Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was formed a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group in June 1985 from Walter Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd and Walter Alexander & Sons (Northern) Ltd. Today it is owned by Barnsley-based bus company Yorkshire Traction .

Operation

From its head office in Dundee, Strathtay Scottish had an operating area bounded by Laurencekirk in the north, Newport-on-Tay to the south and Perth to the east.

Strathtay is the largest operator in Angus and is responsible for urban, rural and interurban services in and around Dundee, Arbroath, Blairgowrie, Forfar and Montrose. Depots are also located in those towns. On its creation Strathtay was also the largest operator in Perth, Crieff and Pitlochry, but depots in those towns have since closed and operations scaled back.

Strathtay also provide coaches for Scottish Citylink express work, mainly from Perth and Dundee to other points in Scotland.

History

Strathtay Scottish was a brand new company created through reorganisation of the Scottish Bus Group in preparation for deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, and eventual privatisation. It inherited the eastern operations of Alexanders (Midland) based in Perth, Crieff, Blairgowrie and Pitlochry, as well as the southern operations of Alexanders (Northern) in Dundee, Forfar, Arbroath and Montrose. A bright blue and orange livery was adopted for the fleet, which would be controlled from Dundee.

The company would have a turbulent infancy, however, as Strathtay faced very heavy competition from local Perth-based firm, Stagecoach. Strathtay purchased a number of ex-London Transport Routemaster buses to counter the competition, which ironically also used a number of the same vehicle type on city services in Perth. A new ‘Perth City Transport’ brand was created by Strathtay to compete with Stagecoach, using a mainly red livery with white. But as Stagecoach grew nationally it became financially stronger and had ready access to vehicles from the larger companies in England it had purchased. Strathtay could not sustain the level of intense competition that ensued, and in 1993 it closed its Perth depot. Crieff and Pitlochry also closed, and the company withdrew from the majority of services around these towns.

Perhaps because it was pre-occupied with protecting its market share in Perth, Strathtay did not take advantage of deregulation to launch a city network in Dundee to compete against the city operator there.

Despite experiencing heavy and sustained competition on the lucrative city services in Perth, Strathtay managed to remain profitable on the run up to privatisation, and in June 1991 was sold to Yorkshire Traction Ltd for £1.9m.

Trading simply as Strathtay Buses, the company’s operations remain largely unchanged since being privatised, and has maintained a working relationship with Stagecoach around Perth, even jointly operating the trunk service between Dundee and Perth with the national operator.

External links

• Strathtay Buses website (under construction)
• Unofficial Strathtay Buses website