever seen, as we sing at the Valley.
 
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Your title 'local colours for local people' reminds me of a slogan used by a certain South/ West Yorkshire based independent 'local buses for local people', a bit Royston Vasey.

I suppose Transdev in Burnley had quite a few buses at one point in 'Claret/ Brown' colours; I remember Streetlites carrying this. Purely coincidence I would suspect.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Calderline (the short-lived pre-corporate name for Badgerline/FirstGroup's Halifax operations when they acquired Yorkshire Rider) had an attractive white and blue with yellow trim colour scheme which wasn't a million miles from Halifax Town's strip. This was coincidental though I believe.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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By coincidence(?), the Hants & Dorset operation switched from green to red during the NBC days.

It is coincidence. When Wilts and Dorset were being integrated into Hants and Dorset, there were reports of disquiet in the W&D ranks at the loss of identity so the H&D General Manager said "in that case, we'll go red".

In Bristol, they've been less bothered by such sensitivities and have just rolled out a new fleet of red buses as part of Citylines East (routes to the east of the city) despite this being a blue Rovers part of the city.
 

henairs

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I can remember a Bristol VR of Western National in Plymouth Argyle colours which advertised their lottery scheme of that period whilst Wilts and Dorset (Go-ahead) had a Spectra (1676) carrying Bournemouth FC colours. Years ago travelled on a Cadet (B6) in Liverpool which had Everton FC branding which was an Arriva
North West vehicle. Guess there's been many over the years.
Cheers
Mike R
 

Statto

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Travel Coventry / National Express Coventry use the same Sky Blue livery as Coventry City.

Sky Blue happens to be the the ceremonial colours of the City of Coventry.

Stagecoach did a couple of buses[one Olympian based at Preston that was used on the X2 Liverpool-Preston, & a Gillmoss based Plaxton Dart] as tribute Liverpool FCs, 5 European Cup/Champions League wins for 2008 when Liverpool was capital of culture
 

Stan Drews

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Mcgills have a lot of ties with Morton in Greenock and their livery is the same colours as the home kit of Morton although the blue on the bus is a darker shade. I know they also used to provide the team bus for Morton too. Think they still might but not seen it since I was at a Celtic game against Morton in the League Cup 7 years ago now

They still provide the Morton team coach, and it‘s just been upgraded.3AC37B19-9464-4A3D-91CE-E777004AE8F9.jpeg
 

TheSel

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Not strictly in Southport FC's colours, but with applied vinyls supporting the local team, anyway.

1603729087156.png
Image above shows Arriva Merseyside Enviro 200 '2144' - CX08DJU - with 'One Town: One Team #ONEPORT' vinyls.
 
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Mikey C

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As a Charlton Athletic supporter I can confirm that the entire London bus fleet, north and south of the river, has long been painted in its colours. We are, after all, the greatest team the world has ever seen, as we sing at the Valley.
:D

That reminds me of when we had that weird sponsor back in the 2000s, that nobody really understood. Many people thought we were sponsored by London Transport!
GettyImages-51507391.jpg
 
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