Stagecoach Group (Group-wide matters)

[Blindtraveler]

I certainly welcome the variety and suspect that this year's relatively small coach order by some previous standards is very much a testing of the waters exercise, I hope so anyway as as others have commented the business as a whole is going to need a significant upgrade to the coach fleet in the next couple of years so they obviously want to get it right, anyone remember the disaster area that was the profiles 10 or 15 years ago? Certainly not an exercise to be repeated

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

I certainly welcome the variety and suspect that this year's relatively small coach order by some previous standards is very much a testing of the waters exercise, I hope so anyway as as others have commented the business as a whole is going to need a significant upgrade to the coach fleet in the next couple of years so they obviously want to get it right, anyone remember the disaster area that was the profiles 10 or 15 years ago? Certainly not an exercise to be repeated

How were the Plaxton Profiles a disaster? With them being Volvos, I thought they would have been reliable.

 

[Jordan Adam]

How were the Plaxton Profiles a disaster? With them being Volvos, I thought they would have been reliable.

A large number of them caught fire particularly the earlier 55 plate examples, albeit the argument can be made that this was more down to them being used on work they weren't designed and therefor overworked rather than a design flaw with the vehicle itself.

 

[richw]

They’re basically a B7RLE bus with a coach body.
I found them useful psvar coaches at First Truronian, and were suitable for the work they were doing

 

[Blindtraveler]

I'm sure they were fine for some applications but stagecoach bought loads of them and they were replaced pretty quickly on a lot of frontline work and cascaded off into the province's. The Express City connect batch and the five bought for the Cumbrian X4 X5 were notably unsuccessful

 

[computerSaysNo]

More details about the new buses across Stagecoach Group scheduled for this year, confirming more E400s, what the E100 EVs are destined as, and many other new vehicles.

New Stagecoach Vehicles | The Bus Forum

Really shocked at this bus just seen in their Inverness operations Stagecoach has just bought two large batches of new single deckers, 12 Volvo/MCV Evoras and 25 Yutongs Is Stagecoach’s loyal

tangytango.proboards.com

Since the Enviro (classic) range was modernised into the MMC range, I understand it that Stagecoach has been buying 11.8m E200MMCs as pretty much a direct alternative to E300s.
What have they been buying as an alternative to the E200s though? I haven't seen any short E200MMCs in either of the areas that I occasionally visit (Bluebird and Fife); have they just consolidated all new (non-electric) single-decks to the 11.8m E200MMC?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Since the Enviro (classic) range was modernised into the MMC range, I understand it that Stagecoach has been buying 11.8m E200MMCs as pretty much a direct alternative to E300s.
What have they been buying as an alternative to the E200s though? I haven't seen any short E200MMCs in either of the areas that I occasionally visit (Bluebird and Fife); have they just consolidated all new (non-electric) single-decks to the 11.8m E200MMC?

There have been limited numbers of shorter e200mmc to South West, South, Wales and East Midlands.

 

[Cesarcollie]

Since the Enviro (classic) range was modernised into the MMC range, I understand it that Stagecoach has been buying 11.8m E200MMCs as pretty much a direct alternative to E300s.
What have they been buying as an alternative to the E200s though? I haven't seen any short E200MMCs in either of the areas that I occasionally visit (Bluebird and Fife); have they just consolidated all new (non-electric) single-decks to the 11.8m E200MMC?

As operating costs rise, I guess there are fewer and fewer routes where the smallest E200s can be commercially viable. Many tenders will of course continue to specify small buses, but they aren’t a huge proportion of the total fleet for Stagecoach, and unless there are age restriction, older buses with lower depreciation will often suffice. Plus of course there is a batch of Solos due which will Meet this size requirement.

 

[mbonwick]

There have been limited numbers of shorter e200mmc to South West, South, Wales and East Midlands.

There's over 150 10.8m E200MMCs around the group, as the obvious and direct successor to the E200.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There's over 150 10.8m E200MMCs around the group, as the obvious and direct successor to the E200.

Not that many when you think it's 8 years or more...

 

[Blindtraveler]

And I don't suppose this will be the last batch of solos in diesel form that come along either, something big had to be responsible for them restarting a diesel production line and I suspect a commitment to another several years worth of orders of them from someone like stagecoach had to be part of that incentive

To be honest if we can get the build quality that we were getting for the last handful of diesel buses from Optare again with this new order plus a stepping up in terms of delivery time and after sales then they could be a serious piece of competition for a d l who are clearly focusing more on the electric market now and despite their claims otherwise are still suffering from the usual cheap nasty build quality ifsues time and again

Stagecoach group strategy with regards to fleet in the coming couple of years is going to be a very interesting to watch I think