Stagecoach East Scotland

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Stagecoach East Scotland
logo
image
Parent Stagecoach Group plc
Founded 1986
Headquarters Kirkcaldy, Fife
Service area East Scotland
Service type Bus
Hubs Aberdeen, Elgin, Macduff, Perth, Peterhead, Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Dundee, Forfar and Montrose.
Fleet Optare Solo
Volvo B10M
Alexander Dennis Trident
Alexander Dennis Pointer
Volvo Olympian
Leyland Olympian
Plaxton Elite
Operator Stagecoach Group
Website Official Website

Stagecoach East Scotland is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, with its regional base in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland and including the legal companies Bluebird Buses Ltd, Fife Scottish Buses Ltd,Stagecoach (Scotland) Ltd, Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd, JW Coaches Ltd and Rennie's of Dunfermline Ltd.

Contents

[edit] Operation

Stagecoach East Scotland operates under six different brands:

  • Stagecoach in Perth, a trading name of Stagecoach (Scotland) Ltd, is used for services in and around Perth.
  • Stagecoach Bluebird is used for services in the north east of Scotland covering Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus, Dundee and Aberdeen city services. It is a trading name of Bluebird Buses Ltd.
  • Stagecoach in Fife is used for services throughout the kingdom of Fife and beyond to Dundee and Edinburgh, and is a trading name of Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd, though vehicles on the airdirect747 service operate for AA Buses Ltd. It also operated the experimental Forth Fast hovercraft service from Kirkcaldy to Portobello in July 2007.
  • Stagecoach Strathtay is the brand used for services within the city of Dundee and throughout Angus, with some services reaching Perth and into Aberdeenshire. It is a trading name of Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd.
  • JW Coaches is a brand retained for the small JW Coaches Ltd operation based in Banchory and used mainly for school, contract and private hire work, though a tendered services local to the town are operated under this name. Vehicles are painted all-over white with JW Coaches fleetnames.
  • Rennie's is the school bus operation based at Dunfermline (Wellwood Mill) and is a trading name of Rennie's of Dunfermline Ltd, which is now a Stagecoach Group company.

The company also provides vehicles for Megabus and Scottish Citylink long distance express work within Scotland, and beyond to Manchester and London.

[edit] Depots

Various rural outstations also exist throughout the 'East Scotland' operating area, mainly due to the rural nature of many of the company's services. Some of these outstations may be proper depots but are classed as outstations. Note that Kirkcaldy depot is still owned but non-operational.

[edit] Routes

[edit] Stagecoach Bluebird

No. From To Most Common Frequency Notes
1A,1E,1S Peterhead Chapel Street Peterhead Waterside/Meethill Every 30 Minutes
2 Peterhead Chapel Street Aalesund Road Every 30 Minutes
4 Peterhead Chapel Street Peterhead Cairntrodlie Hourly
5 Airyhall Balnagask Hourly Evenings only except Sunday.
X6,7,7A,7B,N7,8 Aberdeen Portlethen / Newtonhill / Stonehaven Every 15 Minutes
X7 Aberdeen Dundee Hourly Limited Stop
8,9 Laurencekirk Montrose Hourly
9U ARI Guild Street Every 30 Minutes Monday to Saturday daytime.
10,10A,10B,X10 Aberdeen Inverness Hourly
Jet 11,N11 Elgin Inverness Airport & City Every 30 Minutes
X17,N17 Aberdeen Elrick Every 10 Minutes
31,31A,31B Elgin Forres Hourly
32 Burghead Bishopmill Every 30 Minutes
33A/33C Pinefield Lossiemouth Every 20 Minutes
34 Kingston Bishopmill Every 2 hours
35,35A Aberdeen Inverness Every 30 Minutes
35B Elgin Buckie Hourly
36 Elgin Dufftown Hourly
37,37A,N37 Aberdeen Inverurie Every 15 Minutes
59 Northfield Balnagask Every 10 Minutes
60,61,63,N60,X60 Aberdeen Peterhead Every 30 Minutes
62 Aberdeen Ellon Hourly
66 Stuartfield Peterhead Hourly
67,68 X67,X68 Aberdeen Fraserburgh Every 30 Minutes
69 Fraserburgh Peterhead Hourly
80 Jet Connect Dyce Railway Station Aberdeen Airport Every 30 Minutes
104 Stonehaven Auchenblae Various Times School Service
105 Stonehaven Banchory Various Times
107 Stonehaven Montrose Various Times
108 Stonehaven Interchange Stonehaven Interchange Hourly Circular Service
110 Portlethen Portlethen Various Times Circular Service
200,210 Ballater / Banchory via Elrick Aberdeen Various Times
201,202,203 Braemar / Ballater / Banchory Aberdeen Every 20 Minutes
204 Strachan Aberdeen Various Times
205 Banchory Bellfield Car Park Banchory Bellfield Car Park Every 45 Minutes Circular Service
218 Aberdeen Alford via Westhill Various Times
219,220,X20,420 Aberdeen Alford via Kemnay Hourly
221 Inverurie Kemnay Various Times
231 Alford Huntly Various Times
252 Mintlaw Fraserburgh Various Times
253 Turriff Fraserburgh Various Times
257 Turriff Interchange Turriff Interchange Various Times Circular Service
258 Turriff New Byth Various Times Circular Service
270 Fraserburgh New Pitsligo Various Times
271,272,273 Fraserburgh Banff Various Times
274 New Aberdour Fraserburgh Hourly
275 Fraserburgh St Combs Hourly
276,277 Fraserburgh Broad Street Fraserburgh Broad Street Every 30 Minutes Circular Service
279 Fraserburgh Bus Station Fraserburgh Bus Station Hourly Circular Service
290,291 Aberdeen Tarves / Methlick Hourly
292,293 Methlick Ellon / Fyvie Various Times
301 Macduff Huntly Various Times
302 Elgin Macduff Various Times
306 Huntly Inverurie Various Times
405 Banff Cullen Various Times
416 Rhynie Inverurie Various Times
421 Alford Inverurie Various Times
Jet 727 Aberdeen Aberdeen Airport Every 20 Minutes

