McGill’s Buses Alexander Dennis Enviro 400

The sad story of Clydeside 2000

 

McGill’s Buses have repainted their only active double-decker, Enviro 400 J8960 (66XKW) into a heritage livery, proudly proclaiming that the company has been serving Barrhead, Renfrew, Paisley and Glasgow since 1933. That claim needs to be taken with a slight pinch of salt, given that many will know that the current version of McGill’s Buses has only been in existence since 2001.

 

However, there is indeed some substance behind the statement. The livery of the bus is of the original McGill’s of Barrhead company, founded in 1933 and looks superb on the bus, again proving how good retro liveries look on modern vehicles. This company was sold to Clydeside Buses, formerly Clydeside 2000, in 1997.

 

Clydeside 2000 was what at one time been the northern operations of Western SMT, part of initially the Scottish Transport Group and later the Scottish Bus Group. Western SMT, through a series of purchases and mergers had grown to be the dominant operator in much of south-west Scotland. It’s operations stretched from over the border into England right up to north of Glasgow. Indeed at one stage it even had operations in Islay and as far north as Oban. It served towns in between including the towns of Ayr, Dumfries, Kilmarnock, Renfrew and Paisley, with services to and from Glasgow as well as services to Edinburgh shared with Eastern Scottish. It also ran many Anglo-Scottish services to towns and cities in England and Wales as well as to Stranraer, for ferry crossings to the six counties of Northern Ireland, it truly was one of the Group’s powerhouses and its black and white coaches as well as red and cream buses were a familiar sight in Scotland.

 

In 1985, in preparation for deregulation the following year, Western SMT was renamed Western Scottish Omnibuses Limited. This was more complex than it actually seemed, given the company was registered in England due to historical reasons and indeed the company was initially named Western Scottish Limited and some buses actually ran with this legal lettering, only to have that changed to match the other Scottish Bus Group companies. Apparently the wish was for the Group companies to accommodate a description of what they did in their company names, hence the addition of the word omnibus into the names. Although the omnibus name seems somewhat quaint these days….

 

Later in 1985, Western’s northern operations were hived off as the newly formed Clydeside Scottish Omnibuses Limited, leaving Western with the rest. This was one of several new companies that the Group created to prepare for this brave new deregulated world. Sadly, despite a bold new image and several innovations, including reintroducing crew operations on AEC Routemasters acquired from London Buses, shared ticketing with other Group companies and new cross-city routes shared with Kelvin Scottish, an accounting error surrounding its costs being underestimated. This saw the Clydeside company plunge into heavy losses, on top of sustained competition from Strathclyde’s Buses. This occurred at a critical time for the company, as the Group was heading towards privatisation and a sell-off of its subsidiaries.

 

It was felt that as a result of this, Clydeside wasn’t in a fit state to be privatised and so it was reunited with Western, with the assumption that the larger company would be a more attractive option rather than the financially stricken Clydeside on its own. However Western’s management were very much in charge of the new combined company and the company swiftly moved to obliterate much of the Clydeside image. It’s Routemasters, which the company had pioneered in Group operations, were swiftly withdrawn, replaced by more - ahem - ‘modern’ one person operated vehicles to reduce staffing costs and buses in Clydeside colours begun to be swiftly repainted in Western’s then current livery. Legal lettering was to be now for Western Scottish’s then Kilmarnock base. However it did retain the Clydeside trading name on Western’s livery for that former company’s operations with the notable exceptions of the depots in Greenock and Largs in Inverclyde as well as Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, which were branded as normal Western vehicles, even though each depot sat on the shores of the River Clyde, for which the Clydeside name was singularly relevant.

 

These changes under Western ownership were deeply unpopular with the former Clydeside staff and led to much internal strife between the two factions within the company. So, it was eventually agreed that if the management buy-out of Western was successful under Group’s privatisation process, the former Clydeside operations would be immediately sold on to the former remaining Clydeside management and staff as an employee buy-out. The Western management buy-out was successful, although as part of that buy-out Western retained sole operations of Service 4 between Ayr and Glasgow, which had previously been jointly operated between the two companies, and the Rothesay fleet and depot,. This was mainly due to Clydeside not wanting them, as the tendered operations were due to be renewed on Rothesay and it was felt it was too much of a risk for the new fledgling company if the tenders were not successful, as the tendered operations made up a significant part of that depot’s output. In the event, the tenders made under Western were successful but such is hindsight. Greenock and Largs depots would come back to Clydeside too.

 

So for the princely sum of £1.25 million the Clydeside operations passed to the new Clydeside 2000 company, a price that probably covered a significant part of what Western’s management paid for the combined company. It was an odd name choice but the company began to repaint buses in the former Clydeside colours, albeit laid out slightly differently in a more modern style, and the Clydeside 2000 trading name was adopted for the new company. which had its headquarters within Paisley depot. The purchase was supported with assistance from another company, English based Luton & District, a company which was to play a pivotal later role in the story. That company held a 24% stake in Clydeside 2000.

