This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2017) |
Parent | Stagecoach Group |
---|---|
Founded | 2008 |
Headquarters | Dunfermline, Scotland, UK |
Service area | Fife Tayside Perthshire Angus Aberdeen Edinburgh Glasgow Stirling |
Service type | Bus and coach |
Depots | 8 |
Fleet | 468 (April 2019) [1] |
Annual ridership | 32.5 million |
Managing Director | Douglas Robertson |
Website | Official website |
Stagecoach East Scotland is a bus operator providing services in eastern Scotland, with its regional base in Dunfermline, Fife. The company is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Stagecoach began long distance express coach services in 1981 from its base in Perth, expanding into local bus operations when it bought McLennan of Spittalfield in 1985. Deregulation of bus services under the Transport Act 1985 in October 1986 gave Stagecoach the opportunity to expand operations in Perth, 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. [2] On the breakup and privatisation of the state-owned Scottish Bus Group, Stagecoach was successful in acquiring two of the subsidiaries, namely Northern Scottish in March 1991 and Fife Scottish in July 1991, [3] [4] the latter of which would form the basis of Stagecoach East Scotland's operations following a protracted legal battle between Stagecoach and a management buyout team. [5] [6]
In August 2003, the United Kingdom'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 Mercedes-Benz Vito vehicles on a high-frequency service between Dunfermline and Edinburgh seven days a week; [7] however after a two-year trial, the loss-making service was withdrawn in November 2005. [8]
On 14 December 2005 Stagecoach purchased the Barnsley-based Traction Group, the largest remaining private bus company in the United Kingdom, for £26 million. The Traction Group owned Strathtay Scottish, which Stagecoach had pushed out of Perth some 16 years earlier. [9] 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, fleet vehicles were branded with Strathtay with Part of the Stagecoach Group straplines.
In October 2007, Stagecoach in Perth commenced operations of the first of two Stagecoach Goldline services, operated as a trial for the wider Stagecoach Group in conjunction with a service run by Stagecoach Warwickshire. Stagecoach in Perth's Goldline service 7 was operated using eight new Alexander Dennis Enviro300 single-deck buses, fitted out to a higher interior standard and painted in a special gold and blue livery. [10] Since these trials, the brand, renamed to Stagecoach Gold, has expanded to Stagecoach subsidiaries across the United Kingdom, while the Perth Goldline service would later be upgraded to operate Alexander Dennis Enviro350H hybrid electric buses.[ citation needed ]
In March 2008, it was announced that Stagecoach Fife had purchased Rennies of Dunfermline for an undisclosed sum, following the retirement of Rennies' owner. The Rennies fleet consisted of 60 vehicles, including 18 double-deckers which were all leased from Stagecoach in Fife. [11] Rennies were formerly based at Dunfermline (Wellwood Mill), before moving to Cowdenbeath in 2016.
In Spring 2014, Stagecoach entered the South Queensferry area, replacing a withdrawn service to Edinburgh which had been run for many years by First Scotland East. [12] However, the South Queensferry operation incurred huge losses and was withdrawn in June 2017, [13] with Lothian Buses subsequently taking it over.
In May 2023, Stagecoach East Scotland began operating autonomous Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV as part of the CAVForth scheme on route "AB1" across the Forth Road Bridge. [14] A second route is planned to expand the use of the autonomous service to Dunfermline city centre. [15]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2024) |
Stagecoach East Scotland operates under six different brands:
In October 2007, Stagecoach's Fife operations received a £4.5 million investment in upgrading the regional express network, with services branded as "Express City Connect" and "Experience City Connect". [17] [18] Express services from West Fife to Edinburgh received nine new Scania OmniLink tri-axle single-deckers featuring leather seating and free Wi-Fi, while the rest of the network received 20 Plaxton Profile bodied Volvo B7R coaches, also equipped with leather seating and free Wi-Fi.
