Stagecoach London's Versa Refurbishment

Stagecoach London have 14 Optare Versa buses, people that know me well know how much I dislike these buses. They were ordered back in 2008 for routes 396 and 469 for their new contracts. When Stagecoach brought back the ELBG business in 2010, these vehicles went to them.

Stagecoach saw no point in keeping two small batches of Versas in separate garages across the river, so in 2011 when route 62, another route from BK was awarded a new contract with brand new E200s, the opportunity was taken to transfer the Versas from PD to BK in exchange for the brand new Enviros. Although route 62 has a higher PVR than the 469, so it retained a partial allocation of Enviro200s.

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25312 is seen on Route 62

As these buses were brought by the ELBG, they contained ELBG interiors

This continued for a year or so, the Versas occasionally went on route 366. A twist in the tale came when in 2013, it was announced that route 396 was retained with existing buses. 

This meant that the Versas would get refurbished. But Stagecoach being a bit stingy only refurbished 5 of them These were the ones allocated to Route 396 on paper. But BK never manage to keep batches separate so there will always be intermixing. Here is a Fleetlist of the Buses getting a Refurbishment...

25310 - LX09AAE

25311 - LX09AAK

25312 - LX09AAJ

25313 - LX09AAF

25314 - LX09AAN

© EastLondoner 2014

25310 was the first of the batch to be refurbished, and here it is seen standing at Gascoigne Estate. You can see that it hasn't been given white on black blinds.....yet. 

Inside, the buses have had a complete makeover, they gained Stagecoach flooring and moquette, as well as a repainting of the handlebars. They've also cleaned out the engines so the buses sound much more healthier than they previously were. 

© EastLondoner 2014

© EastLondoner 2014

© EastLondoner 2014

As you can see from the two pics of the exterior above, The buses have retained YOB blinds. It came as a big surprise to everyone when all of a sudden...

Maybe more Versas will get WOB in the future. But overall what do you think of the refurbishment program? Did the buses look better before or after? Please let us know in the comments Section.

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