Stagecoach Repaint Updates

[overthewater]

http://www.route-one.net/articles/Marketing/Stagecoach_mulls_brand_change

Stagecoach UK Bus is working on a project to overhaul its brand and livery.


The current beach ball brand is now 17 years old
A number of designs are being contemplated, routeONE understands, some of which are described as quite radical.

The current beach ball logo brand is now 17 years old. The initial concept was by Ray Stenning, and it was heavily modified by Stagecoach before application and launch in 2000. It continued the same red, orange, blue and white theme used on the previous stripes livery.

It is understood that UK Bus wants to pull back on the number of regional and unique liveries now carried by its vehicles, and a groupwide audit of which vehicles carry which liveries is underway.

Says Stagecoach Spokeswoman Lindsay Reid: There is no new livery/ brand decided upon (and there may not be) but there's a project going on to look at our UK Bus brand.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Must admit I think the "beach ball" is pretty timeless.

 

[Ianno87]

Must admit I think the "beach ball" is pretty timeless.

Agree. Still looks pretty fresh and modern today.

 

[MrGrumpy]

There's nothing wrong with the current Stagecoach livery / logo. The white can look a bit shabby after a while though.

Just think, the BR 'double arrow' is 50 years old. You can't get more timeless than that among transport logos.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And all it took to make it look really modern was a circle round it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tetchytyke]

I'm guessing the issue is more about the regional branding they have, not the core brand and livery.

The beachball is pretty timeless, though, it still looks as fresh and modern on the new E200 MMCs as it did when it first appeared.

I'm sure it'll be a Best Impressions special if they do change it. Stenning did the recent joint branding on the 685 Newcastle-Carlisle AFAIK.

 

[overthewater]

Draft Question, how many regional branding is there? The only few I do know are:

* Cambridge busways which is green
* New X34 route in Newcastle - Sunderland.

 

[TrainfanBen]

Draft Question, how many regional branding is there? The only few I do know are:

* Cambridge busways which is green
* New X34 route in Newcastle - Sunderland.

Stagecoach Warwickshire had 'Unibus' which was an all over pink (now gone thankfully).

Manchester have 'Magicbus'.

There's two

 

[Bletchleyite]

I quite like the idea of a strong, well-defined base with colour/route brand variants - the old Regional Railways PTE variants are a good example. Will be sad if they abandon that.

 

[overthewater]

Stagecoach Warwickshire had 'Unibus' which was an all over pink (now gone thankfully).

Manchester have 'Magicbus'.

There's two

Ah yes Magicbus, but thats a bit different isn't it? Since that used old buses with very cheap fares.

 

[embers25]

Draft Question, how many regional branding is there? The only few I do know are:

* Cambridge busways which is green
* New X34 route in Newcastle - Sunderland.

Falcon, the new Ashford one, Coastliner (sort of), Lakeslink

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ah yes Magicbus, but thats a bit different isn't it? Since that used old buses with very cheap fares.

Magic Bus is a wonderful curiosity. It was started to run competitors off the road, but it was soon found that on some routes having a price differentiated "first and second class" service is actually profitable, regardless of the competition.

 

[175mph]

The current Stagecoach livery is the type of livery that looks great on almost any vehicle.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Stagecoach in Winchester is now 'The King's City' branded with vehicles in a pale brown livery.

 

[Robertj21a]

Stagecoach in Winchester is now 'The King's City' branded with vehicles in a pale brown livery.

Chichester route 60 (Southdown livery)

The Lakes (Lake District)

 

[cf111]

Draft Question, how many regional branding is there? The only few I do know are:

* Cambridge busways which is green
* New X34 route in Newcastle - Sunderland.

"Buchan Express" services between Aberdeen and Fraserburgh/Peterhead carry a very posh black, purple and gold effort.

 

[SEClass375]

Bio Unibus (University of Kent)

 

[tbtc]

I agree with the comments about the livery still looking modern today – it possibly even looks more suited to modern vehicles than it did to the buses around when it was introduced around the millennium.

This may be more about the number of “sub-liveries” that Stagecoach have. Whilst there’s justification for some buses to be route branded (whether making complex urban operations simpler, advertising rural routes or turning perception of disparate services into a “corridor”), Stagecoach have introduced lots of versions of the same thing.

Every town seems to have its own individual branding – looks good – more interesting than the days of First having the same “Overground” application in every city – but presumably more expensive and makes cascading vehicles slightly more awkward.

We’ve recently seen a couple of the green E400Hs at Holbrook depot in Sheffield painted out of their “Hybrid” livery into “common or garden” red/ white/ blue/ orange beachball – I don’t know if the same is true of the “Hybrid” vehicles at Manchester/ Oxford/ Newcastle etc?

So this could be about having one “urban” brand (“Citi”), one “express” brand, one “cheap” brand (“Magicbus”), one “premium” brand (“Gold”), ditch lots of the other sub-brands. “Megabus” and “Oxford Tube” are different enough to warrant separate identities, but most of the sub- brandings could possibly go.

There’s no need to invent a different “City Shuttle” or “Town Link” or “Rural Rambler” or “Hospital Connection” or “Coast Rider” for Thurso/ Manchester/ Exeter/ Kentish Countryside – certain standard templates may work just as well. Boring, I know.

Magic Bus is a wonderful curiosity. It was started to run competitors off the road, but it was soon found that on some routes having a price differentiated "first and second class" service is actually profitable, regardless of the competition.

