Stagecoach Navy Blue Livery

[Renown 3B3RA]

Saw a Stagecoach training bus this morning in “heritage” Magic Bus livery and thought if they wanted some sort of overall blue livery that shade of blue would have been better than the funereal one they have chosen

 

[WibbleWobble]

The beach all livery was professionally designed. The dark skirt and lower rear panels minimised the impact of road dirt and the white ‘tween decks on double deckers ( or the midships section on single deckers) allowed adverts to be carried without breaking up the overall impact of the livery. It also leant itself to route branding to a greater or lesser degree - this ranged from simple details of the route concerned to the use of different base colours but in the same corporate style. It didn’t look too bad when modified for use on trains either!

The main problem with Beachball was the red.

The wrong kind of red paint can have a terrible tendency to fade quickly when exposed to UV lighting. The "local" livery removed that risk.

 

[geoffk]

One thing i did notice yesterday evening whilst getting a bus in the new Stagecoach Navy Blue livery. It was only by the orange led destination screen that i saw the bus approaching. I never used to have that problem with stripes, beachball or local livery!

Yes, they could be difficult to spot at night on an unlit road. The blue reminds me a bit of the Amazon van livery.

 

[EnviroExplorer]

The main problem with Beachball was the red.

The wrong kind of red paint can have a terrible tendency to fade quickly when exposed to UV lighting. The "local" livery removed that risk.

It’s funny you say this. I was in Newcastle recently, their 2019 intake of E400MMCs were an interesting batch where most were delivered in Beachball, some were operated in base white before local was applied. Perhaps I’ve answered my own question and there was an inconsistent paint application with it being early days of the then new livery, but those I saw in Beachball MMCs looked fare less faded than those in Local.

I suppose the problem with any nationwide livery is it’s almost impossible to get every bus applied identically, some depots do them in house, others sub-contract to various places outside Stagecoach. Even now with the Navy Blue, the minor vinyl details are being applied in all manner of different ways, particularly that frontal stripe which even on ubiquitous Enviro 400s seems to have been done in about 10 different ways at this point!

Personally I just find it a great shame that Stagecoach has got themself into such a mess visually, firmly in the should’ve kept Beachball camp, perhaps with some simplification like the later applications were to adjust for newer vehicle designs..

 

[GusB]

I suppose the problem with any nationwide livery is it’s almost impossible to get every bus applied identically, some depots do them in house, others sub-contract to various places outside Stagecoach. Even now with the Navy Blue, the minor vinyl details are being applied in all manner of different ways, particularly that frontal stripe which even on ubiquitous Enviro 400s seems to have been done in about 10 different ways at this point!

Inconsistent livery application has been an issue since the days of Stagecoach stripes. It should, in theory at least, be possible to have the livery applied consistently if there's an official specification that every depot or outsourced contractor has to stick to (I've no idea if there is or not); however, if it's not enforced, what's the point?

Personally I just find it a great shame that Stagecoach has got themself into such a mess visually, firmly in the should’ve kept Beachball camp, perhaps with some simplification like the later applications were to adjust for newer vehicle designs..

Beachball, like its predecessor, was on the go for 20 years or thereabouts and was due for an update. If it was up to me, I'd have kept the blue, red and orange and would just have applied them in a different way.

I don't mind the dark blue base on the new livery but it badly needs a bit more colour to relieve it and the logo placement needs to be re-thought.

 

[Cheers Drive]

I don't mind the dark blue base on the new livery but it badly needs a bit more colour to relieve it and the logo placement needs to be re-thought.

Yes I did a few edits of the Steel Blue with the three colours they use on the front line and all it needs is this line to go down each side from front to back it makes a world of difference I even sent some samples to their head office and showed that this wouldn’t even cost much but they don’t care about liveries only saving money It’s a German company now
If you screenshot and pick colour selector you can have fun making your own versions I made some good one of local too all that needed was less white and a gold yellow line at the bottom
With this new three colours they could put the line anywhere and it really makes a massive difference

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2026 ==

Just a quick rough go but even this looks better imo

 

[DanT2014]

I personably beljeve that the shade of navy blue used is a bit too dark.

 

[38291018]

I personably beljeve that the shade of navy blue used is a bit too dark.

At first I did think it was black to be honest till second glance

 

[fgwrich]

At first I did think it was black to be honest till second glance

The first couple of incarnations with the Ink Blue almost appeared black in certain lighting conditions!

 

[DanT2014]

At first I did think it was black to be honest till second glance

I think a shade of medium blue would have been a lot better.

 

[Cheers Drive]

This is all it needs imo and I’m sure someone can do a better job than I’m doing on my tiny phone screen but it really makes it pop it wouldn’t cost them much either
Lmk what you think