[edit] History

Stagecoach began long distance express coach services in 1981 from its base in Perth, expanding into local bus operation when it bought McLennan Of Spittalfield in 1985. Deregulation of the British bus industry in 1986 gave Stagecoach the opportunity to expand in its home town, thus fierce competition with the dominant operator Strathtay Scottish began, which eventually saw Stagecoach's then Perth Panther subsidiary emerge as the largest provider of bus services in the Perth area.

While competing with Strathtay in Perth, Stagecoach purchased Inverness Traction from its receivers for £60,000 in November 1989. Inverness Traction, which had failed twice in its competition with Highland Scottish in Inverness, would soon emerge as the dominant operator in the area after a period of competition that resulted in Highland selling some 30 vehicles to Stagecoach together with its Tain depot, and the remainder of its Inverness and Easter Ross operations.

On the breakup and privatisation of the Scottish Bus Group, Stagecoach was successful in acquiring two of the subsidiaries, namely Northern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd (in March 1991) and Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd (in July 1991). Northern Scottish was quickly renamed Bluebird Buses Ltd. Both companies' operations remain largely unchanged from the time they joined the Stagecoach Group.

The Bluebird Buses division were amongst the winners at the 1996 Bus Industry Awards under Neil Renilson's leadership.[1]

JW Coaches Ltd of Banchory and Allisons Coaches of Dunfermline were both purchased in April 2000. Both companies concentrated mainly on private hire and schools contracts, with some local tendered services also operated, making them rather surprise additions to the Stagecoach Group. While vehicles and services operated by Allisons Coaches were transferred to the Fife Scottish operating licence, JW Coaches continues to operate as a stand alone unit within Stagecoach East Scotland, operating approximately 15 vehicles from its depot in Banchory. These vehicles have been transformed from the original white body with JW logo to stagecoach colours.

In August 2003 the UK's first entirely commercial demand responsive bus service was launched by Stagecoach East Scotland in Fife. Trading as Yellow Taxibus and using the AA Buses Ltd legal name (transferred from Stagecoach West Scotland where it was purchased with the AA Buses operation in Ayrshire) the operation combined the benefits of a fixed bus route with the flexibility of pre-booked taxi pick-ups. Yellow Taxibus operated a fleet of eight-seater spacious, upmarket Mercedes Vito vehicles on a high-frequency service between Dunfermline and Edinburgh seven days a week; however after a two-year trial the loss making service was withdrawn in November 2005. However, buses on the airdirect747 service linking Fife to Edinburgh Airport, introduced in February 2006, are operated under the AA Buses Ltd legal name and operating licence, despite the corporate Stagecoach in Fife appearance of the vehicles.

During 2005, competition broke out between Stagecoach and local operator Scotbus on the Black Isle to Inverness route. Stagecoach introduced the low-fares Magic Mini brand (a variation of Magic Bus) on the route, scheduling services to operate minutes before the rival operator and undercutting fares. Competition was acrimonious, with drivers allegedly making rude gestures to one another and being accused of aggressive driving styles. Scotbus complained twice to the Office of Fair Trading over Stagecoach's tactics on the route, though no action was taken. Scotbus eventually withdrew from the route, and the Magic Mini brand was soon dropped by Stagecoach. However, the poor relations between the two companies resulted in an arson attack on Stagecoach's Inverness depot by a Scotbus employee. [1]

Also during Autumn 2005, Stagecoach Bluebird and Inverness became a separate business unit, no longer a part of Stagecoach East Scotland.

On 14 December 2005 Stagecoach purchased the largest remaining private bus company, Barnsley-based Traction Group, for £26m. Traction Group owned Strathtay Scottish, which Stagecoach had pushed out of Perth some 16 years earlier. The Strathtay operations bridged the gap between Stagecoach's Fife, Perth and Bluebird operations, giving the group a vast swathe of the country extending from Edinburgh through to Perth, northwards to Aberdeen and round to Inverness, with only Travel Dundee and First Aberdeen being the major non-Stagecoach operators within that area. Unusually, despite the Strathtay fleet receiving the corporate livery, they are being branded as strathtay with Part of the Stagecoach Group straplines, rather than Stagecoach Strathtay or Stagecoach in Dundee/Angus, which is a break from current corporate practice.

The Goldline logo.

In 2007, Stagecoach in Perth started one of two Goldline services as a trial for Stagecoach Group. Along with the service run by Stagecoach Warwickshire, they offer newer vehicles to a higher standard, and are in a special gold and blue livery. The Perth Goldline service is run with new style Alexander Dennis Enviro300s.

In addition to bus operation, Stagecoach East Scotland also operate Fife Ferrytoll, a park and ride facility, in partnership with Fife Council, and Scone Park + Ride, in partnership with Perth & Kinross Council.

Bluebird Buses holds the Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II for services provided to the Royal Household at Balmoral.

[edit] References

  1. ^ UK Bus Awards - Bus Industry Awards 1996

[edit] External links
National
Regional
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