First Glasgow Scania LU94B/Wright Solar
A better class of training bus...
Surprising additions to the FiG fleet were these Scania’s cascaded from Midland Bluebird to update the FiG training fleet. Seen here is 61228 (YN52UWF). They’ve been repainted in this rather eye-catching livery - you certainly wouldn’t mistake it for a service bus.
The yellow hand-poles reveal that this bus was part of a stock-batch built by Scania which First acquired to update the Midland Bluebird fleet in a hurry. The reason for that was that First had placed investment in Midland Bluebird on hold whilst it was determined whether First was being allowed to keep the company.
This all stemmed from First’s acquisitions SB Holdings, parent company of Strathclyde’s Buses and Kelvin Central. With First already owning Midland Bluebird, Lowland and SMT this put the company in an unusually dominant position across Central Scotland. Naturally this attracted the attention of the competition authorities who determined that First either had to either sell Midland Bluebird and one of Glasgow depots - believed to be Possilpark. Otherwise it would have to give up SB Holdings. First preferred to keep the lot but made plans to sell Midland Bluebird and froze investment in the fleet. When it’s lobbying allowed it to eventually keep the fleets, it was forced by the Traffic Commissioners to update the fleet urgently, hence the need for these buses.
First Glasgow Scania LU94B/Wright Solar
A better class of training bus...
Surprising additions to the FiG fleet were these Scania’s cascaded from Midland Bluebird to update the FiG training fleet. Seen here is 61228 (YN52UWF). They’ve been repainted in this rather eye-catching livery - you certainly wouldn’t mistake it for a service bus.
The yellow hand-poles reveal that this bus was part of a stock-batch built by Scania which First acquired to update the Midland Bluebird fleet in a hurry. The reason for that was that First had placed investment in Midland Bluebird on hold whilst it was determined whether First was being allowed to keep the company.
This all stemmed from First’s acquisitions SB Holdings, parent company of Strathclyde’s Buses and Kelvin Central. With First already owning Midland Bluebird, Lowland and SMT this put the company in an unusually dominant position across Central Scotland. Naturally this attracted the attention of the competition authorities who determined that First either had to either sell Midland Bluebird and one of Glasgow depots - believed to be Possilpark. Otherwise it would have to give up SB Holdings. First preferred to keep the lot but made plans to sell Midland Bluebird and froze investment in the fleet. When it’s lobbying allowed it to eventually keep the fleets, it was forced by the Traffic Commissioners to update the fleet urgently, hence the need for these buses.