Ventura livery

Melbourne / Victoria Transport Discussion

Moderator: MAN 16.242

Post Reply
BusPlaneTrainTram
Posts: 436
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2005 2:57 pm
Location: Sydney

Ventura livery

Post by BusPlaneTrainTram »

In the fleet lists, Ventura has 881 buses, with 610 in PTV livery. [almost 70%], plus 8 in Smartbus.

I see from photographs that the standard livery is a white bus/coach with Ventura yellow on blue signage [seems to have developed from the Grenda concept].

There are a few other liveries noted [old Ventura, V line, Coach, and U [US Bus Lines], and 222 are noted "blank".

There were buses in Grenda Coach livery, Moorabbin Coach, Peninsula Coach, Peninsula, Portsea Coach [taken from old photographs].

It is now 7 years since Ventura took over Grenda, and I guess a few old Grenda livery buses remain, for rail and charter, soon to be retired.

Is anyone able to advise if most of the superseded liveries have been replaced by the standard Ventura livery, or even how the unnoted buses are liveried.

OR could it be that the blank livery is the Current Ventura livery?
User avatar
Andy O
Posts: 439
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Langwarrin,VIC

Re: Ventura livery

Post by Andy O »

I know there are a still a few of the older charter buses racing around in their original Grenda Red (the 2 scanias at Knox 94, 95), peninsula Blue Livery etc. Most others are now Plain White. Other than I think a handful of the rail fleet (29, 30, 31, 35, 180 spring to mind) and the oldest Portsea Long Scania i don't know of any other ex route buses left in livery other than than PTV or plain White.
burrumbus
Posts: 2049
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:12 pm

Re: Ventura livery

Post by burrumbus »

Hi Peter.
The latest additions to the Ventura charter/private school contract fleet ,since the Grenda takeover have all been in all white with a Ventura sticker,each side of the bus in dark blue with" Ventura -since 1924" signage" .
This is the Ventura fleet livery in my opinion.
That to me is a real disappointment compared to the two tone blue livery with yellow signage livery carried since 1924,which was so distinctive across the eastern suburbs.Ventura basically have given away their livery identity in all aspects of their operations The route bus fleet is almost all in PTV ORANGE shapes livery which was done in house by Ventura subsidiary company East Coast .
That compares unfavourably to their competitors in the area like Drivers,Bayside/Nuline,Executive,Alsons who all have distinctive,attractive consistent livery branding across their fleets.
scott
Posts: 1262
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2004 5:18 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ventura livery

Post by scott »

I liked the livery that was applied mainly to new buses, just after the Grenda takeover, but before the PTV livery came in, the white base and the blue and yellow stripes. Perhaps that livery could be applied to the charter fleet, in order to break up the white, it had a bit of colour, and could be easily and cheaply fixed after a bingle by reapplying the damaged portion of the stripe. Ventura did repaint an older low floor into that livery briely before it was rebranded into the PTV livery.

I also notice that some of the charter coaches have AOA applied for the schools they service. And also the ex Buslink Vivo Mercs have another version of the logo plastered over the rear windows on a transparent film.
burrumbus
Posts: 2049
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:12 pm

Re: Ventura livery

Post by burrumbus »

Hi Scott.
I agree with you that the white and blue/yellow stripes livery that was applied just after the Grenda takeover was not too bad at all but the all over two tone blue livery was still vastly superior in terms of branding and its distinctiveness.
As you say the all over white livery really needs to be broken up with some colour.
But Ventura are not alone in the industry by adopting a white livery.The issue is their buses just look like everybody else's white livery which is a real shame.
Livery is so important in branding the businesses.But many bus businesses just fail in this area.
User avatar
Andy O
Posts: 439
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Langwarrin,VIC

Re: Ventura livery

Post by Andy O »

The Charter livery is slowing being changed again at the moment. The ventura stickers are being removed from the sides with new stickers (for lack of a better word) being applied covering the last window on either side. In my Opinion not real attractive for a charter livery, especially if the vehicle is being used for a bit more of a sightseeing charter rather than school sports, those screen even though see through still impare the vision.
User avatar
Heihachi_73
Posts: 545
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:48 pm
Location: Ringwood

Re: Ventura livery

Post by Heihachi_73 »

The PTV livery could probably do with a more prominent operator logo like what Metro originally had (the large Ms near the doors before the PTV logo replaced them), but I have a feeling it was left mostly blank on the sides just so the government can throw large ads there without obscuring the orange crinkle wrap. The operator logo should be no smaller than the PTV logo in my opinion.

With Ventura's white livery, I was under the impression that the white buses were originally intended for Grenda but were bought/delivered after the merger, thus ended up in plain white awaiting the Grenda ribbons to be applied, but were given new ribbons in the Ventura style instead. Notably, the CR228Ls numbered in the 990s were in blue, but 1000 onwards were in white (1000 did National runs early on before moving to Ventura proper, whereas some of the 990s went to Transdev). 858 was also the only Designline bubble to enter service in white rather than blue, and went to Lilydale Depot rather than a traditional Ventura one like Knoxfield, probably deliberately in order to differentiate it from the MAN fleet. I saw this one on the 742 not so long ago and the orange LED desto stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the green ones on ever other bubble.

In a way though, having every bus in an identical livery helps if a company needs to borrow buses from another, for example Transdev. Unfortunately most of the other companies' buses hadn't changed to the PTV livery at the time thus there was a mixture of several different liveries appearing on Transdev routes (some of the Dyson/Ventura buses even had the destos working on the Transdev routes so it can't be that hard).
scott
Posts: 1262
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2004 5:18 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ventura livery

Post by scott »

The Scania/Volgren CR228L buses from #994 onwards were delivered in white, these were delivered in 2012 after the takeover, the initial batch of these(#978 to #992) and the ex stock CB80 (#993) delivered in the latter part of 2011, just as the takeover was announced, but before settlement, were blue.
User avatar
1whoknows
Posts: 3983
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:55 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ventura livery

Post by 1whoknows »

I'm not a fan of the new rear window area stickers on the charter fleet - always looks to me like someone's thrown up over the bus.
In my opinion, Australian operators obsession with two pack white + sticker makes us look like amateurs compared to Europe, Asia and the Americas.
How much more attractive would Ventura be with coaches painted in base blue - light or dark take your pick - with decent size yellow signwriting below the window line but above the lower panels.
"Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out"
David Horowitz.
Post Reply

Return to “Discussion - Melbourne / VIC”