Stagecoach 2016/17 orders

[Metroline1511]

RE: Stagecoach 2016/17 orders

(16/04/2016 20:42)Dentonian Wrote:  I suppose it depends on the nature of the Gold Service. I'm no expert, but I think they tend to be longer, limited stop routes with oppurtunity to get a fair turn of speed - which Scanias perform better at. ADLs are for more "workhorse" routes, trundling up and down congested routes with single-figure average speeds. This is why Hyde Road quickly lost 15444-55 to Northampton back in 2009 ish - and off-peak running times have deteriorated further since then.

I had indeed noticed that, with 1 or 2 exceptions such as Devon, Stagecoach tend to use pure Enviro400s on urban routes and Scania-Enviro400s on interurban routes.

(16/04/2016 22:52)mbonwick Wrote:  There's 65 Gold buses - a 40/25 split between Enviro400s and Enviro200s (11.9m). They are all MMCs as ADL no longer sell the "classic" Enviro range. Any recent deliveries have simply been long-standing orders running through.

Scania don't get a look in because of their refusal to fit electric cooling fans to their engines; Stagecoach have taken the decision that it's not worth the extra expense and hassle of having an external contractor do it, and dropped Scania.

Look out for Volvo starting to appear over the next few years again - they seem very keen to win back Stagecoach's business...


The Optare portion of this years order is very small - just 6 units for Norfolk Green, and even then that's only because of the slimline requirement. It's very telling that Stagecoach are prepared to put more money into a mostly unproven vehicle combo - the Mercedes Sprinters - than with one of their long-time suppliers (Optare).

Do you by any chance know which routes will be upgraded to Gold spec?