Designed by Ray Stenning of Best Impressions, the ‘Beach ball’ branding as it is commonly known in the industry has been gracing thousands of Stagecoach UK Bus vehicles since 2000, when it replaced the original striped livery.
Back in February 2017, there were hints that Stagecoach was considering a new livery and cutting down on the number of variations it currently used, but nothing seemed to result from this in terms of livery. However it was made policy that any repainted vehicles would only carry Stagecoach branding rather than local straplines such as ‘Stagecoach in Warwickshire’, thus making it easier to transfer vehicles between fleets and so on.
It would now seem that alternative liveries are once again being considered. At the end of last month, images of Alexander ALX300-bodied MAN 18.240 22447 appeared on a social media enthusiast site in two experimental liveries. One half of the vehicle was painted in a light green livery and the other half in a red livery. Both liveries included part of the enlarged Stagecoach logo.
Plaxton Panther-bodied Volvo B12BT 54051 has also been painted in a dark purple livery, again featuring the enlarged Stagecoach logo. This vehicle also carried an updated Stagecoach logo and used a different font for the fleet name, which included the strapline Connect under it.
Steven Stewart, Director of Communications at Stagecoach told CBW: “We have previously confirmed that we are looking into our brand as part of a wider project to ensure our bus business is fit for the future. However, we have nothing further to share at this stage and we don’t ever comment on speculation about our company.”
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