Belle Vue Manchester has unveiled our investment of £6m in new vehicles amid further expansion of our partnership with the fast-growing FlixBus network.
We have taken delivery of five new 53-seater Yutong GT12 coaches and has 18 more on order to arrive in our fleet over the next year.
Our Managing Director Phil Hitchen, attended a signing ceremony for the new vehicles at Yutong’s headquarters in Zhengzhou, China. The coaches are being supplied through UK distributor Pelican Bus + Coach.
Belle Vue began its partnership with global tech travel company FlixBus in February 2023 and currently operates daily express services between Manchester and a number of cities across the north and the Midlands, such as Leeds, Bradford, York, Newcastle, Stoke, Sheffield, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester.
We will soon add frequencies to and from Newcastle, York, Leicester and Birmingham and will launch daily services between Manchester and Bristol, with other new destinations set to be announced in the coming months.
The new Yutong coaches are painted in the FlixBus livery and feature a Bosch entertainment system, USB charging points, power sockets, free Wi-Fi, mood lighting and live coach tracking updates sent directly to passengers’ digital devices. FlixBus launched its eye-catching green coach service in the UK market in 2021 and now serves over 60 destinations nationwide, as well as regular coaches into continental Europe. The FlixBus network is the largest in Europe and now operates in 43 countries worldwide, including the USA, Canada, Brazil and Chile.
Phil said: “We’ve had Yutong vehicles in our fleet for a number of years and have found that they perform very well. As well as being a reliable product, the GT12 models have industry-leading technology on board and are popular with our passengers. “We see this model, backed by the excellent Pelican after-sales and support system, as the ideal partnership to take our fleet expansion programme forward, and we are excited to be expanding our FlixBus offering with additional frequencies and new services.”
He added: “Our trip to China for the signing ceremony was a memorable experience and we were looked after very well from start to finish.”
Andreas Schorling, managing director of FlixBus UK, said: “We have found a fantastic partnership in Belle Vue, with our network going from strength to strength together, bringing high-quality. affordable transport to cities across the country.
“The team at Belle Vue share our passion, vision and ambition to build the largest inter-city coach network in the UK so we are delighted they have announced this investment, which will bring brand new vehicles on to additional FlixBus services.”
Pelican North of England Sales Manager Amelia Crump said: “It has been a huge pleasure for us to work with the highly professional team of people at both Belle Vue and FlixBus. I am very proud that Pelican and Yutong continue to play a part of the expansion of the FlixBus network.”
At Belle Vue we carry 2.5 million passengers annually across the UK and Europe. We provide branded transport to a wide customer base, serving the education and corporate sectors, private hire and touring groups, and our express inter-city services with FlixBus.