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with City Sightseeing
City Sightseeing’s bright tour bus livery has become an increasingly familiar
feature of cities and towns at home and abroad since Ensignbus launched the brand
in earnest only four years ago. The name goes back farther, for Ensignbus chaiman
Peter Newman used it for a pair of ex-Standerwick ‘Gay Hostess’ Leyland
Atlanteans that his City Coach Lines company ran on four times daily tours of
London in 1972. Ensignbus revived the name and developed the bright red livery
and distinctive graphics in 1998 in the Spanish city of Seville, when it helped
an established sightseeing operator relaunch itself with double-deckers. It has
grown rapidly since 2000, acquiring longer established rival operator Guide Friday
in 2002, and today around 250 buses-100 of them operated directly- provide tours
from 63 locations across the world. 43 of these are in Britain and Ireland.
Traditionally, sightseeing tours have been the domain of pensioned off doubledeckers
with their roofs sliced off, but as we report elsewhere in this issue, City Sightseeing
has just taken delivery of the first of four brand new Volvo B7Ls with Spanish
built Ayats open top bodies for four UK locations. Franchisee Lothian Buses bought
four open top low floor Dennis Tridents in 2000 and 14 longer Ayats bodied B7Ls
have gone to four Italian locations. The new buses are the most obvious sign of
the steady modernisiation of the UK fleet. The acquisition of Guide Friday and
its elderly Leyland Atlanteans took the average age up between 28 and 29 years,
but City Sightseeing's Steve Newman says it will be between 15 and 16 years this
summer. H and J-registered Scania N113DRBs and ex London General/London Central
AV and NV-class Volvo Olympians are accelerating the process. Steve Newman also
has no doubt that double deck sightseeing buses should be red. They are what tourists
expect to see. The bold livery and customized graphics have displaced the once
familiar green and cream Guide Friday livery from most locations, although the
name survives in places where it is still recognised and green buses operate alongside
Lothian’s City Sightseeing and other tour brands. Guide Friday Atlanteans
were on the streets of Bath and Glasgow last summer when competition with other
operators was at its most brisk.
Now, City Sightseeing is offering Buses readers and exclusive offer of
two tickets for the price of one on any of its British or Irish tours. All you
need to do is collect the tokens published in this and the next two issues of
Buses. An application form - with details of where to send the coupons
- will appear along with the third coupon in September Buses.