Stagecoach Repaint Updates

Horrible. The bus livery looks washed out and cheap, as if it was just put on top of dealer white as cheaply as possible.

The coach looks like a school bus. The logo font also looks like something a school would do.

What on earth were they thinking? The existing livery still looks good, a small (non beach-ball) logo update would have done a decent freshening up.

Sounds like the blue ‘local’ buses will be very similar to Arriva with Stagecoach logos. Great fun in Merseyside! Really help to know what bus is coming! Orange coach livery ok though. Also if it’s going to take years to repaint and roll-out the new livery doesn’t it make the idea of a new exciting livery a joke? Should have left well alone.

Happy 40th Birthday Stagecoach, looks like you really are having a mid life crisis... You really need dark blue skirt to hide the dirt..

There seems to have been some confusion on here and elsewhere regarding the liveries just to clarify. The Elite is carrying the "Longer distance" livery, E400 the "Local" livery and the E200 the "Specialist" livery. There will be no colour variations as some have inaccurate speculated.

Jordan Adam said:

There seems to have been some confusion on here and elsewhere regarding the liveries just to clarify. The Elite is carrying the "Longer distance" livery, E400 the "Local" livery and the E200 the "Specialist" livery. There will be no colour variations as some have inaccurate speculated.

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I'm assuming the change to a base white was relatively last minute considering what livery the Manchester electrics and Cambridge Busway vehicles have.

Hmmm. I'll reserve judgement until I see them in the metal. The E400 initially made me think there was shades of Transport for Ireland in it.

It's certainly less hard on the eye than beach ball, and appears more like a livery you'd find in continental Europe, but I'll wait and see how it rolls out. I'm not as offended by it than seems the general consensus.

(They've updated the websites too, not massively but a refresh that certainly has made my area's feel brighter and cleaner to use)

I don't think it looks too bad. The amount of white does have a hint of smaller independent operator about it, but the previous beach ball livery also had a lot of white. I think the difference is the new livery doesn't have a solid colour running along the base which makes a big difference.

Can't say I'm particularly offended by them.

TheGrandWazoo said:

Can't say I'm particularly offended by them.

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Why not!
I suspect they're the reason for the Coronavirus as well!

carlberry said:

Why not!
I suspect they're the reason for the Coronavirus as well!

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You're absolutely right. I'm being far too measured on this

It needs to be a full lined out livery like a 1920s municipal with gold underlined fleetnames, getting us back to when this country was great (and how it will be come Saturday).

I just think its a tad bland.

overthewater said:

I just think its a tad bland.

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I think that's the big issue. Stagecoach's biggest problem (though also a strength at times) is how uniform it is. To have an even more uniform brand (if Gold's going and all standard routes now have the exact same branding) be so bland seems like a big mistake. On the other hand, time will tell if it gives the impression of simplicity like they intend.

I'll Give it to them it's completely different to what we are used to or have seen in the current landscape.

NorthOxonian said:

I think that's the big issue. Stagecoach's biggest problem (though also a strength at times) is how uniform it is. To have an even more uniform brand (if Gold's going and all standard routes now have the exact same branding) be so bland seems like a big mistake. On the other hand, time will tell if it gives the impression of simplicity like they intend.

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I guess there's a level of practicality as Carlberry mentioned - you can easily apply it on a white base livery. And of course, we should remember that prior to the current livery, the old three stripes had a lot of white and no dark coloured skirt panels.

To be fair to Stagecoach, they are usually (the odd opco or depot apart) decent in vehicle presentation and certainly managed to eradicate the old livery faster than Arriva or First have managed with their old schemes.

TheGrandWazoo said:

I guess there's a level of practicality as Carlberry mentioned - you can easily apply it on a white base livery.

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Which means, by definition, that it looks cheap. Not "we are a large, premier operator", but "we are your mate Brian's five-bus cowboy operation".

I think the coach is worse, though - nothing says "this is not a luxury coach" better than school-bus yellow. Whoever came up with that was either (a) planning a big increase in school work using said coaches, or (b) thick as the proverbial porcine. Yellow says "school bus", not "high quality express coach".

At best it's bland like the pastel-coloured First city livery is/was. At worst it looks really awful.

