Stagecoach Group invests more than £6.5million on new buses and coaches for its Cambridge operations

• 18 new coaches to be introduced on X5 service later this year
• A further six Scania buses ordered for Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
• New vehicles represent investment of more than £6.5million

PERTH, SCOTLAND, 23-9-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — Stagecoach Group today (22 September 2014) announced that it is investing more than £6.5million in a fleet of new buses and coaches for its Cambridge operations.

A total of 18 new Plaxton Elite coaches will go into service on the popular X5 service which operates between Cambridge and Oxford. The vehicles are expected to go into service by the end of this year, delivering even greater comfort, along with free Wi-Fi and toilets, for the hundreds of customers who rely on the service every day.

Stagecoach has ordered a further six Scania/ADL Enviro 400 buses to go into service on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway which connects Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives. These new vehicles have Euro 5 engines, are fully accessible and have free Wi-Fi, power sockets and air chill. These additional facilities are extremely popular with our existing busway customers.

The new X5 coaches have Euro 6 engines, making them among the cleanest and greenest coaches in Europe. They can each seat 57 passengers or 55 passengers when the wheelchair space is required.

The X5 route operates dozens of services a day between Cambridge and Oxford calling at St Neots, Bedford and Milton Keynes among other stops.

Managing Director of Stagecoach East, Andy Campbell said: “This is great news for our customers. The X5 service is used by around 1.3 million passengers a year and provides a vital public transport link between Oxford and Cambridge. We are delighted to be launching these new vehicles later in the year.

“The Busway has proved to be a great success and we’re pleased to be delivering more new buses for the customers who rely on those services every day.

“Delivering high-quality, good value travel is what we do best and we look forward to attracting even more people on to our greener, smarter services in the months and years to come.”

Both sets of new vehicles are expected to go into service by the end of 2014.

The announcement follows the news earlier this year that Stagecoach Group has placed record £100million orders for new buses and coaches to go into service across the UK. Over the past seven years, Stagecoach has invested more than £545million in new vehicles, boosting the British bus manufacturing industry and supporting the wider supply chain in the UK.

Stagecoach has been independently verified, for the third time, as offering the best value bus fares in Britain*. In addition, research carried out by Passenger Focus found that Stagecoach customers are more satisfied with their service than passengers using other UK national operators**.

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For further information please email media@stagecoachgroup.com or call 01738 442111.

Notes to Editors:

*Further information can be found here – http://www.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2014/2014-05-05.aspx
**A copy of the full Bus Passenger Survey Report can be accessed online at: http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/research/bus-passenger-survey

Stagecoach Group
• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,000 buses and coaches. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on Stagecoach’s buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates between around 60 towns and cities across the UK.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.
• Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,600 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. Megabus.com links more than 120 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and transit services, contracted bus services, charters, sightseeing tours and a small number of school bus services.