As we enter into our 40th year, we’ve unveiled a brand new look for our iconic buses, shaped by the needs of our customers who we proudly serve across the UK, every day.
The new bus design is part of our wider commitment to simplify, modernise and enhance our customer experience, which supports the customer-first approach that runs through everything we do – from our drivers and buses, to our customer service and technology solutions.
When creating the new look, we asked thousands of our customers to share their thoughts on how the new design could serve them best, and what would encourage them to use public transport more regularly.
We found out that 69% of customers often felt confused when trying to find the bus they wanted, with a further 37% saying they’d use the bus more often if it was simpler and more modern.
Taking all that on board, we created a new simple and clearly colour-coded design for our bus services to make it easier and instantly recognisable for our customers to find the service they need. The colours represent three different types of journey; Azure Blue for our Local service, Amber Yellow for Longer, and Ocean Green for Specialist.
Local buses – these are everyday community buses with strong local connections that take people to work, education, hospitals, leisure activities with friends and family and life’s important moments.
Longer distance – buses with added comfort and value for customers that need to take a bus beyond the place they live.
Specialist – these are specialist services built for purpose – for drivers who need to park their car outside of town and use park and ride services, university students who need a lift to class and tourists who want to go sightseeing around the country
The new changes across our services embody our commitment to being proud to serve all of our current customers, encourage new customers to use the bus and show the important role we play in connecting people to the people and places that matter most.
To celebrate the arrival of the new look bus design, we created a one-of-a-kind mosaic bus livery, featuring the faces of customers, drivers and communities from across the 11 regions of the country we serve.
The images on the special bus were selected from a year-long photography project we commissioned, with photographer Stuart Roy Clarke travelling across the UK to capture the spirit, individuality and personalities of the people and communities that our iconic buses serve every day.
The new bus design will be rolled out across the fleet of 8,400 buses over a three-year period, with customers seeing the first buses on the road from February. The one-off special bus of the people livery took to the road in the North East on 30th January.
It’s not all about our new look buses and logo, though. We’ve kick-started the biggest roll-out of the technology by any bus operator in Britain, including the introduction of the Stagecoach Bus App, which has a new online travel-planning tool that provides customers with real-time tracking of their bus service on an interactive map. We also now offer our customers the chance to use contactless payment facilities on all of our buses.
We’re investing more than £13m in one of the biggest orders of new electric buses in Europe, as part of a drive to provide a more sustainable transport solution to the people and communities we serve. By the end of 2020, we’ll have more electric vehicles than any other major UK bus operator.
We’ve come a long way since our humble beginnings in Perth, Scotland in 1980 where we started with just two buses. We’ve grown dramatically to become the UK’s largest bus and coach operator. Today, we’re Proud to Serve over 2.5 million passengers a day, playing a vital role in keeping people and communities connected across the country.