In 2011, further new Plaxton Elite coaches were delivered to Stagecoach to help deal with the increase in passengers on the X59 service, [19] [20] with further examples being delivered between 2012 and 2017. [21] This has resulted in the City Connect brand receiving the accolade of Top Express Operation at the UK Coach Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. [22]
Since 1999, Stagecoach East Scotland has operated and provide numerous park & ride sites across their operating area.
As of April 2019, Stagecoach East Scotland operates 468 buses and coaches from eight depots: [1] [ needs update ]
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. It replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth; railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890.
Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is now administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. It lies ten miles to the north-west of Edinburgh city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing.
Rosyth is a town and Garden City in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth.
Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom.
Scottish Citylink is a long-distance express coach operator in Scotland and Ireland and formerly England. The company was formed as a subsidiary of Scottish Transport Group in March 1985. It is operated as a 63/37 joint venture between ComfortDelGro and Stagecoach.
The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) was a state-owned group of bus operators covering the whole of mainland Scotland.
Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a former bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group, formed in June 1985 from Walter Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd in preparation for bus deregulation and the subsequent privatisation of the Scottish Bus Group. The company today trades as part of Stagecoach East Scotland.
Midland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus operator formed in June 1985 as a subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group, created from part of W. Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd. The company operated as Midland Scottish until 1991, when it was renamed Midland Bluebird in preparation for privatisation.
Stagecoach Bluebird is a Scottish bus company which operates bus services in the areas of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Strathtay Scottish was a bus operator running services in Dundee, Angus and parts of Grampian in eastern Scotland. Formed in 1985 ahead of bus deregulation as a subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group from parts of Walter Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd and Walter Alexander & Sons (Northern) Ltd., Strathtay was purchased by the Traction Group in 1991 and operated as a subsidiary of the company until 2005, when parent company Yorkshire Traction was purchased by the Stagecoach Group. The company today trades as part of Stagecoach East Scotland.
Stagecoach West Scotland is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, comprising Western Buses Ltd based in Ayr, Scotland.
Xplore Dundee is a bus operator based in Dundee, Scotland, operating services mainly within the city. The operator also runs a service to Edinburgh Airport. It is a subsidiary of McGill's Bus Services.
Cowdenbeath railway station is a railway station in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Fife Circle Line, 22+1⁄2 miles (36.2 km) north of Edinburgh Waverley.
Barry is a small village in Angus, Scotland, on Barry Burn at the mouth of the River Tay. The recent completion of a bypass for the village on the A930 road from Dundee to Carnoustie is something that was originally planned before the Second World War. There is a water mill operated by the National Trust for Scotland.
First South East & Central Scotland, formerly known as First Scotland East, was an operator of both local and regional bus services in Clackmannanshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, Scottish Borders, Stirling and West Lothian, as well as the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup, which operates bus, rail and tram services across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Megabus is a long-distance intercity coach service operator owned by Scottish Citylink and based in the United Kingdom. Founded by Stagecoach Group in August 2003, it operates using low-cost fares, formerly starting at £1, based on a yield management model.
W. Alexander & Sons Ltd was a bus operator and coachbuilder in Scotland. The company grew from small beginnings to become the largest bus operator in Scotland, and one of the largest in the U.K., by the time it was split up in 1961. Its coachbuilding activities, which were transferred to a separate company in 1947, still survive as part of Alexander Dennis.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC, also marketed as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200, is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014 as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMCs entered service with National Express West Midlands in 2015. Notably, Enviro200 MMCs have been modified by Fusion Processing to be used as the basis for the first driverless bus trials in the United Kingdom.
The Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway was a railway company founded to form part of a rail and ferry route between Dunfermline and Edinburgh, in Scotland. It was authorised in 1873 and its promoters had obtained informal promises from the larger North British Railway that the NBR would provide financial help, and also operate the ferry and the necessary railway on the southern side of the Firth of Forth.