An initial five vehicles will be followed by 18 more for the North West operator
Belle Vue Manchester unveiled an investment of £6m in new vehicles amid further expansion of its partnership with FlixBus.
Stockport-based Belle Vue has taken delivery of five new 53-seater Yutong GT12 coaches and has 18 more on order to arrive in its fleet over the next year. Managing Director Phil Hitchen attended a signing ceremony for the new vehicles at Yutong’s headquarters in Zhengzhou, China. The coaches are being supplied through UK distributor Pelican Bus & Coach.
Belle Vue began its partnership with FlixBus in February 2023 and currently operates daily express services between Manchester York, Newcastle, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester, and will add more coaches onto many of its services along with other new destinations yet to be announced.
Phil said: “We’ve had Yutong vehicles in our fleet for a number of years and have found that they perform very well. As well as being a reliable product, the GT12 models have industry-leading technology on board and are popular with our passengers. We see this model, backed by the excellent Pelican after-sales and support system, as the ideal partnership to take our fleet expansion programme forward, and we are excited to be expanding our FlixBus offering with additional frequencies and new services.
“Our trip to China for the signing ceremony and to visit the production line at Yutong’s factory was a memorable experience and we were looked after very well from start to finish.”
Managing Director of FlixBus UK Andreas Schorling added: “We have found a fantastic partnership in Belle Vue, with our network going from strength to strength together, bringing high-quality affordable transport to cities across the country. The team at Belle Vue share our passion, vision and ambition to build the largest inter-city coach network in the UK so we are delighted they have announced this investment, which will bring brand new vehicles onto additional FlixBus services.”
Pelican Bus & Coach’s North of England Sales Manager Amelia Crump said: “It’s been a huge pleasure for us to work with the highly professional team of people at both Belle Vue and FlixBus. I’m very proud that Pelican and Yutong continue to play a part in the expansion of the FlixBus network with Belle Vue.”