![Dart Buses 178 E258 TUB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Dart_Buses_178_E258_TUB.jpg)
Dart Buses was an independent bus operator in the
Paisley and
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Re ...
area in the 1990s. The company is attributed with starting a
bus war
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for ...
with the main operator of the area,
Clydeside Scottish
Clydeside Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from Western SMT Company Ltd. The company operated until May 1989, when it was remerged with Western Scottish, the successor co ...
. Bus wars were common following
bus deregulation
Bus deregulation in Great Britain was the abolition of Road Service Licensing outside of Greater London for bus services. This began in 1980 with the abolition of Road Service Licensing for long-distance bus services and was extended into local ...
, and the Paisley area was no stranger to fierce competition; however Dart Buses predominantly operated along routes of large operators and were more successful and subsequently grew much larger than other independents. The company collapsed in 2001.
History
The company started operating second-hand minibuses on local routes around Paisley, however these minibuses were soon displaced by larger single deck
Leyland National
The Leyland National is an integrally-constructed United Kingdom, British high-floor, step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industri ...
s, around which the fleet was based. The company started to expand, and in particular grew a strong presence in the
Gryffe area around
Johnstone,
Bridge of Weir
Bridge of Weir is a village within the Renfrewshire council area and wider historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lying within the Gryffe Valley, Bridge of Weir owes its name to the historic crossing point th ...
, and
Kilmacolm
Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and aroun ...
operating the lucrative motorway express buses to
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in competition with
Clydeside Scottish
Clydeside Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from Western SMT Company Ltd. The company operated until May 1989, when it was remerged with Western Scottish, the successor co ...
. Fierce competition ensued, including heavily discounted fares and network tickets from Clydeside. Clydeside also introduced its own low cost minibus service F&L around Paisley, in order to secure a larger share of the market from Dart.
In the late 1990s Clydeside was purchased by the
Cowie Group
Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.[Arriva Scotland West
Arriva Scotland West was a bus company based in Inchinnan, near Paisley, Scotland. It was formed in 1997 as a rebranding of the former Clydeside 2000 company when purchased by Arriva. On 26 March 2012, the business was sold to McGill's Bus Serv ...]
.
Arriva
Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.[Kilbarchan
Kilbarchan ( gd, Cill Bhearchain) is a village and civil parish in central Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The village's name means "cell (chapel) of St. Barchan". It is known for its former weaving industry.
History ...]
as well as competing for
Strathclyde PTE (SPT) tenders to operate local buses in Glasgow and
East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
. A number of SPT contracts were won, mostly from
First Glasgow
First Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. The company operates within the area covered by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, a public body responsible for h ...
, and several new buses were bought for these routes. A small number of school contracts were also taken on.
Stagecoach West Scotland bought Arriva's stake in the business in 2001 and Dart began operating some of Stagecoach's routes in Glasgow and
Pollok
Pollok ( gd, Pollag, lit=a pool, sco, Powk) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,0 ...
, operating their buses on these services in Stagecoach livery. It was suggested that Stagecoach didn't want to compete with First Glasgow, the dominant operator in the area.
However, the company suddenly collapsed overnight in October 2001. There were no warnings to the imminent collapse, other than the vehicles had been filling up using pumps outside of its depot. In the aftermath, most services were non-operational that day although some local operators did step in to help. In a surprise move, First Glasgow took on Dart's drivers and registered their express buses,
before Arriva or Stagecoach, and
SPT tendered the other routes on an emergency basis that operators were unwilling to operate but were vital services. Most of the tenders were won by local companies, most notably
Riverside Transport, who also took on several of the Gryffe local services.
See also
*
List of bus operators of the United Kingdom
:''This list is an alphabetically ordered index of current and past operators. For a structured list of current operators, see List of current bus operators of the United Kingdom''
This is a list of bus and coach operators of the United King ...
References
{{Defunct British Bus Companies
Transport in Paisley, Renfrewshire
Transport in Glasgow
Former bus operators in Scotland