14/03/2005

• Three major vehicle manufacturers to supply buses for provincial operations
• New fleet will support company’s organic passenger growth strategy

Stagecoach Group plc announced today (14 March 2005) that it has placed orders for 340 new vehicles for its UK bus operations.

The fleet of new vehicles will be delivered between June 2005 and the end of February 2006. The Group expects to place further orders within the next few weeks.

The new state-of-the-art low-floor vehicles will be introduced in Stagecoach’s provincial bus operations, which last year achieved passenger growth of 1.4%.

Orders have been placed with vehicle manufacturers Alexander Dennis, MAN and Optare for 50 single-deckers, 120 double-deckers and 170 midi-buses.

Details of the orders are:

• 120 Alexander Dennis Trident ALX400 double-deckers
• 50 MAN 18.220 single deck chassis/ Alexander Dennis ALX300 bodies
• 120 Alexander Dennis Dart Pointer midibuses
• 50 Optare Solo midibuses

Les Warneford, Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said: “This significant investment is evidence of our confidence in the future of bus travel in the UK and complements our strategy for organic growth.

“We are continuing to deliver impressive passenger growth in our bus operations outside London. Thousands of new users are being attracted out of their cars and on to our services every week as a result of our investment in telemarketing initiatives and innovative new products.

“This latest capital investment will deliver a more comfortable travelling experience for passengers, better environmental performance, improved reliability and help make public transport more attractive to car users.”

All new vehicles are fitted with the latest environmentally friendly Euro 3 low emission engines and will run on low sulphur diesel. They are equipped with modern heating and ventilation, low floor access for parents with young children, people with disabilities and elderly passengers, and many feature a special ‘kneeling’ mechanism to assist boarding from the pavement.

Stagecoach recently set up a new telemarketing unit at its headquarters in Perth as part of its organic growth strategy and has launched targeted campaigns in a number of locations in the UK to encourage non-users to switch to bus travel.

The campaigns, which include the offer of a week’s free travel and focus in particular on mothers and car users, have seen up to one in five of those contacted switch to the bus.

Stagecoach is concentrating on a new town or city every six weeks and intends to target up to 20% of its bus networks in the UK over the next two years.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
Steve Stewart, Head of Media and Public Affairs, Stagecoach Group
Tel: 01738 442111 or mobile 07764 774680

Notes to Editors:

Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators, connecting communities in nearly 100 towns and cities. The company runs around 7,000 vehicles from Devon in south-west England to Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland, carrying around 2 million passengers every day.