Scottish Bus Group

The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) was a Sovereign state owned group of bus operators covering the whole of Scotland.

The origin of the grouping was the operators owned by and including the Scottish Motor Traction company, which were transferred to Scottish Omnibuses after nationalisation in 1948 under control of the British Transport Commission. Highland Scottish was added to the group in 1952.

A new holding company, Scottish Omnibuses Group (Holdings) was formed in 1961, and this was renamed Scottish Bus Group. Meanwhile, the group had come under control of the Transport Holding Company in 1962 when the British Transport Commission was wound up. It went on to become part of the Scottish Transport Group on 1 January 1969 along with David MacBrayne. At the time it operated 4,700 buses.

Member companies

• Central SMT Company (branded as Central Scottish from 1978)
• Highland Omnibuses (branded as Highland Scottish from 1978)
• Scottish Omnibuses (branded as Eastern Scottish from 1964)
• W Alexander & Sons (Fife) (branded as Fife Scottish from 1978)
• W Alexander & Sons (Midland) (branded as Midland Scottish from 1978)
• W Alexander & Sons (Northern) (branded as Northern Scottish from 1978)
• Western SMT (branded as Western Scottish from 1978)

In 1970, SBG took over all the routes of David MacBrayne.

In 1985, SBG was restructured as follows in preparation for Bus deregulation in the United Kingdom:

• Central Scottish
• Clydeside Scottish Omnibuses
• Eastern Scottish Omnibuses
• Fife Scottish Omnibuses
• Highland Scottish Omnibuses
• Kelvin Scottish Omnibuses
• Lowland Scottish Omnibuses
• Midland Scottish Omnibuses
• Northern Scottish Omnibuses
• Scottish Citylink Coaches
• Scottish Bus Group Engineering, became part of Midland Scottish in 1988, closed in March 1990
• Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses
• Western Scottish Omnibuses

In May 1988, it was decided to privatise the operating companies with this occurring in 1990/91. Central Scottish and Kelvin Scottish were merged as Kelvin Central Buses, while Clydeside Scottish was merged into Western Scottish so as to provide a healthier prospect for potential buyers, both companies ended up being sold as separate entities.

The holding company, Scottish Bus Group Limited, was dissolved in 2006.