The font shouts "letter home from school where the head has told them off for using Comic Sans" - barely better. Keeping a beachball shouts turn-of-the-millennium.

Terrible job. 2/10.

Who did it, the work experience kid?

TheGrandWazoo said:

I guess there's a level of practicality as Carlberry mentioned - you can easily apply it on a white base livery. And of course, we should remember that prior to the current livery, the old three stripes had a lot of white and no dark coloured skirt panels.

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But then "toothpaste" livery was a product of its time, and was also intended for cheap brush/roller-application on top of dealer white. The bus industry has moved on since the 80s and 90s, this new livery puts them firmly back there.

That said, the actual logo was a lot more clever than the beachball - it does look dated now, but it has a number of elements - it can either be a pair of horses on a road, or it can be a map of mainland Britain.



(Like the Avanti West Coast platform signs, I bet people have never noticed this, by and large)

Jordan Adam said:

There seems to have been some confusion on here and elsewhere regarding the liveries just to clarify. The Elite is carrying the "Longer distance" livery, E400 the "Local" livery and the E200 the "Specialist" livery. There will be no colour variations as some have inaccurate speculated.

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How does the green-based livery fit into this (as used for new vehicles for Cambridge busway and Manchester electrics)? The specialist livery described by Stagecoach (as applied on the E200 in the image released) seems to be for Park & Ride etc.

The bus livery looks too whishy washy with the colour not being bright enough, and far too much white.

The coach livery was obviously designed by someone who doesn’t realise that overall yellow generally denotes a school bus. So they are going to have their top spec high profile buses and coaches looking just like the local independants 20 year old school coach.

I’m not sure there is much point in slightly changing the beachball logo. Either keep it as it is, or do something new.

The liveries on the Enviro200 and Enviro400 MMC are certainly growing on me. Would look better with the front bumper blue, and the panel in between the bumper and bonnet painted orange (similar to the orange on E400 MMCs currently). And a bit more black on the E200 MMC.

Not a fan of the orange coach livery - agreed that it looks like a school bus, and the gold swooshes clash with the orange colour.

I also like the logo, it feels modern.

It's a shame the all over red livery got ditched, as it looked quite nice

It looks horrible, as if a child had created it. It's funny that whilst Stagecoach are taking a tighter control of liveries, First are going the opposite and having multiple. 10 years ago that would have been unthinkable.


I think Stagecoach have seriously missed a point here, From the website they say people want a simplified, modern bus service, that means they want a modern bus, which is easy to use, it doesn't mean they want a cheap looking livery to make a bus look new.

One thing I've said to other people today (and have universally been agreed with) is that the base shouldn't have been white. Perhaps one of the logo colours could have been used as a base, with the logo applied in the same fashion but with white used in place of the colour used as base (for example, if the coach amber was used, then white would be used for the normally-amber segment). Either that, or use a completely different colour (e.g. a darker blue/green/purple), with the logo still used on top.

One thing that definitely looks out of place is the amber bit across the front, simply because of how it abruptly ends.

Oh dear, own goal of the year, and it's still January.

Bletchleyite said:

That said, the actual logo was a lot more clever than the beachball - it does look dated now, but it has a number of elements - it can either be a pair of horses on a road, or it can be a map of mainland Britain.

(Like the Avanti West Coast platform signs, I bet people have never noticed this, by and large)

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I believe the shape of the red was also designed to replicate an ‘S’ and the blue ‘road’ double up as an ‘H’ to stand for ‘Stagecoach Holdings’. On the subject of it looking like the shape of the UK, rather than just Scotland, I guess the dot in the red could then also be an approximate location of the company’s home town of Perth.

Goldfish62 said:

I'm assuming the change to a base white was relatively last minute considering what livery the Manchester electrics and Cambridge Busway vehicles have.

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Indeed it would appear so.

Flinn Reed said:

How does the green-based livery fit into this (as used for new vehicles for Cambridge busway and Manchester electrics)? The specialist livery described by Stagecoach (as applied on the E200 in the image released) seems to be for Park & Ride etc.

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As per the Goldfish62's comment it would seem the change to a white base was last minute.

