Stagecoach places £70 million order

Stagecoach Group has announced that is has placed a £70 million order for a new fleet of 340 vehicles.

This is part of Stagecoach’s continued investment into new vehicles, amounting to more than £1 billion in the past 11 years, which has resulted in around 7,000 new vehicles being delivered to passengers.

The latest order from Stagecoach includes:

• 180 low-floor double-decker buses
• 60 single deck vehicles
• 40 midibuses
• 34 coaches for the Group’s UK Bus, Scottish Citylink and megabus.com operations

The latest order also includes the first purpose-build open top vehicles the company has ever ordered, plus new vehicles for the Cambridge Guided Busway and a fleet of 18 micro hybrid vehicles to go into operation in Sheffield, which have been partly funded by the Office for Low Emissions Vehicles (OLEV).

Meeting low emission standards

The new buses and coaches will be introduced in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as on the company’s megabus.com network in the UK. Almost half of them meet the Government’s Low Carbon Emission Bus specification, while around two thirds feature innovative stop-start technology to help improve fuel consumption and reduce emission. All vehicles will meet Euro 6 emissions standards

Most of the vehicles will be built in the UK and all will be equipped with CCTV, USB charging points and free WiFi.

“Our focus is on delivering practical improvements to make travel even better for our customers,” said Martin Griffiths, Chief Executive of Stagecoach Group. “We are continuing to re-invest money from fares in state-of-the-art, cleaner, greener vehicles, digital technology and smart ticketing to deliver an even higher standard of service. These latest vehicle orders are an important part of our strategy to encourage even more people to take the bus.

“Local bus services are the backbone of the country’s transport networks. However, the increasing problem of traffic congestion in our towns and cities is holding buses back and it is high time our politicians stepped up and took action to support bus passengers and free up road space to help bus networks flourish.”

The new buses and coaches will be introduced in the 2017/18 financial year.