Strathclyde Buses Limited (T/A Greater Glasgow) Leyland Atlantean AN68A/1R / Alexander AL-type

The buses of Scotland - Strathclyde’s Buses

 

Seen here is LA1408 (RDS597W) quite a significant bus in the history of Scotland’s greatest and biggest city. Now you may wonder why given on first glance its just a boggo-standard Atlantean from the last big batch of such buses, albeit these were built to a high standard with fancy walnut design interiors with patterned ceilings, Subway style patterned seating and short-bay windows. However it’s claim to fame is that bus was apparently the last Atlantean to operate in regular public service, coming off in late November 1998, four months after the actual celebrations for the last Atlantean earlier that year in July. By this stage it carried Greater Glasgow fleetnames, as Strathclyde’s Buses traded under.

 

Although Strathclyde’s Buses can trace its lineage all the way back to the horse trams of Glasgow Corporation Transport, the company in its current form owes its existence to the Transport Act (1985). This mandated that direct operations of local bus fleets by local authorities had to end. Instead, separate arms-length companies had to be set up, which could still be owned by the local authorities but run separately and commercially and importantly, at a profit. As such Strathclyde’s Buses Limited (SBL) was separated and created from Strathclyde PTEs bus fleet. SBL was owned by Strathclyde Regional Council.

 

At its formation the company had around eight hundred vehicles and ran these from six garages - Gartcraig, Knightswood, Larkfield (which is where the company’s headquarters were), Newlands, Parkhead and Possilpark. To prepare for this brave new commercial world, services were recast, costs cut and routes extended into what was traditional Scottish Bus Group (SBG) territory. Newlands and Gartcraig depots were closed. At the same time, however, SBG was eying up city services as Glasgow had some of the best bus operating territory in the whole UK. It restructured it’s Glasgow operations, creating new subsidiaries Kelvin Scottish and Clydeside Scottish to be added to Central Scottish to fight for Glasgow’s bus passengers. Glasgow would be surrounded by the SBG which would run the high-cost and bureaucratic SBL off the road. On top of this the then fledging Stagecoach registered services in the city to be run as Magicbus.

 

The Act - known as Deregulation- would come into force on 26 October 1986. However rather oddly the local transport commissioner gave all competing companies authority to start their new services from the end of the local school holidays in August that year. This led to excessive over-bussing which came to a head one Saturday when the newspapers had pictures of wall-to-wall buses jammed in city streets. In fairness, a lot of the jams were down to roadworks and inconsiderate parking, not solely just extra buses but these didn’t help . But it was clear that the fight was on for passengers in Glasgow.

 

It was a battle that SBL was expected to lose. However, it confounded it’s critics. Freed from the shackles of the PTE it restructured and massively lowered it’s costs and even replaced SBG as the main operator in East Kilbride. It also launched competitive minibus services using MCW Metroriders.

 

However one of the most sensible things the company did was to keep the same livery and same design of fleetname of its PTE predecessor. This gave the impression of continuity where SBG’s buses were changing liveries and colours and services frequently. It’s Transcard monthly tickets also gave good value and there was loyalty to what was still seen as the ‘Corporation’. Glaswegians may have grumbled about the bus service but it was their service....

 

Strathclyde’s Buses didn’t tend to order regular yearly batches of buses. It tended to order big one-off batches of buses every few years. It’s first buses after privatisation were minibuses, although to be fair it had been operating these under PTE ownership and they were initially van conversions, as was typical at the time. These tended to be used on tendered services. However MCW then launched the Metrorider, the first purpose-built minibus by a mainstream bus builder.

 

Strathclyde’s Buses (SB) went for the type in a big way but used these minibuses differently, as competitive tools. Where SBG would compete on a key SB service, SB would flood the route with them at high frequencies and run SBG off the road. These were branded as ‘Your wee happy bus’ promoting the friendly service. It also used the Metroriders to launch services in Paisley, to compete with SBG subsidiary Clydeside Scottish. As older minibus types were phased out, the MCW Metrorider became the standard and some were added second-hand from Colchester and Dublin Bus and an Optare MetroRider (note the capital R) demonstrator. Despite well publicised issues of corrosion with the Metrorider, SB has got the best out of the type and even developed a chassis repair option available to other operators, which addressed the corrosion issues.

