Ever
since Britain’s buses were deregulated in 1986, we have seen bus operating
companies providing services which contain audio-visual announcements, free
Wi-Fi internet, charging points for people to charge their electrical devices,
CCTV, leather seats and frequent services.
Emphatically,
the private operating companies wanted to provide first class luxury services
in order to gain more customers to their services.
I'll
list the operators which do provide that type of service.
Stagecoach Gold
You
can visit their website here and their Customer Service Charter. Also Stagecoach have
written about their campaign on their website.
The
bus types they use are the Alexander Dennis Enviro300, Alexander Dennis
Enviro400, Optare Solo, MAN 18.240 and Scania N230UD.
The list of operators
for Stagecoach Gold are:
·
Stagecoach
Chesterfield
·
Stagecoach East
·
Stagecoach East Kent
·
Stagecoach East
Scotland
·
Stagecoach Cumbria
& North Lancashire
·
Stagecoach Midlands
·
Stagecoach Oxfordshire
·
Stagecoach South
·
Stagecoach South West
·
Stagecoach West
·
Stagecoach Merseyside
and South Lancashire
Taken from their
website, the areas they serve are:
·
Aldershot, Farnborough
and Camberley
·
Bicester, Gosford,
Oxford
·
Canterbury, Folkestone
& Hythe
·
Carterton, Witney,
Eynsham, Oxford
·
Cheltenham &
Gloucester
·
Haverhill, Linton and
Cambridge
·
Leamington &
Warwick
·
Lower Tuffley to
Cheltenham
·
Milton Keynes,
Northampton, Peterborough
·
Perth
·
Sheffield -
Chesterfield - Matlock
·
Swindon to Oxford
·
Selsey to Chichester
·
Raunds -
Wellingborough - Northampton
·
Torquay - Paignton -
Totnes - Plymouth or Totnes - Dartmouth
·
Whitehaven to Carlisle
The
number of routes they operate are 21.
Information
about Stagecoach Gold can be found on Wikipedia.
Arriva Sapphire & Max
They
first launched in April 2013 starting off with 4 luxury services around
Britain. Their service provides Wi-Fi, audio-visual announcements, comfortable
leather seating, CCTV and charging points which enable users to charge devices
such as a smartphone. They also provide frequent buses every 10 minutes and
their customer charter provides refunds for those who are unsatisfied with the
service.
You
can visit their website here and view their customer charter.
Some
of Arriva Sapphire’s bus fleet use existing buses which have been refurbished
and operate on the route with a mix of new buses.
Their bus current bus
types are:
·
Wright Pulsar bodied
VDL SB200
·
Alexander Dennis
Enviro400
·
Wright StreetLite
The operators for
Arriva Sapphire are:
·
Arriva Buses Wales
·
Arriva North East
·
Arriva Shires &
Essex
·
Arriva Southern
Counties
·
Arriva Yorkshire
Taken from their
website, the areas they serve are:
·
Ashington to Newcastle
·
Durham to Sunderland
·
Durham to Hartlepool
·
Darlington to Durham
·
Easington to
Middlesbrough
·
Whitby, Loftus and
Lingdale to Middlesbrough
·
Hall Green to Leeds
·
Chorley to Wigan
·
Wigan to Bolton
·
Crewe to Macclesfield
·
Wrexham to Chester
·
Chester to Connahs
Quay
·
Rhyl to Llandudno
·
Huntington and Holder
Drive to Walsall
·
Tamworth to Birmingham
·
Stenson Fields to
Derby
·
Oadby to Leicester
·
Aylesbury to Oxford
·
Hemel Hempstead to
Rickmansworth
·
Watford to Luton
·
Dartford to Valley
Drive
·
Gillingham to
Maidstone
The
number of routes they operate are 16.
You
can see more information on their Wikipedia page.
Arriva
also have another luxury service which is Arriva
Max.
According
to their article, they operate a luxury express service
with the same features that Arriva Sapphire provides. They operate 15 express
services in various areas of England which are the North East, Yorkshire and
the South East. Arriva Max were founded in September 2014 in order to attract
more passengers to their service.
The
bus types they operate are the Mercedes-Benz Citaro and VDL DB300/Wright Gemini
2.
The operators for
Arriva Max are:
·
Arriva Buses Wales
·
Arriva North East
·
Arriva Shires &
Essex
·
Arriva Yorkshire
You
can view more information from the Wikipedia article.
National Express West Midlands
Platinum
National
Express West Midlands has recently introduced their new luxury service which is
the NX Platinum. This new service provides Wi-Fi, extra leg room with
comfortable seats, up to date CCTV system, audio-visual announcements and
‘greener’ buses. You can view their customer charter here.
You
can view their page on the NX buses website.
National
Express West Midlands are investing £34million on 171 new vehicles in 2015, 18
of which are Platinum-branded Euro 6 Enviro400s.
The
NX Platinum service has 5 routes and serves various parts of the West Midlands
which are Coventry, Birmingham, Birmingham International Airport and Walsall.
National
Express have roots to their former nationalised National Bus Company which
served the whole of England except for London.
Bus
and Coach magazine have written an article about their launch.