Stagecoach are really good at market differentiation. They know that there are markets that have scope for a "full fare" Stagecoach Express service and a "cheap" Megabus service.

They weren't afraid to compete with themselves in other ways (e.g. the Taxibus over the Forth Road Bridge competed with common-or-garden Stagecoach services).

When they took over Yorkshire Traction's "Yorkshire Terrier" they didn't cut any of the bus services inherited in Sheffield that competed with well established Stagecoach Supertram services (they did cut some of the deadwood to other areas, but have kept and invested in the Halfway - Manor Top - City Centre - University bus services).

They also seem happy to run quality bus services against Stagecoach operated train services (e.g. the "Gold" X17 from Sheffield to Chesterfield competing with three EMT services per hour).

(same with other businesses outside the transport sector who provide a "premium" and "discount" product in the same marketplace, secure in the knowledge that there is room for both to profitably exist)

In comparison, First seem to have a "one size fits all - like it or lump it" approach.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Draft Question, how many regional branding is there? The only few I do know are:

* Cambridge busways which is green
* New X34 route in Newcastle - Sunderland.

You have the green Hybrid version of the beachball livery for starters.

Just in Newcastle, we have specific route branding (with varying amounts of livery revision) on the 22 Throckley-Cobalt, the 100 Metrocentre Shuttle, the X34 to South Shields, the 685 Newcastle-Carlisle and the new X24 Newcastle-Sunderland express. South Shields' town network has "join the dots" branding, apart from the old Economic routes from Shields to Sunderland which have their own separate branding too ("get there with E's" isn't quite the slogan I'd have chosen for South Shields )

I'm guessing that it's Head Office wanting to take control of all these sub-brands, as much as anything, knowing what control freaks they can be.

 

[J-2739]

I really like the livery, it would be a shame for it to disappear.

Unlike the old First Barbie, and the old fishy green and white Arriva livery, the Stagecoach livery still looks up to date and stylish, while not going to over the top. I have a feeling that Stagecoach is also going to change its logo, and I bet you, it will be in textspeak (which I don't have and issue with generally, but is also a bit of an overused cliché)

I wonder if Stagecoach will also change their moquette as well...

We’ve recently seen a couple of the green E400Hs at Holbrook depot in Sheffield painted out of their “Hybrid” livery into “common or garden” red/ white/ blue/ orange beachball – I don’t know if the same is true of the “Hybrid” vehicles at Manchester/ Oxford/ Newcastle etc?

I've noticed this as well. At first, I thought it was the typical Sheffield stealing our Enviro 400s, but I took a look at the back, and after seeing the massive vents, came to the conclusion it was not one of our usual 400s!

They look really fresh and alive, I like it.

 

[TUC]

I personally still miss the Stsgecoach stripes. They did look very effective.

 

[Teflon Lettuce]

I'm shocked by this news... I would never have thought the current livery had been around for 17 years!

 

[ChathillMan]

Oh god, not another Stenning job. I would get back to something a bit more "local" with the strapline "brought to you by Stagecoach"

This is the opposite to what they are wanting to do though!!

 

[Hophead]

Chichester route 60 (Southdown livery)

The Lakes (Lake District)

Was going to quote the 60 as well: here's the webpage advertising the launch - pretty smart and following a Best Impressions / Stagecoach template.

There's also the Coastliner 700 variant on standard livery.

While GoAhead have always preferred a local brand and First have made moves the same way, it seems Stagecoach may be getting more corporate. Mind you, I do think that some of their local variations are a little messy, with routes or networks like "Loop", "Pulse" (and there's a few of those), "Triangle", "Jazz". Hope this doesn't completely stifle local creativity and innovation.

 

[JonathanH]

Are Stagecoach also going to move to a standard e-leather interior for non-gold services as fitted to the E400MMCs recently introduced in the North West?

Seems to be bright blue and orange like the colours of the 'beach ball' seats but obviously without the pattern.

Shame if so.

 

[jopsuk]

Cambridge Park and Ride are just taking delivery of a new fleet, in five colour variations of the "beach ball" livery (as part of a reorganisation from three routes serving the five sites to separate routes for each site)
Cambridge has one route in Stagecoach Gold branding, the 13/X13/13A Haverhill service.
The Cambridge Guided Busway livery is NOT a Stagecoach variant, it does not incorporate the beach ball (other than as standalone logos) and the Whippet buses using the busway have the same livery, despite the lack of inter-operator ticketing.
The Citi and other routes are all still in "standard" branding

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Other sub-brands that Stagecoach use is also Transwilts for the 49 and there is or was Dearne Link for services around the Dearne Valley.

 

[WatcherZero]

I think it still looks okay on new buses but on older ones it adds to the dated appearance.

 

[trentside]

In recent times I've noticed that Stagecoach East Midlands seem to have been pulling back on the number of vehicles in special liveries. The purple scheme worn by InterConnect vehicles is a lot less prevelant - though some vehicles that wore it rarely seemed to be on IC work as they'd been displaced by newer vehicles.

Recent rebranding of routes has been done on top of basic beachball livery such as Simplibus or the Bassetlaw Belles.

 

[A0wen]

Bio Unibus (University of Kent)

Unibus over in Warwick.

The Oxford-Cambridge X5 vehicles are now in an all-over blue livery.