Stagecoach Gold

Stagecoach Gold is a luxury bus sub-brand used by various Stagecoach bus subsidiaries in the United Kingdom.

Stagecoach in Oxfordshire Gold-branded Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC operating route 7 in Oxford
Parent	Stagecoach
Founded	November 2007
Service type	Luxury bus
Routes	49
Fleet	Alexander Dennis Enviro300 (Integral, MAN 18.240, Scania K230UB) Alexander Dennis Enviro400 (Scania N230UD) Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC (Integral) Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC (Integral, Scania N250UD)
Operator	Stagecoach East Stagecoach East Kent Stagecoach East Scotland Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire Stagecoach Midlands Stagecoach South Stagecoach South Wales Stagecoach South West Stagecoach West Stagecoach Yorkshire
Website	www.stagecoachgold.com

Stagecoach Gold (originally Goldline) was launched in 2007 and was designed to attract more middle-class passengers to choose bus travel as a method of transport as well as to reward passengers on some busy and popular routes.

Stagecoach West currently runs the most Stagecoach Gold routes, nine, as of August 2022. Stagecoach Midlands owns the largest number of Stagecoach Gold branded vehicles with 63 in its fleet as of August, 2023.

History

Interior of a Stagecoach South Alexander Dennis Enviro300 bodied MAN 18.240 in February 2009

The original Stagecoach Goldline logo, replaced in 2009 by the current branding

The Goldline brand was introduced to try to win more middle-class motorists to bus services. The brand was initially trialled in both Perth, using Alexander Dennis Enviro300 single-deck buses, and Warwick, using Optare Solo midibuses, from November 2007, both on routes which received Kickstart funding from the Department for Transport to help establish the routes. Stagecoach East Scotland invested £300,000 to demonstrate the idea to politicians.^[1][2]

Goldline routes have a luxury specification. Buses have hand-stitched leather seats, metallic paint, special flooring and free WiFi. Drivers wear a special uniform and there is a Goldline customer charter.^[1]

In February 2009 the service was expanded to Aldershot and in September 2009 to Cheltenham and Gloucester on route 94. At this stage the brand name changed from Goldline to Stagecoach Gold, as well as the introduction of a new livery with brighter swoops added, as opposed to the previous gold and blue only livery. The reason behind the name change was that Translink had the rights to the Goldline name, using it on their Ulsterbus coach services, and Stagecoach had to pay Translink a royalty.

In 2010, the Stagecoach Gold brand was extended to services run by Scottish Citylink, where Stagecoach have a 35% shareholding, where the Glasgow to Aberdeen and Glasgow to Inverness services were designated as Citylink Gold.^[3]

In 2015, all brand new Stagecoach Gold vehicles came equipped with USB charging facilities underneath every seat which enabled passengers to charge their mobile devices whilst on board. USB charging first became available on the Stagecoach in Oxfordshire S4 service which was upgraded to Stagecoach Gold in September 2015.

As of 2016, all brand new Stagecoach buses, including non-gold vehicles, come equipped with high back leather seats, USB charging facilities and many with free onboard Wi-Fi. Subsequently, this means that many of Stagecoach's new non-gold vehicles are now at the same specification as the Gold branded vehicles. As a result, some non-gold routes now have higher specification vehicles than many of the Gold routes as prior to 2015, Stagecoach Gold vehicles did not come equipped with USB charging facilities.

2016 also saw Stagecoach take delivery of the first Stagecoach Gold branded Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC and Enviro200 MMC vehicles. The liveries on the new vehicles remain the same as the previous models; however, Stagecoach have slightly modified the interior upholstery with new style leather seats that incorporate a cream-coloured headrest as well as new wood effect flooring.

Routes

Stagecoach South West Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied Scania N230UD in Totnes in July 2014

Two Stagecoach West Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied Scania N230UDs in Bicester on route S5 in April 2013

Stagecoach Midlands Gold branded Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC

As of July 2024, there are 37 Stagecoach Gold routes (including night services).