First Platinum
First
Group have their own premium service which is located at their Aberdeen branch
in Scotland. First Aberdeen have invested £250k to refurbish their route 19 buses
giving them more luxury seating, Wi-Fi and a television screen which features
BBC News broadcasts and audio-visual announcements.
You
can view their webpage here.
The
double deck bus type they use is the Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini.
The
routes which First Platinum serve are route 12 (Heathryfold, Royal Cornhill
Hospital, Aberdeen City Centre and Torry) and Route 19 (Culter, Peterculter,
Cults, Aberdeen City Centre, and Tillydrone.)
First
Group are consulting to expand their Platinum services to the Greater Manchester area.
Compare it to London Buses
As
the bus operating companies have their own premium services it means they have
to monitor those services closely in order to gain a good service and
reputation. But with London Buses, Transport for London closely monitors their
routes which are operated by private companies under competitive tender.
Since
London Buses operators are tightly
regulated, their fleet should have an iBus which has audio-visual
announcements, also tells the time on the display and on newer fleets a
't-loop' audio induction loop system; also provides data for their live
countdown system in which enthusiasts innovated the data to make London Vehicle Finder, a website which
shows live feeds of buses in London.
Last
year London Buses trialled the Wi-Fi service on a fleet of two buses which
operated on route 12 and RV1.
The
seating is still standard, but with the New Routemaster bus they have old style
bench seating with a moquette based from the classic AEC Routemaster bus.
A
large fraction of the fleet are hybrid electric buses which help to cut carbon
emissions. I think bus operators should invest more for greener buses, but the
investment is usually supported by the government and the council under the
‘Green Bus Fund’.
London
Buses have no cash fare so passengers need to use an Oyster card and the new
way to pay is with the Contactless Bank Card provided by the bank. Each day
around 250,000 journeys are paid by Contactless bank cards on London Buses. One
in ten contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL's services, which
makes TfL one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide. I think bus
operating companies around Britain should adopt Contactless bank transactions
which reduce boarding times and speeds up the journeys.
Meanwhile,
bus operators around Britain use 'e-ticketing'
which means you purchase a ticket from their smartphone app and show it to the
driver. Bus operator Arriva demonstrates it on their video.
I
am also aware that Green Line Coaches have similar premium features
on their fleet of double deck buses. If I've missed any out then please let me
know in the comments section.
As
a bonus, why not watch the video of the new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC on
London Buses route 498 operated by Stagecoach East London.
Don’t
forget to follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image Attriubtions
"Stagecoach 15932 YN63BXA (14652049679)" by Graham Richardson from Plymouth, England - Stagecoach 15932 YN63BXA. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stagecoach_15932_YN63BXA_(14652049679).jpg#/media/File:Stagecoach_15932_YN63BXA_(14652049679).jpg
"ARRIVA Cymru (ARRIVA Buses Wales), fleetnumber 4405 J500 ABW" by Cleggosw - Taken on my Sony DSLR A200K at Chester Business Park. Edited in Adobe Photoshop CS3.Previously published: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35721472@N08/8699038155/. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ARRIVA_Cymru_(ARRIVA_Buses_Wales),_fleetnumber_4405_J500_ABW.jpg#/media/File:ARRIVA_Cymru_(ARRIVA_Buses_Wales),_fleetnumber_4405_J500_ABW.jpg
"NXWM Platinum bus - no 900 to Coventry - Moor Street Queensway, Birmingham - 6703 - Anna (18119898648)" by Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom - NXWM Platinum bus - no 900 to Coventry - Moor Street Queensway, Birmingham - 6703 - Anna. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NXWM_Platinum_bus_-_no_900_to_Coventry_-_Moor_Street_Queensway,_Birmingham_-_6703_-_Anna_(18119898648).jpg#/media/File:NXWM_Platinum_bus_-_no_900_to_Coventry_-_Moor_Street_Queensway,_Birmingham_-_6703_-_Anna_(18119898648).jpg
"Stagecoach London LT241 on Route 15, Blackwall (16200306373)" by Aubrey Morandarte from Guildford or Coventry, England - Stagecoach London LT241 on Route 15, Blackwall. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stagecoach_London_LT241_on_Route_15,_Blackwall_(16200306373).jpg#/media/File:Stagecoach_London_LT241_on_Route_15,_Blackwall_(16200306373).jpg
"NXWM Platinum bus - no 900 to Coventry - Moor Street Queensway, Birmingham - 6703 - Anna (18119898648)" by Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom - NXWM Platinum bus - no 900 to Coventry - Moor Street Queensway, Birmingham - 6703 - Anna. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NXWM_Platinum_bus_-_no_900_to_Coventry_-_Moor_Street_Queensway,_Birmingham_-_6703_-_Anna_(18119898648).jpg#/media/File:NXWM_Platinum_bus_-_no_900_to_Coventry_-_Moor_Street_Queensway,_Birmingham_-_6703_-_Anna_(18119898648).jpg
"Stagecoach London LT241 on Route 15, Blackwall (16200306373)" by Aubrey Morandarte from Guildford or Coventry, England - Stagecoach London LT241 on Route 15, Blackwall. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stagecoach_London_LT241_on_Route_15,_Blackwall_(16200306373).jpg#/media/File:Stagecoach_London_LT241_on_Route_15,_Blackwall_(16200306373).jpg