Stagecoach Scotland

[GusB]

I've noticed that there's a thread on this forum for Stagecoach East Scotland fleet updates, yet when I look for service updates on Twitter, it's Stagecoach North Scotland that I have to follow - my local operator is Bluebird.

Could someone please clarify what the current company structure is with regard to Stagecoach in Scotland? There have been quite a few changes over the years, and to be honest I've lost track!

In my younger years, there was Stagecoach (Scotland) Ltd, which initially ran the Tayside services, but later took on the Inverness Traction operation when that was in trouble. IT's operation was eventually transferred to Bluebird Northern Ltd, and Fife was largely separate. Magicbus was in Glasgow, but I recall at some point this was sold to KCB with rights to use the Magicbus name for a fixed period of time.

Western became part of the family, as did A1 (am I still on track here?!), and I believe this is what now constitutes Stagecoach West Scotland.

Since then, the ex-Highland operation is now part of the group, as is Strathtay. If I want Twitter updates, I now follow Stagecoach North Scotland.

Are the Stagecoach North/East/West Scotland identities mere divisions within the overall Stagecoach Bus operation, or are they separate legal entities? I know Bluebird Buses Ltd. is still a thing, because of the legal lettering on the side of the bus.

How do things fit together?

 

[Volvodart]

Stagecoach North Scotland comprises what was Bluebird, Highlands and Orkney. Orkney was a separate company and licence until around 3 years ago when it was merged into Highland. There are still separate operators licences and trading companies for Bluebird and Highland.

Stagecoach East Scotland comprises Fife, Strathtay and Perth under the Fife operators licence and company name. Stagecoach Scotland was the Perth operations.

Stagecoach West Scotland comprises Western and Glasgow under the Western operators licence and company name.

 

[mbonwick]

You've got North Scotland which is an amalgamation of Bluebird (Bluebird Buses Ltd) and Highland (Highland Country Ltd, plus also previously Orkney Coaches Ltd and Rapsons Coaches Ltd).

East Scotland is an amalgamation of Strathtay (aquired with the Yorkshire Traction Group in 2005) and Fife (Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd).

Finally there's Western which was (and may still be) Western Scottish Buses Ltd and Stagecoach Glasgow Ltd.

There's also a few defunct companies floating around, such as Stagecoach Scotland Ltd which was (I think) a holding company for all the Scottish operations, however the assets have now been transferred back to their respective divisional companies and which are directly owned by Stagecoach Bus Holdings Ltd.

 

[GusB]

Thanks for all your responses so far. I was aware of Highland being brought into the Stagecoach fold a few years ago (it has had quite an interesting history since being privatised) and I knew that Strathtay had also been acquired through the Yorkshire Traction purchase. I had completely forgotten about Orkney, though.

I am somewhat puzzled as to how this has been allowed to happen. When the SBG was initially sold off, no organisation was allowed to purchase more than two subsidiary companies, and they weren't supposed to be in adjacent areas. At the time Stagecoach had their had their local operations in and around Perth and small pockets in Glasgow and Inverness. They acquired their allowed quota of SBG companies (Northern and Fife), yet we now have the situation where they are in control of the operations of five former regional SBG companies: Northern, Fife, Strathtay, Highland and Western. Apart from Western, the area that they dominate is fairly vast. Throw in the Citylink/Megabus operation as well, and they have a fairly well stitched-up monopoly. I'm assuming this is why they've never made an attempt to bid for the ScotRail franchise!

There doesn't seem to be much opportunity for competition, unless the services are within the larger centres of population, or local authority tenders.