The first electric bus to enter service left Stagecoach’s Stockton depot driven by its longest-serving driver. John Bacon is coming
up to 51 years’ service with the company and said he was delighted to be chosen to lead the new technological revolution. It is the first of a total of 64 vehicles for the operator, which will make Stockton the first Stagecoach depot in the country to have a fully electric fleet.
John drove the bus out of the depot and into service from Middlesbrough bus station, the new electric fleet being the latest change he has seen since joining what was then Cleveland Transit in April 1974. Prior to joining the company, John had worked in a toy factory on Teesside for a couple of years after leaving school, then moved on to be a mechanic, looking after the transport vehicles for the old Binns stores. He recalls that he found out that the buses were paying slightly more so gave that a try.
As with many people who came onto the buses in those days, he said that he initially thought he would only be there for a short period but was able to make a career out of it.
The new fleet is part of wider work which will see the depot be completely demolished and rebuilt, creating what Stagecoach calls
a ‘Depot of the Future’ which will include a community hub as well as being somewhere local businesses can charge their electric fleets during the day, to utilise the charging capability of the site and bring in a second stream of revenue.
Stagecoach also launched 20 electric buses in Sunderland in December, with another 18 arriving at its Slatyford depot in Newcastle later this year.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the scale, whilst in the city for the recent Young Bus Professionals conference, CBW’s Maxson Goh caught sight of one of the operator’s oldest vehicles in service in the city, in the form of Dart YN06 WCM, dating from 2006 and now wearing the previous version of the company’s colour scheme.