 

Like a lot of newly privatised bus companies, Clydeside 2000 struggled. It contracted, closed its depots in Paisley - it’s then head office - and Thornliebank in southern Glasgow as well as it’s sub-depot in Largs. It’s fleet age was poor at an average of 13 years. a legacy of the Group’s freeze on new vehicles purchases in the run up to privatisation. Under the Group, the only brand new buses that Clydeside had received were some Alexander AM-bodied Dodge/Chrysler/Renault S56 minibuses and several Leyland Lions with Alexander RH-bodies. The Lions may seem an odd choice but they were actually built for sister company Kelvin Scottish. Sadly, Kelvin didn’t take them as it had its own significant issues at the time and the buses languished at Alexanders’ premises for a while in Kelvin’s Cumbernauld Express livery for sale with no buyers. In the end, the Group agreed to take them and allocated them to Clydeside, where they proved useful additions on Clydeside’s local express routes, branded as Quicksilver.

 

Funds for new vehicles were tight and relatively newer vehicles were sold to raise funds to buy more but older vehicles to get by. A good example of this was the sale of all the company’s Dennis Dominators to a Hong Kong based company and its Leyland Lions to operators down south, including Chester City Transport. When vehicles were purchased they tended to be second hand. Or indeed third or fourth hand! An example of this was a batch of Alexander Y-type Leyland Leopards bought from Kelvin Central and Lancaster City Transport, some of which ran in their previous liveries but with Clydeside 2000 fleetnames, particularly confusing when the ex-Kelvin Central ones began to appear on routes in Glasgow….. It suffered from heavy competition, especially in Greenock where in many cases the rule book went out the window. Although it reached a tact understanding with Strathclyde’s Buses that saw competition reduced between the two and services withdrawn. However even after that, it still gave Strathclyde’s Buses a significant foothold in Clydeside 2000’s area. As part of the deal, some Strathclyde’s Buses MCW Metroriders went on extended loan to Clydeside 2000, allowing them to replace earlier mini-buses with better vehicles.

 

However it’s ever increasing average fleet age was causing apoplexy to the local Traffic Commissioner and eventually the company realised it would have to buy new buses simply to retain an operating licence and it started a tentative fleet renewal. Some Plaxton Beaver bodied Mercedes-Benz mini-buses and Alexander Dash boded Volvo B6s were acquired from local dealer stock. Later, an offer by Strathclyde’s Buses to buy the company was rebuffed - rather oddly given the company’s precarious position - but this left the door open to others as it was clear the company was touting itself as being available. Strathclyde’s Buses then acquired Kelvin Central, removing another potential suitor at a stroke.

 

Mergers and acquisitions were very much in vogue at the same time as the industry began to form the super-bloc of operators such as Stagecoach and Firstbus. Luton and District was by then owned by British Bus, the smallest of the three super-blocs forming at the time, and in late 1994, it made a successful offer through Luton and District to acquire Clydeside 2000. The offer was accepted and Clydeside 2000 became British Bus’s first - and indeed only - purchase in Scotland.

 

The new management broom made sweeping changes to Clydeside. The first thing they did was to rename the company to Clydeside Buses Limited. Apparently this was done as the new management saw the fleet name and thought it read Clydeside Zoo! To be fair the fleet did have a few Leopards, Lions and Tigers….a new brighter livery with the addition of white to the yellow and red presented a more positive image. The fleet name became simply Clydeside.

 

The British Bus era at Clydeside was notable for a rapid modernisation of the fleet. However this was from a company that had a very poor record of fleet renewal towards the companies it owned. So what was different with the Clydeside purchase? Well, apparently the company was told by the authorities that it didn’t improve its fleet it would be shut down by the loss of its licence! So British Bus had no choice but to invest in it. But to be fair, this investment and new livery saw a notable improvement in the overall fleet condition. Under Clydeside Buses it also expanded - of a sort - as it also acquired the original McGill’s of Barrhead business.

 

However trouble was yet again on the horizon, as parent British Bus had its own issues at the time. This was to do with some irregularities at the company. So it was taken over by the Sunderland based Cowie Group, mainly a car dealer, but through the purchase of such a business had acquired a small coach business in London, Grey-Green. Under Cowie, it has expanded this coach company into London tendered operations and then had purchased two of the London Buses subsidiaries, Leaside Buses and South London, when that was being privatised. Cowie had tried to introduce a corporate livery - of a sort - to its London acquisitions but it struggled to impose this. A fresh bit of thinking was required.

 

Cowie then decided in 1997 to rename its bus operations as Arriva. Clydeside Buses was renamed as Arriva Scotland West (SW) in 1998 but which traded as Arriva serving Scotland, a name that actually needed Governmental approval. Arriva was to be a national operator with a uniform image and style. If you stepped on an Arriva bus, it would be the same whether it was in Greenock or Guildford.

 

However Arriva SW had its own issues to deal with and with continued heavy competition in Inverclyde, it cut its losses and sold its Greenock operations in 2001 to some local businessmen there. The vehicle that was used for this was the original McGill’s licence which Arriva SW had kept active but dormant after purchasing the original McGill’s of Barrhead. .And so the company was transplanted down the Clyde Coast as McGill’s Buses.

 

Through a series of events and misfortunes, Arriva SW remaining operations was ultimately bought by the new McGill’s Buses in a reverse takeover of sorts and so the claim on this bus, a former Alexander Dennis demonstration vehicle, is technically correct as the present company is made up of bits of what was at one stage the original McGill’s of Barrhead, Western SMT, Western Scottish, Arriva SW, Clydeside Scottish, Clydeside Buses and Clydeside 2000. However they saddest part is undoubtedly Clydeside 2000, a company that started with such fresh hopes, contracted and went through such turmoil only to cease to exist barely a few years later.

Done