Fife First

[scosutsut]

Hi all

I vaguely remember this adventure, I think it would have been around 2000/2001 but I'm not exactly sure. Solid Red painted N and P reg Scania/Wrights and P reg Dart (SLF?)/Pointers on a mirror service 19 to compete with Stagecoach Fife as it was then.

Can anyone remember more? When did it start and finish, what caused it (assuming retaliation to something!) Was it its own trading identity - I seem to remember it might have been run against First Glasgow? Where were the vehicles stabled and maintained and what happened to the staff after the operation closed?

Just was thinking of the parallels between this and Bright Bus Tours - I assume there was a lot of dead mileage involved!

 

[borage]

There are some pictures: https://flickr.com/photos/77000628@N02/sets/72157634831526054

There’s also a bit of discussion from 2017 on a thread here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/first-midland-bluebird-survival.130883/page-6#post-2913792

 

[robertclark125]

The reason Fifefirst started was due to Stagecoach launching an operation in Glasgow, with express services to various parts of the city, such as the X9 and X10 from the city centre to the Pollock centre. Firstbus also launched, at the same time, a new service, First Ayrshire, competing with the Stagecoach western route 11 between Kilmarnock and Ardrossan. First Ayrshire then introduced local services, but these were withdrawn a few months later.

Fifefirst started in summer 1997, and ended in June 2000, just a couple of weeks before the Edinburgh bus station closed. The operation was managed by Lowland omnibuses at Dalkeith, and that's where vehicles were maintained. There was also an outstation, at Touch in Dunfermline, just behind the Kwik Fit garage on Halbeath Road. Four vehicles were kept there.

In 2000, the X90 was launched by First, as was the 747. The X90 was a Dunfermline to Livingston service, although I understand that no vehicles from the Fifefirst operation were used. The 747 was Cairneyhill - Dunfermline - Edinburgh Airport. This did use vehicles outstationed at Touch, although when the closure of the operation was announced, the 747 was moved to Livingston, then withdrawn.

Issues that affected Fifefirst were, if there was a breakdown, as there were no spare vehicles at Touch, replacements had to come from Dalkeith, causing very serious delay. Also, scheduling in the peaks from Edinburgh was a major issue, and, incredibly, Fifefirst had not factored in additional running time for peak period journeys, and this led to some large gaps in services at times.

When the operation closed, the fife based staff moved to First depots in Stirling, Larbert and Linlithgow. Dalkeith staff stayed where they were. The vehicles were moved around quite a bit, although just prior to the end, Barbie liveried vehicles were being used.

 

[robertclark125]

One other thing to mention. Fifefirst never made any profit. In fact, severe losses were incurred, by Firstgroups own admission. The upshot was that the Lowland MD lost his job, as a result of the Fifefirst failure. There was also a report in the Dunfermline Press, about a gropu of passengers who had started a petition to save the service, and who had then urged people to end postcards to the MD of Lowland in protest. This led to the reply from Fife Scottish (Stagecoach fife) that they were wasting their time, as not only had the service been axed, so had he!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

IIRC, the whole schtick of FifeFirst (and Ayrshire) was to send a message to Stagecoach after their incursion into Glasgow so it was always destined to lose money. I also seem to recall that, at the time, the 19 was the most profitable service in Fife.

So definitely some parallels with BBT.

 

[scosutsut]

Great replies and links guys, thanks. My memory wasn't too far off then, that makes me feel a little better!

I guess the measure of success for long range retaliation missions is getting the other operator to withdraw from your territory, and then doing the same - and failure to achieve this allows the costs to pile up.

Glad all the staff were redeployed though, that's a plus.

 

[AlexanderPS]

First Ayrshire then introduced local services, but these were withdrawn a few months later.

What were the other local services? Only knew of the 11A.

 

[robertclark125]

There was one to Irvine and one to an asda supermarket near the 11 route