An excellent existing, but fading brand?
A few days ago, and passing through the village of Warkworth, Northumberland. I took an opportunity to stop and photograph the seemingly now defunct ‘Coast and Castles Connection’ branding still adorning the bus stop at the top of Beal Bank, Warkworth.
As can be seen in the images above, this is quite a nicely styled, existing branding, and was seemingly created by Anna Brand Creative, who refer to the two key design elements of ‘map pin symbolism’, alongside ‘Embracing Northumberland’s natural wonders’ (see their website for full details).
This brand has existed for a number of years; though sadly seems to now only be present to my knowledge at a handful of bus stops around Warkworth, having not been applied to the actual buses for some years now.
These bus stops already sit on a well used bus route, as can be seen by the presence of the Arriva operated X18 at the time of the photo, but as can be clearly seen, there is no ‘Coast and Castles Connection’ branding on this bus. This bus is instead liveried for the X21/X22 between Newbiggin by the Sea and Newcastle, and is therefore well ‘off the patch’ in Warkworth.
Due a revival with a renewed focus on ‘Bus Meets Train’ on the Roadside?
To me, reviving this already excellent brand might be a good way to start making progress, with the petition for the proposed dedicated ‘Bus Meets Train’ bus service between Alnwick, Alnmouth Station, Warkworth, and Amble currently at 428 signatures since it’s launch on the 16th February 2025.
In my view, existing location pin design element could be combined onto a single sign with the existing ‘Bus Meets Train’ logo, rather than appearing as separate signs, set at a 90º angle from one another as at Beal Bank (see image below).
My suggestion would be for alteration of the ‘Bus Meets Train’ element placed directly above the ‘Coast & Castles Connection’ on both sides of the flagpole and at 90º to the kerb, rather than a single sign facing in parallel, which is far less visible to passing vehicles.
This would make the direct connection to Alnmouth Railway Station more prominent, and likely to be more successful at helping raise the ‘Bus Meets Train’ concept more widely by making the signage more visible to passing road users, such as drivers, passengers, cyclists and walkers who may not notice existing signage due to its current orientation.
A roadside revival of the branding could be done independently of any bus branding, and would have a 24/7 advertising impact, being visible all day, every day, and could be rolled out across the whole proposed route from Alnwick Bus Station to Amble High Street. Where existing signage remains, perhaps a double sided ‘Bus Meets Train’ sign could be added to reduce cost?
On Bus Branding
If and when the dedicated service was to begin, a dedicated small fleet of buses could have dedicated branding for this route, much like the dedicated branded bus for the 434 service branded as the ‘Northumberland Line Connection’ (see below).
Let’s see what can be done!
The Northumberland Coast Loop 