Stagecoach West recently celebrated its 30-year anniversary, having been formed out of the takeover of Western Travel. Richard Sharman takes a pictorial look back over the last few decades
Western Travel was a company born out of the bus deregulation era, which took effect from 26 October 1986. The company taken over by its management to form this new group was the Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus Company, previously owned by the National Bus Company and established to encompass the depots at Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud and Swindon.
Bold and bright new liveries and identities were designed to move the company away from its previous connection with the National Bus Company. Of note is that Western Travel later went on to acquire Midland Red South, Red & White Services and Circle-Line of Gloucester.
Stagecoach was in the middle of a buying spree, and Western Travel became the third operator to be added to Sir Brian Souter’s portfolio in as many weeks for the price of £9.25m on 26 November 1993. It followed on from the group also taking over East Kent and Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport.
Talking about buying Western Travel at the time, Sir Brian Souter said: “We are particularly pleased about getting a presence in an area where we have not been previously.”
[wlm_nonmember][…]By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
Following the takeover, repaints into Stagecoach stripes followed at a rapid pace, with any vehicles in original livery gaining the now customary Stagecoach window sticker, which adorned hundreds of other non-corporate liveried vehicles in other recently acquired fleets, of which there were many during this time.
The one exception to this rule was Circle-Line of Gloucester, an operation that had been in competition with the established operator in Gloucester until being acquired by Western Travel shortly before the Stagecoach deal.
The company remained separate and the green livery was retained to operate a few subsidised services and a large number of school contracts, it also assisted at Farnborough Air Show. The fleet received a large influx of vehicles from around the Stagecoach group, including a number of oddities. By September 1999 the operation had moved into full Stagecoach West control, and shortly after, in January 2000, it was merged with the main operations and any contract buses then gained an all over dark blue livery.
The Stagecoach West name was introduced in December 1993, and Midland Red South and Red & White Services – with the exception of the Ross-on-Wye area services, which stayed with West – then stood on their own as Stagecoach Midland Red and Stagecoach Red & White.
On 20 March 2006, further expansion continued with the takeover of Coleford-based Dukes Travel, adding a large number of routes around the Forest of Dean and the addition to the fleet of many non-standard vehicle types. The fleet that was repainted gained Stagecoach Wye & Dean fleet names.
It wasn’t until October 2019 that the next acquisition came, and this was to be a substantial one, as it gave West a foothold in Bristol and also helped to expand intercity coach services through the megabus brand. South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach added a further 56 vehicles, the vast majority being coaches. Over time, this has allowed the Bristol area bus network to expand beyond West’s traditional operating area.
February 2021 saw West drastically expand with Thames Transit, trading as Stagecoach in Oxford, merge with West and head office functions move to Gloucester. The fleet total for West now sits at just under 500 vehicles, making it a substantial operation within the DWS Group-owned Stagecoach empire.
Commenting on the 30-year anniversary, Managing Director Rachel Geliamassi said: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful teams and customers for making Stagecoach West the success it is today. We play a vital role in thousands of people’s lives every day, taking them to work or school, to appointments or holidays and days out – a role we value and care about.
“So, here’s to the next 30 years and all the exciting challenges ahead – a time of change with the introduction of more electric vehicles to our fleet, adopting new technologies and continuing to put our customers at the heart of everything we do. Happy 30th birthday, Stagecoach West!”
To mark the anniversary, staff across the operating area celebrated with quizzes, a small gift, cupcakes at each depot and a 30th birthday cake at Cheltenham and Gloucester offices for all staff to enjoy. Representatives of Stagecoach West were also out and about in Cheltenham and Gloucester, handing out celebration cupcakes, tea and coffee to customers and the opportunity to win a voucher for a free West Gold DayRider ticket.
Looking to the future
Investment in Oxfordshire depots is currently underway, with a fleet of 15 new Alexander Dennis Enviro400MMCs currently being deployed at Witney depot for use on services E1, H2, S1, S2 and S7. 11747-11761 are currently ousting similar 2019 examples to Oxford depot and to Bristol depot for park & ride service 9.
West’s first electric buses are now also in build at Alexander Dennis for Oxford depot, where it will be the very first operator of the brand new Enviro400EV model.
Fifty-five examples will soon be delivered to Horspath Road depot and will operate on services throughout the city as part of the new Oxford SmartZone network from March 2024.
Rachel explained: “Stagecoach is fully committed to having a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035 so beginning this important project is incredibly exciting and a major leap towards our ultimate goal. The launch of electric buses in Oxford builds on the successful introduction in other major cities across the UK improving air quality and making bus travel an even more attractive option for everyone.”
Oxford’s electric bus scheme is funded in part from a successful bid by Oxford County Council to the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme of £32.8m. This, together with £6m from the city council and £43.7m from Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company will deliver the new electric buses and the infrastructure to support them in a package worth £82.5m in total.
Head office staff and winners of a staff competition recently travelled to Alexander Dennis’ Larbert plant on an Oxford Tube Plaxton Panorama coach to see the first of the new Enviro400EVs in build ahead of the Enviro400EV demonstrator visiting Horspath Road depot for a week so that drivers, cleaners and engineers were able to have a good look around the vehicle ahead of the first of the batch being delivered for type training.
Design and installation of the charging infrastructure is being undertaken by EV fleet specialists Zenobē; this will be the 15th fleet electrification project by Stagecoach to be delivered in partnership with the end-to-end charging solutions specialist.
Exciting times lay ahead for Stagecoach West, and no doubt the next 30 years will be just as interesting as the fleet moves towards a zero-emissions and it looks for further expansion of its customer offerings.
