Monday 12 July 2010

New Enviros for Stagecoach


Well well well what do we have here. Some brand new '10' reg Enviros that Stagecoach have acquired. These - as you may or may not have noticed aren't your standard Enviro 400s. These are built on a Scania chassis, rather than the more common ADL chassis. The easiest way to tell them apart is the extended rear overhang on the Scania version when compared to an ADL. These have been bought to run on the 57 to Brixington and Exmouth. I must say they do look very smart, but actually don't stand out at all. Stupidly when I actually arrived from Plymouth on the X38 I walked right past 3 of them! They totally blend in and if I have trouble identifying them, I doubt the general public will notice any difference whatsoever!  But there we go. As a bus, these Scanias aren't bad at all. As you'd expect with a Scania, they have plenty of power to play with, and the gearbox was also very nice, giving a smooth ride. Well saying that the suspension wasn't anything special. The breaks were quite harsh but this may just have been the driver's driving style. Interior is just your standard Stagecoach, apart from some strange patches of light blue leather at the rear of both decks. Not sure if there's a proper reason for this, but it did seem odd. The layout again was fairly standard. The staircase felt a bit wider to me, but I had just stepped off an '04' reg Trident! Unusually my X38 was operated by a Culm Valley Connect liveried one! But back to the Enviro, its definitely a step up from the ADL, but its nothing that special. I'm sure for a longer distance route the extra power would be very welcome, much was the case when Scanias were used on the X53. Its a shame that they weren't branded to make the new buses stand out, but its not exactly a normal Stagecoach policy to route brand, so we can't blame them! 

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