Stagecoach to invest £60m in building new buses

Stagecoach says it has invested £370m in new buses over the past five years

The transport company Stagecoach has said it will spend £60m building almost 400 new buses in the UK to comply with European emission standards.

Almost all of the new vehicles will be built by Alexander Dennis and its Plaxton coach building subsidiary, whose facilities are in Falkirk, Guildford and Scarborough.

The new fleet will produce 30% fewer carbon emissions than standard buses.

Stagecoach said it had invested £370m in new buses over the past five years.

"This latest multi-million pound investment is part of our commitment to give local communities high quality, good value bus travel," said the company's UK managing director of buses, Les Warneford.

Stagecoach's network carries around 2.5 million passengers on its 8,000 buses every day.

Its major bus operations are in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge and it also runs a number of rail franchises.