Omnibuses2.0 is able to reveal that Stagecoach has announced another major initiative, the launch this summer of competitive open top sightseeing tours in a number of UK locations to rival existing operations, especially those by City Sightseeing.
Transferring the successful and newly acquired CitySightsNY brand to the UK, Stagecoach has registered a number of tours with VOSA under the CitySights name. Buses will be liveried in the same mid-blue of the famous New York equivalent and, like the Big Apple, will offer a number of tour variations and add-ons.
Services start on Monday 25 May 2009 in Blackpool, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester. Outside London, Stagecoach will offer what it calls CitySightsPLUS discounted tickets for use on both its CitySights and local bus networks (and trams, in Manchester).
i CitySights website
A Change of Image...
Also today, the Stagecoach Group unveils its new corporate UK bus livery. Based on its current “beach ball” concept, the new design is aimed at rebranding and securing Stagecoach’s presence as a “mature market leader”.
Stagecoach Bus has also listened to blind and partially sighted lobby groups who genuinely find Stagecoach’s light blue front difficult to distinguish.
The adaptation will start with immediate effect, with all vehicles outshopped in the revised format by 1st April 2011. The first vehicle treated in the new style is this Dennis Lance/Optare Sigma, seen here freshly painted and parked at one of Stagecoach’s garages. Note the light blue is replaced by a vivid, rich burgundy, the dark blue skirt with black, the orange areas toned down with white and the central white area by a less stark off-white.
Said Chief Executive Brain Souter, “We wanted to update our fleet with a livery that is at once contemporary & clean but gives a hint of the traditional that reflects our brand as a mature market leader.
“This is more than a minor revision of the style we adopted earlier this century. It highlights Stagecoach’s core values of service, longevity and excellence. The new colours will be rolled out on all corporate & local bus publicity & electronic information in the coming months.”
To coincide with the new livery, Stagecoach *Bus* will for the first time adopt a specific strapline. It’s chosen “Stagecoach: don’t spare the horses” which, it says, celebrates the drive and enthusiasm of all those in the Stagecoach family.
i Read today’s Stagecoach press release
i Photo by Wyedevon (used with permission)
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
CitySights
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11 comments:
april fools surely?
Has to be. There is no press release. And why would a new livery be launched on a Dennis Lance rather than a new delivery.
It is i thick the bus belongs to North Sommerset Coaches
something else is apparently happening on Monday 25 May that is much more interesting.....
The Dennis Lance photo was taken in 2000. Subsequently, the vehicle M204DRG was moved from its first-home in the north-east to Grimsby where it was treated to a new digital destination blind. It was withdrawn and sold in 2004.
Un fool d'avril it most certainly is.
un poisson.
I like the "press release" from Mr. S!!
Yes its our Sigma photographed at the Westpoint Rally last October.
Surprising how different a livery design can look simply by changing the colours.
It should be getting the North Somerset Coaches fleetnames fitted in the next few days, although that will spoil the fun over new Stagecoach liveries!
Someone's pinched the digital destination blind from it then!
It had a big empty hole when we bought it! The manual destination gear now fitted was donated by an Alexander Olympian. I prefer traditional blinds....
What's happening on 25 May then, that's more interesting?
http://www.velvetbus.info/news15.html
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