Stagecoach marks 10 years of the Express City Connect brand in East Scotland

Published

30th October 2017

Stagecoach East Scotland celebrated 10 years of the Express City Connect brand at the weekend, which represents all the coaches operating on express routes across Fife and to destinations such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee.

The distinctive Express City Connect branding used on the coaches was created in October 2007, to coincide with a huge investment of over £4.5m in new coaches to operate across the region at the time.

Over the last 10 years, Stagecoach have spent over £21m to upgrade the coach fleet each year, providing the latest in luxury coach travel, including features such as free wi-fi access, mobile device charging points, leather, reclining seats, air-conditioning, and certain vehicle types also have a toilet on board.

The latest investment by the local operator saw 6 brand new coaches introduced to the fleet earlier this month. With an investment of almost £2m, 4 of the coaches now operate on the X24 route linking Fife to Glasgow Airport and the other 2 vehicles are used on express routes to Edinburgh where additional capacity was required.

The company is marking the occasion by creating a calendar, featuring photos of Express City Connect coaches over the last 10 years, which will be available for sale next month. Stagecoach employees have been invited to submit photos for inclusion in the calendar and all proceeds will be donated to a local charity.

Stagecoach made numerous improvements to service frequencies and provided new journey opportunities across the East of Scotland within the last 10 years. In August 2016, service X24 was revised to provide links to Glasgow Airport providing the only direct public transport link between Fife and the airport. A new express route between Perth and Edinburgh was created in November 2015, many routes were revised to serve Halbeath P&R when the site was completed in November 2013 and a new route along the East coast between Aberdeen and Dundee was created in 2011.

Express City Connect journeys to Edinburgh now depart up to every 5 minutes during peak times from Ferrytoll P&R and journeys to Glasgow run every 15 minutes from Halbeath P&R.

The Express City Connect network has three times received the accolade of Top Express Operation at the UK Coach Awards (2015, 2016, 2017), as well as numerous commendations for the successful operation of individual routes forming the network and for marketing campaigns undertaken to promote the routes.

For the second time, the Stagecoach East Scotland marketing department have also been short-listed at the UK Bus Awards 2017 for the 'Sustained Marketing Excellence' category, having won the bronze award in 2016 and will be attending the presentation ceremony in November in the hope of picking up the gold award for 2017.

Sarah Elliott, Marketing Manager, Stagecoach East Scotland said: "So many improvements have been made to our express routes over the last 10 years, from fleet upgrades to improved service frequencies, and new technology to make customer journeys the best they can be for longer distance travel across our network.

"With each fleet upgrade we've been able to maintain a recognisable brand identity for our Express City Connect coaches, providing a comfortable and consistent journey standard for our customers."

When the Express City Connect brand was launched on 29 October 2007, Stagecoach were carrying around 72k passengers per week on express services. The company now carries almost 100k passengers per week on the Express City Connect journeys across East Scotland.

Timetables for all Express routes are available to download at www.stagecoachbus.com and customers can also use the online journey planner and live bus times to track their journey.

Stagecoach East Scotland

Stagecoach UK Bus is part of the Stagecoach Group and is one of the largest bus operators in the UK, operating express and local bus services across the country, as well as a comprehensive network of intercity operations under the megabus.com brand.

Back to news