Parks of Hamilton (Coach Hirers) Limited Volvo B8R/Plaxton Elite
New owners for Megabus/Scottish Citylink following the Stagecoach/National Express merger
Tuesday 14 December 2021 became a significant day in the history of the bus industry as the long-mooted merger between Stagecoach and National Express was announced that it would be going ahead. Although it’s stated in the financial press as a merger, it’s effectively a takeover of Stagecoach by National Express.
The deal, which involves an all-share takeover by National Express, comes after talks between the transport giants were revealed in September. It will create a combined firm worth about £1.9bn, with a fleet of about 40,000 vehicles and a workforce of about 70,000. Under the deal, National Express shareholders would own about 75% of the combined group and Stagecoach 25%.. The proposal values Perth-based Stagecoach at about £437million. It’s subject to shareholder approval from both the respective companies’ shareholders but assuming it does, it’ll be completed by late 2022. It’ll create a super-group and will be the biggest bus company in the United Kingdom by far. It’s not clear whether any rationalisation of operations will happen as National Express’s bus operations consisted of its West Midlands operations which didn’t tend to compete with Stagecoach to any major extent except maybe at the fringes in the South Midlands. It will also take National Express back into Tayside with Stagecoach’s operations there, having left there when it sold Xplore Dundee to McGill’s Buses.
National Express wants to use Stagecoach’s range of depots to improve its express coach network. Whether this will probably mean Stagecoach subsidiaries will be used to provide Nat Ex services going forward seems very likely but there will be little change at least initially whilst the new business sorts out its new image and branding.
However, enclosed within the press realise was the story that Stagecoach had exited its joint venture with Comfort Delgro and sold its remaining 35% of the shares to Comfort Delgro. It means that both Scottish Citylink and Megabus will pass to Comfort Delgro who’ll assume sole control. Also passing to Comfort Delgro will be responsibility for Stagecoach’s Falcon service in the South West of England.
There’s going to be some major unpicking of vehicles and routes here as Stagecoach provides virtually all the vehicles for Megabus, all the vehicles for Falcon and most of the vehicles for Scottish Citylink. Of course other operators provide services such as Park’s, as seen here with HSK643 heading out of Glasgow to Dundee on a Citylink service. This is one of eight similar coaches delivered to the company and although not visible in the shot is that they feature a green strip of LEDs above the rear windows on both sides of the coaches to make them stand out. They were apparently a cancelled order for an Irish operator.
So after a while under effective Stagecoach control, Citylink regains its independence. To be fair, Stagecoach didn’t really need to sell Citylink as Nat Ex didn’t really compete with Citylink- it was Megabus that was the issue - but it’s obviously felt rather than fight with the competition authorities it was easier this way. Stagecoach will continue to provide Citylink vehicles in the short to medium term but whether that’ll continue long term will no doubt be seen. With FLiXBUS now on the scene it obviously felt that the combined business with access to a vast range of depots was a good defensive measure. But will we see, as an example, the revival of Caledonian Express to compete with Citylink? Time will tell.
Parks of Hamilton (Coach Hirers) Limited Volvo B8R/Plaxton Elite
New owners for Megabus/Scottish Citylink following the Stagecoach/National Express merger
Tuesday 14 December 2021 became a significant day in the history of the bus industry as the long-mooted merger between Stagecoach and National Express was announced that it would be going ahead. Although it’s stated in the financial press as a merger, it’s effectively a takeover of Stagecoach by National Express.
The deal, which involves an all-share takeover by National Express, comes after talks between the transport giants were revealed in September. It will create a combined firm worth about £1.9bn, with a fleet of about 40,000 vehicles and a workforce of about 70,000. Under the deal, National Express shareholders would own about 75% of the combined group and Stagecoach 25%.. The proposal values Perth-based Stagecoach at about £437million. It’s subject to shareholder approval from both the respective companies’ shareholders but assuming it does, it’ll be completed by late 2022. It’ll create a super-group and will be the biggest bus company in the United Kingdom by far. It’s not clear whether any rationalisation of operations will happen as National Express’s bus operations consisted of its West Midlands operations which didn’t tend to compete with Stagecoach to any major extent except maybe at the fringes in the South Midlands. It will also take National Express back into Tayside with Stagecoach’s operations there, having left there when it sold Xplore Dundee to McGill’s Buses.
National Express wants to use Stagecoach’s range of depots to improve its express coach network. Whether this will probably mean Stagecoach subsidiaries will be used to provide Nat Ex services going forward seems very likely but there will be little change at least initially whilst the new business sorts out its new image and branding.
However, enclosed within the press realise was the story that Stagecoach had exited its joint venture with Comfort Delgro and sold its remaining 35% of the shares to Comfort Delgro. It means that both Scottish Citylink and Megabus will pass to Comfort Delgro who’ll assume sole control. Also passing to Comfort Delgro will be responsibility for Stagecoach’s Falcon service in the South West of England.
There’s going to be some major unpicking of vehicles and routes here as Stagecoach provides virtually all the vehicles for Megabus, all the vehicles for Falcon and most of the vehicles for Scottish Citylink. Of course other operators provide services such as Park’s, as seen here with HSK643 heading out of Glasgow to Dundee on a Citylink service. This is one of eight similar coaches delivered to the company and although not visible in the shot is that they feature a green strip of LEDs above the rear windows on both sides of the coaches to make them stand out. They were apparently a cancelled order for an Irish operator.
So after a while under effective Stagecoach control, Citylink regains its independence. To be fair, Stagecoach didn’t really need to sell Citylink as Nat Ex didn’t really compete with Citylink- it was Megabus that was the issue - but it’s obviously felt rather than fight with the competition authorities it was easier this way. Stagecoach will continue to provide Citylink vehicles in the short to medium term but whether that’ll continue long term will no doubt be seen. With FLiXBUS now on the scene it obviously felt that the combined business with access to a vast range of depots was a good defensive measure. But will we see, as an example, the revival of Caledonian Express to compete with Citylink? Time will tell.