25/04/2005

• 169-vehicle order supports passenger growth in and outside London
• Total new vehicle investment in UK for 2005-06 reaches around £55 million

Stagecoach Group plc announced today (25 April 2005) that it has placed new orders for 169 vehicles for its UK bus operations.

The latest orders, following the announcement last month that Stagecoach was buying 340 vehicles, brings the total investment in new buses in the UK for 2005-06 to around £55 million.

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%, and as part of new contracts run on behalf of Transport for London.

Stagecoach will take delivery of the fleet of new vehicles between August 2005 and March 2006.

Orders have been placed with vehicle manufacturers Alexander Dennis, MAN, Optare, Wrightbus and Volvo for 35 single-deckers, 79 double-deckers and 55 midi-buses.

Details of the orders are:

• 49 Alexander Dennis Trident ALX400 double-deckers for London
• 30 Alexander Dennis Trident ALX400 double-deckers for provincial operations
• 28 MAN 18.220 single deck chassis/ Alexander Dennis ALX300 bodies
• 5 Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 12 metre single deckers
• 30 Alexander Dennis Dart Pointer midibuses
• 25 Optare Solo midibuses
• 2 Wrightbus Eclipse Commuter body/Volvo B7RLE chassis single deckers

Les Warneford, Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus, said: "This latest investment reflects our success in generating organic passenger growth in our UK provincial bus operations and in winning new contracts in London. Our key strengths of innovation, investment, targeted marketing and productive partnerships with local transport authorities are attracting thousands of new customers out of their cars and on to our buses every week."

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.

The Wrightbus vehicles have a special roll-on access design for wheelchair users using a ramp in the main passenger entrance, rather than an expensive side-mounted lift used on other high-floor vehicles.

ENDS

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.

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.