• Stagecoach East Scotland are in the running for awards at two industry events
• Nominated in the Public Transport Operator of the Year category
• Express City Connect services shortlisted for Top Express Operation

Stagecoach East Scotland are finalists in eleven categories across two top industry events, with six nominations announced for the Scottish Transport Awards and a further five for the UK Coach Awards.

The company’s operations across Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perthshire have been shortlisted for the prestigious Public Transport Operator of the Year award at the Scottish Transport Awards for the third year running. The services forming the Express City Connect network have also been shortlisted for the Top Express Coach Operator category at the UK Coach Awards for the fifth year running.

Along with Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL), Stagecoach has been shortlisted in the Most Innovative Transport Project of the Year category at the Scottish Transport Awards for their new low-entry coaches, used on the Express City Connect network. The vehicles are also finalists in the Excellence in Transport Accessibility category as well as being in the running for two awards at the UK Coach Awards in “Making Coaches a Better Choice” and “Innovation” categories.

Stagecoach is nominated for the Excellence in Travel Information and Marketing category of the Scottish Transport Awards and also bagged a place on the shortlist for the UK Coach Awards’ Marketing Excellence award. Both nominations are for the on-going work of the marketing team in promoting the Express City Connect network. They also scored a second nomination in the Excellence in Travel Information and Marketing category as part of the Scotland-wide student ticket campaign, jointly nominated with the Stagecoach North and West Scotland operating companies.

Popular express service X55 is also nominated at the Scottish Transport Awards in the Best Bus Service category, recognising the improvements made to the route in the last year.

Coach driver Scott Seath, a driver at Rennies Coaches, part of Stagecoach East Scotland, is also in the running for a trophy within the Top UK Coach Driver category at the UK Coach Awards.

Douglas Robertson, Managing Director, Stagecoach East Scotland said: “To be

shortlisted for Operator of the Year Award again just goes to show that the team here is consistently providing the best possible service to our customers, year after year.

“The introduction of new low access coaches has driven customer demand by over 11%, with the routes served by the new coaches, such as the X55, showing increases of up to 28%. This investment has greatly improved the customer experience on our express network, coupled with our driver training and continued service development and we’re delighted that these nominations recognise our service improvements.”

Stagecoach East Scotland operate local bus and coach services across Fife, Perthshire, Dundee and Angus and into Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Aberdeen. The company employs over 1300 employees from 9 depots across the region and carries around 32 million passengers per year using over 469 buses and coaches.

In a recent bus passenger survey by Transport Focus, Stagecoach East Scotland achieved the highest satisfaction score of any operator in the UK at 97%.

Stagecoach nationally is in the running for 9 awards overall at the 2019 UK Coach Awards and 9 awards at the Scottish Transport Awards. Winners are due to be announced at ceremonies later in the year.

For the full Scottish Transport Awards short-list visit https://www.transporttimes.co.uk/Admin/uploads/stas-shortlist-2019.pdf and for the full UK Coach Awards short-list visit http://www.ukcoachawards.co.uk/content/index.php/summary-list.