Arriva Scotland West
Arriva Scotland West<ref>Arriva Scotland West Limited formerly Clydesdale Buses Limited formerly Clydesdale 2000 Limited Companies House extract company no SC128566</ref> was a bus company based in Inchinnan, near Paisley, Scotland. It was formed in 1997 as a rebranding of the former Clydeside 2000 company when purchased by Arriva. On 26 March 2012, the business was sold to McGill's Bus Services.
History[edit]
Clydeside was formed as Clydeside Scottish in June 1985 from the northern operations of Western SMT to prepare the state-owned parent company, the Scottish Bus Group, for deregulation.
At the time, Clydeside's operating area was much larger, covering Inverclyde (including the towns of Gourock and Greenock), the Isle of Bute and much of the south side of Glasgow. Clydeside was re-merged with Western Scottish (Western SMT's successor company) in 1989 in an attempt to make it more financially viable. However, on the privatisation of Western Scottish the Clydeside operations were sold in a management buyout as Clydeside 2000 plc with Luton & District taking a 23% stake. Clydeside began rationalising some of its operations, and depots at Largs, Paisley and Thornliebank were closed, the latter as a result of a reduction in operations within Glasgow.<ref name=Brown>Brown, Stewart J (November 1995). Buses in Britain 2: The Mid Nineties. Capital Transport. p. 13. ISBN 1-85414-181-3.</ref>
In November 1994, Clydesdale 2000 was sold to British Bus, who had just completed the take over of shareholder Luton & District.<ref>SB Holdings Limited & Kelvin Central Buses Limited Monopolies & Mergers Commission 29 March 1995</ref> The new parent company began investing heavily in the ageing fleet. A more vibrant red, white and yellow livery was introduced, and new "Flagship" routes were created to raise quality levels.<ref name=Brown /> Clydesdale Buses was included in the 1 August 1996 sale of British Bus to the Cowie Group,<ref>Cowie buys British Bus for £282m Herald Scotland 1 August 1996</ref><ref>Cowie Group plc and British Bus Group Limited: A report on the merger situation Competition Commission 31 October 1996</ref> which in November 1997 was rebranded as Arriva.<ref>Bamber Forsyth unites Cowie Design Week 23 October 1997</ref>
The main competitor in Greenock, Ashton Coaches, was purchased along with 62 buses in July 1997. The Greenock operations were re-branded GMS Greenock Motor Services, using Ashton's white, green and gold livery, in order to more effectively combat the plethora of small operators in the town.<ref name=Buses510>MacDonald, Sandy (September 1997). "Fleet News Scotland". Buses Magazine (510): 50–51.</ref> Long established independent operator McGill's Bus Services of Barrhead was also purchased in the same month, and initially continued to operate under its own identity.<ref name=Buses510/> A stake was also taken in Dart Buses of Paisley, another competitor, though this operator would soon go out of business.
The company flirted with operations outside its operating area, successfully securing tenders to operate services in Cumbernauld (where a depot was established for a short time) and south east Glasgow, though these were short-lived.
Further rationalisation took place in 2002, with the Inverclyde operations being sold to local management. Confusingly, the new operation was branded as McGill's Bus Services - the company name and operating licence having been purchased with McGill's of Barrhead - based in Port Glasgow, and employing a livery of blue, white and gold in the same styles as both Arriva and the GMS division, depending on what type of vehicle it was applied to. At the same time, the Barrhead depot, originally belonging to the initial McGill's Bus Service, was closed and operations concentrated on the two remaining depots.
In 2007, BAA awarded the new Glasgow Flyer 500 service to Arriva, which al bought several specially liveried Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLEs for the service. As a result, the 905 Airlink service, jointly operated with Fairline Coaches under contract to Scottish Citylink, ended; however Fairline have since started an independent service numbered 905.
In August 2010 the company, along with First Glasgow, were banned by the area Traffic Commissioner from registering any new services into Glasgow city centre for six months after being found guilty of breaching regulations by picking up and dropping off passengers at locations other than their designated bus stops. One other operator was also banned.<ref>Big bus companies face ban for predatory practices in city Herald Scotland 3 August 2010</ref>
In December 2011, Arriva announced it had agreed to sell the business to McGill's Bus Services.<ref>Bus firm McGill's to take over rivals Arriva BBC News 13 December 2011</ref><ref>McGill’s in £10m takeover deal The Scotsman 14 December 2011</ref><ref>Arriva exits Scotland with Sale to McGill's Bus & Coach Professional 14 December 2011</ref> The transaction was referred to the Competition Commission, before being approved in 2012.
Fleet[edit]
Below is a list of each depot fleet before the sale to McGill's. Most buses were transferred over to McGill's as part of the deal when the assets of Arriva Scotland West were sold to McGill's.
Inchinnan Depot[edit]
Location: Inchinnan (Greenock Road)
- 2 Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse
- 29 Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer
- 3 DAF SB120 / Wright Cadet
- 2 VDL SB120 / Wright Cadet
- 10 VDL SB200/ Wright Pulsar 2
- 4 VDL SB200/ Wright Commander
- 6 Scania OmniLink
Johnstone Depot[edit]
Location: Johnstone (Cochranemill Road)
- 1 Dennis Dart / Northern Counties Paladin
- 16 Dennis Dart / Plaxton Pointer
- 54 Dennis Dart SLF / Alexander ALX200
- 23 Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer
- 3 Mercedes-Benz Citaro
- 9 Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse
- 2 DAF SB3000 / Van Hool Alizee
- 5 Scania N113 / East Lancs
- 2 Volvo B6 / Plaxton Pointer (Trainer vehicles)
- 3 Mercedes-Benz Vario / Plaxton Beaver
- 1 Optare MetroRider (Staff vehicle)
- 5 Volvo B10B / Wright Endurance
- 2 Volvo B6LE / Wright Crusader
- 2 Dennis Dart SLF / Wright Crusader
- 2 Dennis Dart SLF / East Lancs Spryte