No./Name	Route start	Route end	Refs
Stagecoach South West
GOLD	Paignton	Plymouth
Stagecoach West
55	Chippenham	Swindon	[4]
63	Forest Green (Nailsworth)	Gloucester	[5]
94/94X/N94	Cheltenham	Gloucester	[6]
S3/NS3	Chipping Norton/Charlbury	Oxford	[7]
S5/NS5	Bicester	Oxford	[8][9]
S6	Swindon	Oxford	[10][11]
S7	Witney	Oxford	[12]
S9/NS9	Wantage	Oxford	[13][14][15]
Stagecoach South
1	Aldershot	Old Dean	[16]
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire
125	Preston	Bolton	[17]
471/472	Heswall	Liverpool	[18][19]
Stagecoach South East
16	Hythe	Canterbury	[20]
Stagecoach Midlands
148	Coventry	Leicester	[21]
X4	Peterborough	Northampton	[22]
X46/X47	Northampton	Raunds	[23][24]
Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire
300/301	Carlisle	Whitehaven	[25]
Stagecoach Yorkshire
50/50A	Chesterfield	Sheffield	[26]
X17	Barnsley	Wirksworth	[27]
Stagecoach South Wales
1/2/5/6/7	Cwmbran		[28]
26	Blackwood	Cardiff	[29]
132	Maerdy	Cardiff	[30]
151	Blackwood	Newport	[29]
X24	Blaenavon	Newport	[31]

Other routes

Scottish Citylink Plaxton Elite bodied Volvo B12M (right) at Inverness bus station in September 2011

No./Name	Route start	Route end	Refs
Scottish Citylink
G9	Glasgow	Aberdeen	[32]
G10	Glasgow	Inverness

Former routes

Route Number	Route	Operator	Notes
Gold	Torquay - Dartmouth	Stagecoach South West	Totnes - Dartmouth section replaced by service 92.
7	Scone - Hillend	Stagecoach East Scotland	Gold status removed.
10	Lower Tuffley (Gloucester) - Cheltenham	Stagecoach West	Rebranded as Stagecoach Long Distance service.[33][34]
13	Cambridge - Haverhill	Stagecoach East	Gold status removed.
48	Coventry to Nuneaton then either Atherstone or Leicester	Stagecoach Midlands	Service split into 48A, 48C and 48L in 2020 but retains gold status
48C	Nuneaton to Coventry via Bedworth		Merged back together as 148 between Coventry & Leicester[21]
48A	Nuneaton to Atherstone via Mancetter
48L	Nuneaton to Leicester via Hinckley, Barwell, Leicester Forest East & Hinckley Road
51	Selsey - Chichester	Stagecoach South	Gold status removed due to service rebranding.[35]
57/N57	Exeter - Exmouth	Stagecoach South West	Rebranded as Stagecoach Long Distance service.
66	Cheltenham/Stroud/Dursley - Gloucester	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed due to route changes and low passenger usage.
93	Arle Court P&R - Cheltenham Town Centre	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed, then service was withdrawn.
97/98	Cheltenham - Gloucester	Stagecoach West	Rebranded as Stagecoach Long Distance service.
120/130	Blaencwm - Caerphilly	Stagecoach South Wales	Gold status removed.
G1	Warwick - South Farm	Stagecoach Midlands	Service withdrawn.[36] Replaced by service 1.
S1/S2/NS1	Carterton/Witney - Oxford	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed due to Gold branding withdrawal.[37][38]
S4/H4	Banbury - Oxford/JR Hospital	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed due to Gold branding withdrawal and vehicle reshuffle.
S7	Carterton - Oxford/Headington	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed due to low passenger usage and route being discontinued.
S8/NS8/34	Wantage/Harwell Campus - Oxford	Stagecoach West	Gold status removed due to an operator change to Thames Travel.[39][40]
SW1	Carterton - London	Stagecoach West	Service withdrawn in May 2015 due to low passenger numbers.
Severn Express	Bristol - Newport	Stagecoach West	Service withdrawn in June 2020 due to low passenger numbers.
X4/X5	Workington - Penrith	Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire	Gold status removed due to service rebranding to Lakes Connection. [41][42][43]
X5	Cribbs Causeway - Weston-super-Mare	Stagecoach West	Service withdrawn in June 2020 due to low passenger numbers.
X14	Cribbs Causeway - Chepstow	Stagecoach West	Service withdrawn in June 2020 due to low passenger numbers.
X17	Barnsley - |Wirksworth	Stagecoach Yorkshire	Gold status removed due to the electric buses in March 2025. [citation needed]
X46	Exeter - Paignton	Stagecoach South West	Service withdrawn due to low passenger numbers.
1/X1	Liverpool - Chester	Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire	Rebranded as Stagecoach Local service. [citation needed]
5	Chester - Huntington/Wrexham	Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire	Rebranded as Stagecoach Local service. [citation needed]
9	Chester - Piper's Ash	Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire	Rebranded as Stagecoach Local service. [citation needed]
38	West Kirby - Eastham Ferry	Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire	Rebranded as Stagecoach Local service. [citation needed]

See also

• Arriva Max
• Arriva Sapphire