Flood-hit bus firm unveils fleet

A bus firm has spent more than £4m on a new fleet after losing more than 80 vehicles in the Carlisle floods.

For the last six months Stagecoach has had to borrow buses from all over the country to keep its service running.

Its Willowholme bus depot in the city was one of the first places to be flooded in January and 85 vehicles were damaged beyond repair.

On Thursday, the company unveiled its new fleet of 39 vehicles which have special new, low easy access floors.

'Evacuation plan'

Nigel Barratt, Stagecoach regional managing director, said: "It was a terrible loss all in one go, but we are now up to full capacity with new state-of-art, disabled access buses on the six routes in the city.

"As well as the new fleet, to get the service back up and running with 85 vehicles we have brought in other buses from other depots in the country.

"We obviously do not want to relocate from our Carlisle depot, so we have spoken to the Environment Agency to make sure that we get early warning of anymore floods and we have an evacuation plan in place."

EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor, whose father was a bus conductor, was invited on Thursday to cut the ribbon during the official unveiling of the fleet.