Looks like the new logo has started to appear on the stagecoach website

Rod Harrison said:

Sounds like the blue ‘local’ buses will be very similar to Arriva with Stagecoach logos. Great fun in Merseyside! Really help to know what bus is coming! Orange coach livery ok though. Also if it’s going to take years to repaint and roll-out the new livery doesn’t it make the idea of a new exciting livery a joke? Should have left well alone.

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Obviously I’ve had a senior moment as I thought that the local buses would be overall blue like yellow one featured for express. Whoops !!!

*Photos taken from the CBW Magazine article*

"Longer Distance" livery -


"Local" livery.


"Specialist" livery. - this being for Uni, P&R, Busway & Tourist routes.

Rod Harrison said:

Obviously I’ve had a senior moment as I thought that the local buses would be overall blue like yellow one featured for express. Whoops !!!

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I can't blame you, lots of people got confused by the official press release. Especially since the website is poorly formatted so if you view it on a mobile device you can't see the E400 or E200 in the main photo. However a staff newsletter along with the CBW Magazine article has clarified and made it clear which livery is which.

Andyh82 said:

The bus livery looks too whishy washy with the colour not being bright enough, and far too much white.

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I agree. White based liveries can work (and do save money), but this looks like the typical "bare minimum" that a typical on-the-cheap independent does. It needs much more colour to work, like, er, the existing livery (which still doesn't look dated so I'm not clear why they are bothering).

Which agency did this? It's surely not a Stenning (the previous one was, wasn't it?)

That coach in particular...I just don't get why they would want to turn this thing of beauty...


Plaxton Elite in X5 livery

...into a school bus.

I could just about be sold on the third livery (the single colour one) if the coloured front was taken back to about half way down the bus. But it's just amateurish, particularly the font which is about 2 steps from being Comic Sans, and just doesn't shout "large, competent, professional and reliable operator", it shouts "primary school".

Bletchleyite said:

I agree. White based liveries can work (and do save money), but this looks like the typical "bare minimum" that a typical on-the-cheap independent does. It needs much more colour to work, like, er, the existing livery (which still doesn't look dated so I'm not clear why they are bothering).

Which agency did this? It's surely not a Stenning (the previous one was, wasn't it?)

That coach in particular...I just don't get why they would want to turn this thing of beauty...

Plaxton Elite in X5 livery

...into a school bus.

I could just about be sold on the third livery (the single colour one) if the coloured front was taken back to about half way down the bus. But it's just amateurish, particularly the font which is about 2 steps from being Comic Sans, and just doesn't shout "large, competent, professional and reliable operator", it shouts "primary school".

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I agree it does seem very poorly thought out, i can't wait for a bus to get a damaged panel at one of the smaller depots, no doubt we'll see them out in service with bits of the colours missing. One of the good things with beachball was the skirts are all one colour, so if a bus got damaged repairs could be done locally in quite a short amount of time.

The "Specialised" livery is something i'd expect from 'orrivo' (look at their logo you'll see where that name comes from).... The application on that particular E200 has also been annoying me all day, no respect has been put towards the original design of the bus with the areas that are intended to be black being painted over - which very much ages the appearance of the vehicle.

I think if the Local Livery had the blue and white swapped around with the blue continuing on to the front it would be much nicer, i also don't understand the point of the front bumper being yellow, it just looks like the bus had a front end RTC and that's the only bumper panels they had!

Lastly with the "Longer Distance / Coach livery". This is the least bad of the 3 in terms of the template, however the yellow and gold really don't work together. As has been noted if the gold was cream it would look very Northern-esque, which i think would be nicer. Certainly it would make sense given that a large bulk of the coach fleet within Stagecoach operate in former Northern Scottish territory. Perhaps the coaches in Fife and WScot could use colours that match the former operators there too.

I don't actually mind the 3 colours chosen, it's just the livery design that's the real let down. At least they've ditched the awful red that fades whenever you park a vehicle in the sun for too long.

In Short what i'd change...

Local Livery - Swap Blue/white around, retain blue front, paint front bumper blue instead of yellow.

Specialist livery - Have the green around the front start just behind the front axle, retain the black trim areas on the front and above the windows, add the blue/yellow to the rear so it looks less Arriva-esque.

Coach Livery - Change the colours to match those of the former SBG operators (Fife Scottish, Northern Scottish, Highland Scottish & Western Scottish).