| Stagecoach East Scotland | |
| Parent: | Stagecoach Group |
| Founded: | 2008 |
| Headquarters: | Dunfermline, Scotland, UK |
| Service Area: | Fife Tayside Perthshire Angus Aberdeen Edinburgh Glasgow Stirling |
| Service Type: | Bus and coach |
| Fleet: | 468 (April 2019)[1] |
| Leader: | Douglas Robertson |
| Leader Type: | Managing Director |
| Annual Ridership: | 32.5 million |
| Depots: | 8 |
Stagecoach East Scotland (Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: Stagecoach an Ear na h-Alba) is a bus operator providing services in eastern Scotland, with its regional base in Dunfermline, Fife. The company is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Stagecoach began long distance express coach services in 1981 from its base in Perth, expanding into local bus operations when it bought McLennan of Spittalfield in 1985. Deregulation of bus services under the Transport Act 1985 in October 1986 gave Stagecoach the opportunity to expand operations in Perth, thus fierce competition with the dominant operator Strathtay Scottish began, which eventually saw Stagecoach's then-Perth Panther subsidiary emerge as the largest provider of bus services in the Perth area.[2] On the breakup and privatisation of the state-owned Scottish Bus Group, Stagecoach was successful in acquiring two of the subsidiaries, namely Northern Scottish in March 1991 and Fife Scottish in July 1991,[3] [4] the latter of which would form the basis of Stagecoach East Scotland's operations following a protracted legal battle between Stagecoach and a management buyout team.[5] [6]
In August 2003, the United Kingdom's first entirely commercial demand responsive bus service was launched by Stagecoach East Scotland in Fife. Trading as Yellow Taxibus and using the AA Buses Ltd legal name (transferred from Stagecoach West Scotland where it was purchased with the AA Buses operation in Ayrshire), the operation combined the benefits of a fixed bus route with the flexibility of pre-booked taxi pick-ups. Yellow Taxibus operated a fleet of eight-seater Mercedes-Benz Vito vehicles on a high-frequency service between Dunfermline and Edinburgh seven days a week;[7] however after a two-year trial, the loss-making service was withdrawn in November 2005.[8]
On 14 December 2005 Stagecoach purchased the Barnsley-based Traction Group, the largest remaining private bus company in the United Kingdom, for £26 million. The Traction Group owned Strathtay Scottish, which Stagecoach had pushed out of Perth some 16 years earlier.[9] The Strathtay operations bridged the gap between Stagecoach's Fife, Perth and Bluebird operations, giving the group a vast swathe of the country extending from Edinburgh through to Perth, northwards to Aberdeen and round to Inverness, with only Travel Dundee and First Aberdeen being the major non-Stagecoach operators within that area. Unusually, despite the Strathtay fleet receiving the corporate livery, fleet vehicles were branded with Strathtay with Part of the Stagecoach Group straplines.
In October 2007, Stagecoach in Perth commenced operations of the first of two Stagecoach Goldline services, operated as a trial for the wider Stagecoach Group in conjunction with a service run by Stagecoach Warwickshire. Stagecoach in Perth's Goldline service 7 was operated using eight new Alexander Dennis Enviro300 single-deck buses, fitted out to a higher interior standard and painted in a special gold and blue livery.[10] Since these trials, the brand, renamed to Stagecoach Gold, has expanded to Stagecoach subsidiaries across the United Kingdom, while the Perth Goldline service would later be upgraded to operate Alexander Dennis Enviro350H hybrid electric buses.
In March 2008, it was announced that Stagecoach Fife had purchased Rennies of Dunfermline for an undisclosed sum, following the retirement of Rennies' owner. The Rennies fleet consisted of 60 vehicles, including 18 double-deckers which were all leased from Stagecoach in Fife.[11] Rennies were formerly based at Dunfermline (Wellwood Mill), before moving to Cowdenbeath in 2016.
In Spring 2014, Stagecoach entered the South Queensferry area, replacing a withdrawn service to Edinburgh which had been run for many years by First Scotland East.[12] However, the South Queensferry operation incurred huge losses and was withdrawn in June 2017,[13] with Lothian Buses subsequently taking it over.
In May 2023, Stagecoach East Scotland began operating autonomous Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV as part of the CAVForth scheme on route "AB1" across the Forth Road Bridge.[14] A second route is planned to expand the use of the autonomous service to Dunfermline city centre.[15]
Stagecoach East Scotland operates under six different brands:
In October 2007, Stagecoach's Fife operations received a £4.5 million investment in upgrading the regional express network, with services branded as "Express City Connect" and "Experience City Connect".[17] [18] Express services from West Fife to Edinburgh received nine new Scania OmniLink tri-axle single-deckers featuring leather seating and free Wi-Fi, while the rest of the network received 20 Plaxton Profile bodied Volvo B7R coaches, also equipped with leather seating and free Wi-Fi.
In 2011, further new Plaxton Elite coaches were delivered to Stagecoach to help deal with the increase in passengers on the X59 service,[19] [20] with further examples being delivered between 2012 and 2017.[21] This has resulted in the City Connect brand receiving the accolade of Top Express Operation at the UK Coach Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.[22]
Since 1999, Stagecoach East Scotland has operated and provide numerous park & ride sites across their operating area.
As of April 2019, Stagecoach East Scotland operates 468 buses and coaches from eight depots: