SKM Update for November 201426/11/2014
It's been another busy month for Steven Knight Media as we finalised both our Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire and Stagecoach North East Fleet Handbooks. We are expecially grateful to Lee Wardle at Stagecaoch Cumbria for his help in producing the Cumbria book and also to Richard Smiles who excellent eye for detail and knowledge of both fleets has been invaluable. Publication of both books was delayed to enabkle us to include as much up-to-date fleet information as posible. Sales of both books has been excellent and we are pleased that we have managed to despatch all book orders within one day of receipt over the last month. Most Trade orders have been processed within 48 hours of receipt.
We must also mention the excellent service we receive from our printer. After using several printers, local and online, we have been using N&P Print based in Stroud since April and the quality of the product and the customer servic we receive has been superb. However, even we couldn't believe how they dealt with the printing of our recent Stagecoach North East Fleet Handbook. The proof was signed off mid-morning and less than 48 hours later the printed books were delivered to use having been despatched the previous afternoon. At the end of last month we had a meeting with Kevin and Anthony at Delaine Buses and agreed on the content for our forthcoming Delaine Buses Fleet Handbook, which will be published in January 2015. We are also working on some editorial material for Coach & Bus Week magazine, and have produced our regular columns for Lincolnshire & East Yorkshire Transport Review and The Railway Magazine. Next week we will attand a special train naming at Crewe. We have also done some research work on rail fares, having saved £sss ourselves by using split icketing for recent travel. The BBC has been in touch and we have briefed them on our research findings. Work continues on our guide book covering the Stagecoach Heritage fleet, but researching some vehicles is proving challenging, however the book is now taking shape. Special thanks to all who have responded to our appeals for information and photographs. Production of our Allocation Supplements has proved challenging this month as an influx of new vehicles to a number of fleets has resulted in both internal and inter-company cascades ahead of new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requirements for single deck vehicles that come into force on January 1st 2015. On the admin front the last few days have been challenging as we have suffered with intermittent email access as a result of a cut under sea cable used by Yahoo. We beleive all emails havce been received and replies sent, but if you were expecting an email from us and have not received it let us know. On a personal front, Steven Knight was accepted as a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations earlier this month and will find out in December whether an application to become a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport has been accepted. Finally, following trials with alternative packaging earlier this year we are now using car envelopes for all book orders. Despite their additional weight the actual weight of packages despatched remains within the former Royal Mail weight bands. Bus and Coach industry on show6/11/2014 
The bus and coach industry took to the stage in early November when the two-yearly Bus and Coach Expo Show was held at the NEC in Birmingham. The show allows bus and coach builders as well as suppliers and support companies to engage with the industry and early indications are that this year's show has been a great success.
As expected the main vehicle builders were keen to showcase their products with many bus and coach designs having has a makeover. ADL had a re-designed Enviro 400 on its stand along with a new-look Enviro 200. Here the front of the vehicle has had a radical makeover, with a asymetrical design, which whilst pleasing is likely to provide a challenge to operators whose use the front of vehicles for detailed liveries and branding. Steven Knight Media understands that it was a profitable show for a number of exhibitors with several contracts being placed during the three day show. We hope you enjoy our pick of the exhibits. 
Ready for (Peterborough Citi) service1/11/2014
Stagecoach East will put 26 ADL E20D/Enviro 200 saloons into service tomorrow. Representing investment of well over £2 million six of the buses will be used from Cambridge on the Uni 4 service, whilst the remaining 20 will be used to upgrade the Peterborough Citi network. They will replace a similar number of TransBus Dart SLF which were delivered to launch the Peterborough Citi network ten years ago.
The vehicles had final preparations for service yesterday and will be moved from storage to Lincoln Road depot in Peterborough tomorrow, where they will receive the ticket machines removed from the vehicles they are due to replace. Steven Knight Media was given access to the secure storage area yesterday and is pleased to present a selection of images of the new vehicles. 
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