Dispelling the Myth

Leather seated buses, air conditioning, driver CPC training, 2+1 seating, low floor buses to elegant modern designs, smartcards and real time information are a generation apart from the early 1980s. These new features help to assuage the view held by prime minister of the time Thatcher, who famously said that anyone over 30 travelling on a bus was a failure in life (actually, not anyone, but men).

If you are looking for a final nail in that particular stereotypical coffin, look no further than the east of England. England’s, no the world’s, longest busway between St Ives & Cambridge opens next April and on its 16 miles will be an impressive fleet of biofuelled buses running on recycled food waste, so Stagecoach announced yesterday. The Euro V vehicles will produce 80 per cent less carbon dioxide.

The buses represent a £3mil investment and will come from ADL, Scania and, significantly, a 10-vehicle Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse order, Stagecoach’s first major purchase with Wright’s.

To the fast track, green credentials, the 20 vehicles will adopt leather seating and wi-fi. It will be a worthwhile investment. The A14 is one of the east’s most congested inter-urban roads. The busway paves the way for a massive investment in 47,000 houses in the next eight years. Stagecoach can hardly lose. It’s a real opportunity in partnership with Cambridgeshire council to offer something that those of us over 30 might just prefer to our cars. Could it just be that anyone (any man) over 30 not on these buses will be the failure in life?