 

For big buses, the Atlantean formed the backbone on the fleet with these forming nearly half of the fleet strength but SB recognised that these couldn’t go on for ever. Under the PTE it had turned to the Volvo Ailsa B55 after Atlantean production ended supplemented by smaller batches of the MCW Metrobus and the Leyland Olympian. When the Ailsa ceased production, it had purchased a small amount of Volvo Citybus double-deckers based on the Volvo B10M, which included the prototype vehicle. SB also had as other oddities which included some pre-production Ailsas on fleet strength plus the only Ailsa built from new as a single-decker. It also had an early prototype Leyland Olympian, which was actually licensed as a Leyland B45 (it’s Leyland product code) and carried the first Alexander R-type body built anywhere. Sadly, both this bus and the prototype Citybus were destroyed in the Larkfield depot fire, more of which later.

 

Single-deckers were limited in number but no less interesting. The biggest type was a batch of Leyland Nationals but these were limited in use and all bar one was sold by 1988. There were also some Seddon Midibuses and some single-deck Atlanteans, which had started off as standard PTE Atlanteans but were cut down into single-deckers. An early Ailsa joined them in the same format. A small coach fleet was also run, mainly for private hires and excursions which was supplemented by buses from the main fleet.

 

When the first orders were placed for big buses, these represented one of the biggest orders for buses placed so far in the post deregulation era. Initially 65 MCW Metrobuses and 55 Volvo Citybuses with Alexander RV-bodies. Sadly MCW hit its own issues - in no small part linked to the corrosion issues on the Metrorider - which saw 40 knocked off the order for Metrobuses and replaced by a similar number of Citybuses. It also ordered two Volvo B10M single-decker with Plaxton Derwent bus bodies for a tendered service to Balfron, which could also double up as coaches if needs required. Two other similar single-decker buses were acquired from the fleet of the collapsed independent operator Graham’s of Paisley.

 

SBG began scaling back its city services and as its subsidiaries were privatised, tact understandings were reached with the new companies which saw mutual understandings reached over territories. This led to SBL reverting to its dominant position in the city with the former SBG subsidiaries very much playing second fiddle. A period of stability ensued, with the only new vehicles being three all Leyland Olympians, mainly to cover for warranty work on the Citybuses.

 

However, in 1992 a disastrous fire ripped through part of Larkfield depot destroying 60 buses, including the ones mentioned earlier. Operators around the UK stepped in to help by loaning buses until new buses could be sourced but the fire happened at a critical point in the company as it was due to to sold its employees and management from SRC. The sale was postponed to allow the value of the lost buses and new ones to be factored in. Initially it looked as though these new buses to replace the lost vehicles were to be Dennis Dominators as three were ordered with East Lancs bodies. However at the last moment these were cancelled and 52 Leyland Olympians with Alexander RL-type bodies were ordered. By this stage the Volvo Olympian was on the horizon but SBL preferred to order the original design. When delivered, these were amongst the last Leyland buses delivered in the UK. Incidentally, the Dominators, which had been in build when the order was cancelled ended up with Maynes of Manchester. However three Scania K93s single-deckers with East Lancs 2000 bodies were ordered to replace them.

 

The company eventually passed into employee/management ownership in 1993. One of the first things the newly privatised company did was set up a subsidiary under the snappy title of Comlaw 1313 Limited but which fortunately traded as GCT - sounds familiar - and using a green/yellow/black livery. GCT was not solely a low-cost operation but would act as route for new recruits to enter the company and to bid for tendered routes. Some routes passed to GCT from SBL, one of which was the former Magicbus route which Stagecoach had sold previously to Kelvin Central. That service was then passed on by Kelvin Central to SBL along with some vehicles. It was rumoured that Stagecoach had sold that route to remove any competition concerns to allow it to bid for SBL.

 

It’s first new buses as an independent company were four Volvo Olympians, two with Volvo engines and two with Cummins engines. Also two of the four had Alexander Royale bodies and the other two had Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodies. Apparently they were ordered to assess future fleet ordering requirements.

 

Former competitor Kelvin Central was then bought by SB Holdings in 1994 - the holding company for SBL - and consolidation took place between the two companies, which led to depot closures on the Kelvin Central side. Despite this increasing SB Holdings market share to over 60% in the Glasgow area, the sale went through with no issues. However, potential trouble was on the horizon and it was in the form of Stagecoach again. Frustrated by its inability to acquire SBL, Stagecoach began to set up a Glasgow subsidiary - Stagecoach Glasgow - managed and run by its new Stagecoach Western Buses Company. It secured a fleet of Alexander bodied Volvo B10Ms and B6s to run the new services it proposed to introduce. SBL began to scour the country for good second hand vehicles and planned to set up services in Fife and Perth to retaliate.

