18 more Yutong coaches to join Belle Vue FlixBus fleet
Having already had five Yutong GT12s, supplied by Pelican Bus & Coach, Belle Vue Manchester has ordered 18 more for its burgeoning FlixBus operation.
Stockport-based Belle Vue has taken delivery of five new 53-seat Yutong GT12 coaches and has 18 more on order to arrive in its fleet over the next year. Phil Hitchen, managing director of Belle Vue, attended a VIP signing ceremony for the new vehicles at Yutong’s headquarters in Zhengzhou, China.
Li Kejie and Phil Hitchen at the Belle Vue and Yutong signing ceremony
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.
Belle Vue 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, Chile and India.
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.”