Stagecoach Strathtay is a
Scottish bus
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 cha ...
operating company which covers the
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
and
Angus
Angus may refer to:
Media
* ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film
* ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record''
Places Australia
* Angus, New South Wales
Canada
* Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario
* East Angus, Quebec
Scotland
* An ...
areas, and parts of
Grampian
Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region to ...
. It is a subsidiary of the
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom.
History
Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...
, which bought Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd as part of
Yorkshire Traction
Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in Yorkshire that operated from 1902 until 2005.
History
In March 1902 the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited was formed. It operated trams around the Barnsley area until around 1930 ...
in 2005. Strathtay Scottish was formed in 1985 as a subsidiary of the
Scottish Transport Group
The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) was a state-owned group of bus operators covering the whole of mainland Scotland.
The origin of the grouping was the operators owned by and including the Scottish Motor Traction company, which were transferred to ...
, from parts of Walter Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd and Walter Alexander & Sons (Northern) Ltd. Stagecoach have retained the right to the operating name Strathtay Scottish; this is reflected in the legal lettering on the company's vehicles.
Operation
Since joining the Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach Strathtay now has an operating area bounded by
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
in the north,
Gauldry &
Newport-on-Tay
Newport-on-Tay is a small town in the north-east of Fife in Scotland, acting as a Commuting, commuter suburb for Dundee. The Fife Coastal Path passes through Newport-on-Tay. The area itself is surrounded by views of the two bridges that cross the ...
to the south and
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
to the west. Before joining Stagecoach, Strathtay operated only as far as
Laurencekirk
Laurencekirk (, sco, Lowrenkirk, gd, Eaglais Labhrainn), colloquially known as "The Lang Toun" or amongst locals as simply "The Kirk", is a small town in the historic county of Kincardineshire, Scotland, just off the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen ...
in the north; however, the
Montrose depot has acquired some work from Bluebird's
Stonehaven
Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census.
After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...
depot, including route 24 from
Brechin
Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...
to Stonehaven, route 103 from
Laurencekirk
Laurencekirk (, sco, Lowrenkirk, gd, Eaglais Labhrainn), colloquially known as "The Lang Toun" or amongst locals as simply "The Kirk", is a small town in the historic county of Kincardineshire, Scotland, just off the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen ...
to
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
and a handful of School Contracts serving
Mackie Academy in Stonehaven.
Strathtay is the largest operator in
Angus
Angus may refer to:
Media
* ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film
* ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record''
Places Australia
* Angus, New South Wales
Canada
* Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario
* East Angus, Quebec
Scotland
* An ...
and operates urban, rural and interurban services in and around
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
,
Arbroath
Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902.
It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen.
The ...
,
Blairgowrie,
Forfar
Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...
and
Montrose. Depots are located in
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
,
Arbroath
Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902.
It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen.
The ...
and
Blairgowrie. On its creation Strathtay was also the largest operator in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
,
Crieff
Crieff (; gd, Craoibh, meaning "tree") is a Scottish market town in Perth and Kinross on the A85 road between Perth and Crianlarich, and the A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy. The A822 joins the A823 to Dunfermline. Crieff has become ...
and
Pitlochry
Pitlochry (; gd, Baile Chloichridh or ) is a town in the Perth and Kinross council area of Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. It is historically in the county of Perthshire, and has a population of 2,776, according to the 2011 census.Scotla ...
, but depots in those towns were closed between 1986 and 1993 and operations scaled back, ironically due to intensive 'Stagecoach' competition at the time. In 2010 Montrose depot closed due to contract losses.
A depot exists in Forfar but is considered to be a sub depot of Arbroath.
Strathtay also provide coaches for
Scottish Citylink
Scottish Citylink is a long-distance express coach operator in Scotland and Ireland (where it operates as Irish Citylink) and England (where it operates as Stansted Citylink). The company was formed as a subsidiary of Scottish Transport Group i ...
and
Megabus Megabus may refer to:
*Megabus (Europe), a low-cost coach service with services in Europe owned by ComfortDelGro.
*Megabus (North America)
Megabus, branded as megabus.com, is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/ Coach Canada operating in the ...
express work, mainly from Dundee and Perth to other points in Scotland.
Although Strathtay's Head Office at Dundee bus station has been closed, there still remains a Booking/Depot Office at that site. Head Office functions were amalgamated with
Stagecoach East Scotland
Stagecoach East Scotland (legally incorporated as Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd) ( gd, Stagecoach an Ear na h-Alba) is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, with its regional base in Dunfermline, Scotland. The company operators under six d ...
(which also covers Fife and Perth operating areas) at Guthrie House in
Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...
. On 18 May 2009, the Cowdenbeath head office was relocated to Evans House, John Smith Business Park,
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...
.
History
Strathtay Scottish was a brand new company created through reorganisation of the Scottish Bus Group in preparation for
deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, and eventual
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
. It inherited the eastern operations of
W. Alexander & Sons (Midland) based in Perth, Crieff and Pitlochry, as well as the southern operations of W. Alexander (Northern) in Dundee, Forfar, Arbroath, Blairgowrie and Montrose. A bright blue and orange livery was adopted for the fleet, which would be controlled from Dundee.
The company would have a turbulent infancy, however, as Strathtay Scottish faced very heavy competition from Perth-based operator Stagecoach. Strathtay Scottish purchased a number of ex-
London Transport AEC Routemaster
The AEC Routemaster is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport Executive, London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The ...
buses to compete with Stagecoach, which also used a number of the same vehicle type on city services in Perth. A new ''Perth City Transport'' brand was created by Strathtay Scottish to compete with Stagecoach, using a mainly red livery with white. But as Stagecoach grew nationally it became financially stronger and had ready access to vehicles from the larger companies in England it had purchased; Strathtay's managing director,
Neil Renilson, would later move to Stagecoach in 1989. Strathtay Scottish could not sustain the level of intense competition that ensued, and in 1993 it closed its Perth depot. Crieff and Pitlochry also closed, and the company withdrew from the majority of services around these towns.
Despite experiencing heavy and sustained competition on the lucrative city services in Perth, Strathtay Scottish managed to remain profitable on the run up to privatisation, and in May 1991 was sold to
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
-based
Yorkshire Traction
Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in Yorkshire that operated from 1902 until 2005.
History
In March 1902 the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited was formed. It operated trams around the Barnsley area until around 1930 ...
for £1.9 million. Now trading as Strathtay Buses under the Traction Group, the new owners established and maintained a working relationship with Stagecoach around Perth, jointly operating the trunk service between Dundee and Perth with the national operator, while the remainder of the operations remained largely unchanged from privatisation.
On 14 December 2005, the Traction Group was purchased by Stagecoach for £26 million, which resulted in Strathtay becoming a subsidiary of
Stagecoach East Scotland
Stagecoach East Scotland (legally incorporated as Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd) ( gd, Stagecoach an Ear na h-Alba) is an operating region of Stagecoach UK Bus, with its regional base in Dunfermline, Scotland. The company operators under six d ...
.
Unusually, buses were initially branded with modified Strathtay fleetnames, however the fleet has since been rebranded to "Stagecoach Strathtay".
References
External links
Stagecoach Strathtay website
{{Bus operators in Scotland
Stagecoach Group bus operators in Scotland
Companies based in Fife
Transport in Angus, Scotland
Transport in Aberdeenshire
Transport in Dundee
Transport in Fife
Transport in Perth and Kinross
1985 establishments in Scotland
Transport companies established in 1985