 

At the last moment peace broke out. SBL cancelled its services in Perth and Fife in return for Stagecoach cancelling its and taking a 20% stake in SB Holdings. As part of the deal SB Holdings bought 10 Alexander PS-Type/Volvo B10Ms from Stagecoach, which it allocated to Kelvin Central. The second hand buses bought in anticipation of the Stagecoach onslaught were also used to ‘upgrade’ the Kelvin Central fleet. One odd thing was that the initial Stagecoach Glasgow launch service had been due to start just prior to the sale of the stake. This meant SBL had to take this service on and had to run it until it could be cancelled. This led to SBL buses, crewed by SBL staff, operating the new service on hire to Stagecoach Western Buses competing with existing SBL services....ho hum hoots.

 

The Stagecoach stake did lead to a very Stagecoach influence in subsequent vehicle purchases made at that time with Stagecoach spec vehicles being added. However the former Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) took an interest in the stake and decided Stagecoach should sell it, despite protests and an appeal by Stagecoach, which it eventually won. However it was ultimately rendered unimportant when SB Holdings was sold to Firstbus in May 1996 for a seemingly astronomical £110million, the transaction making FirstBus the largest bus operator in the UK. Stagecoach was happy to have walked away with a handsome profit on its investment.

 

SBL had ordered several batches of Volvo B10M/Alexander PS types to upgrade the KCB fleet to clear our older types, largely to a Stagecoach spec. Just before it was acquired by Firstbus, it had placed an order for 150 Volvo Olympians with Alexander RL-type bodies largely to a Stagecoach spec. This was one of the largest orders Volvo had received for the Olympian from an independent operator. However when Firstbus acquired it, the order was scaled back and only 60 arrived as that, with the order changed for some single-deckers and Firstbus style Volvo Olympians.

 

Initially little changed as at the time Firstbus, was still working out its corporate look and the only clue to the change was ‘Welcome to Firstbus’ logos on the windows next to the entrance door. However a few months after the purchase, Firstbus revealed that all the SB Holdings fleets would share a common allover dull red livery with Firstbus style fleetname. On top of that two of the fleets would be renamed. Kelvin Central would be known as just Kelvin and Strathclyde’s Buses would be renamed Greater Glasgow, although the legal lettering was still unchanged. The fact that Strathclyde was disappearing from the side of the buses was hardly a surprise as Stathclyde Regional Council had itself been abolished in 1995.

 

The launch of the allover red livery happened to coincide with another attack by Stagecoach into Glasgow. This led to a rapid modernisation of the fleet of First standard buses and the new Greater Glasgow fleetname was added to buses still in the orange/black livery. However the MMC again stuck its oar in, stating that it was investigating the purchase of SB Holdings by First, claiming that it put First in an unusually dominant position in Central Scotland. This was given it also owned First Midland Bluebird, First SMT and First Lowland too. It wanted First to sell Midland Bluebird plus one of the Glasgow depots to a single purchaser. If it couldn’t, First world have sell SB Holdings.

 

First lobbied hard on the decision but hedged its bets by freezing investment into Midland Bluebird and selecting a Glasgow Depot - believed to be Possilpark - for the sale. It argued that there was now healthy competition in Glasgow - a happy coincidence says a cynical me - and was successfully allowed to retain the company.

 

In early 1998, Firstbus was renamed FirstGroup, to reflect that it now didn’t just include buses. It also launched its corporate livery and this started to appear in Glasgow with buses having small supplemental Greater Glasgow and Kelvin fleetnames. GCT had been closed down by this stage. However on the 29 May 1998, SB Holdings was renamed First Glasgow Limited and Strathclyde’s Buses was renamed First Glasgow No.1 Limited with Kelvin renamed First Glasgow No.2 Limited. Buses would just carry small supplemental Glasgow fleetnames until these too disappeared. Although First Glasgow No.1 is still trading as an operator license, all buses now just carry First Glasgow Limited legal lettering.

 

So what else remains of SBL? In short, not much. All former SBL-bus depots have now closed, the last being Parkhead in early 2016. However Gartcraig is still active as Depot for Glasgow City Council’s vehicles. Some services are still recognisable as SBL services although some of their route numbers have changed. However the orange - well Strathclyde red - and black livery is still fondly remembered and of course it also survived on trains too well into the millennium.

Done