Stagecoach West seem to have an order in place for some E400MMC's in the Amber Long Distance Livery.

15354 - YT21 DVG - https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsbusp...9184731793
Photo By David Oakley

Doubt it Newcastle/Sunderland/South Shields or Middlesbrough have anything on order

(15 May 2021, 2:35 pm)Malarkey wrote Stagecoach West seem to have an order in place for some E400MMC's in the Amber Long Distance Livery.

15354 - YT21 DVG - https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsbusp...9184731793
Photo By David Oakley

I’m told they have ordered a number of Scania based vehicles

(15 May 2021, 7:27 pm)busmanT wrote I’m told they have ordered a number of Scania based vehicles

Will be the first of these ordered since 2017, looks as though they'll be replacing older Scania E400s on Stagecoach Gold Services

(15 May 2021, 2:35 pm)Malarkey wrote Stagecoach West seem to have an order in place for some E400MMC's in the Amber Long Distance Livery.

15354 - YT21 DVG - https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsbusp...9184731793
Photo By David Oakley

Should get some of those an allocate them to X24/X34 as they are inter-urban routes, plus would be a nice investment for things getting back to a new normal and encouraging bus travel.

(15 May 2021, 2:35 pm)Malarkey wrote Stagecoach West seem to have an order in place for some E400MMC's in the Amber Long Distance Livery.

15354 - YT21 DVG - https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsbusp...9184731793
Photo By David Oakley

There are 21 Scania E400MMC's due for Gloucester's route 10 between Tuffley & Cheltenham via Gloucester City Centre which runs every 10 minutes (M-F) with 21 x 2012 Gold branded Scania N230s.
https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/West/2021/10GL060421.pdf
https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/RouteMaps/West/200901GloucesterNetworkMap.pdf
https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.ama...orkMap.pdf

This route is not what I would call a long distance service, it is an all stops local service, unlike for example the Bluebird service 10 from Aberdeen to Inverness & South West's "Gold" service from Torquay to Plymouth.

This is where I think Stagecoach got the yellow branding name wrong by calling it "Long Distance" as the old Gold service branding was not just for long distance routes, as the first 2 Gold routes were local services in Leamington Spa (operated with Optare Solos) and in Perth. It was a way of attempting to increase usage on routes that were not well used by having higher spec vehicles etc. Gold was expanded to include interurban and cross country routes when new vehicles were delivered.