Stagecoach Group, usually shortened to Stagecoach, is a British transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom.
Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as Gloagtrotter, a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. During the early 1980s, it took advantage of the deregulation of the British express coach market, launching services from Dundee to London using second-hand Neoplan coaches, competing against the then state-owned National Express Coaches and Scottish Citylink. Stagecoach purchased several recently privatised national bus groups from London Regional Transport, the National Bus Company, Scottish Bus Group and various city councils, as well as pursuing those that had opted for management buyouts and employee-owned corporations. During August 1996, Stagecoach acquired roughly one-third of all passenger rolling stock in the UK via the acquisition of the recently privatised leasing company Porterbrook; it sold the company on four years later. In 1997, Stagecoach was awarded the franchise to operate the recently privatised Sheffield Supertram system. In 1998, it purchased Prestwick Airport.
Following the sale of its London bus operations to Macquarie Bank in 2006, Stagecoach UK Bus concentrated on the bus market outside the UK capital. During 2007, Stagecoach was awarded the East Midlands franchise. In July 2007, it commenced operating the Manchester Metrolink tram network. During January 2009, Stagecoach purchased Preston Bus, a former rival in the Lancashire area, but was promptly compelled to sell it by the Competition Commission. In October 2010, it expanded further by re-acquiring East London and Selkent, Stagecoach's former London bus operations. During March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast, in which Stagecoach held a 90% shareholding, commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise; the franchise was terminated early three years later as it was unable to fulfil the agreed payments.
During April 2019, private equity house Variant acquired Stagecoach's US division in exchange for $271 million. In April 2019, Stagecoach was disqualified from participating in three rail franchise competitions by the Department for Transport after it submitted non-compliant bids. During September 2021, it was reported that rival company National Express entered into talks to acquire Stagecoach. In May 2022, a rival takeover offer from a DWS managed investment fund bought Stagecoach.
History
Background and early years
The origins of Stagecoach Group can be traced back to 1976, at which point Ann Gloag and her husband Robin Gloag established a small recreational vehicle and minibus hire business called Gloagtrotter based in Perth, Scotland.[3] Ann's brother, Brian Souter, an accountant, joined the firm and expanded the business into bus hire. In 1982, following the collapse of his marriage to Ann, Robin Gloag sold his ownership stake in the business and ceased any involvement. Around this time, the company would benefit greatly from the deregulation of the British express coach market in the early 1980s; specifically, the Transport Act 1980, which freed express services of 35 miles and over from regulation by the Traffic Commissioner, brought new opportunities for the company and services were launched from Dundee to London using second-hand Neoplan coaches. For a while, the company offered a very personal service with Brian Souter doing the driving and Ann Gloag preparing sandwiches and other snacks for the passengers.[4]
Operations
Key people
Stagecoach Group plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Founder Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag were the largest shareholders with a combined 26% shareholding at April 2019.[62]
UK operating companies
The following is a breakdown of the Stagecoach operating divisions. The centre of each operating region is shown in parentheses. Legal company names are listed alongside the trading names for that company.
Bus division
Bus division operations are as follows:[63]
Brands
Apart from the ordinary bus operations and no-frills services, the UK bus division has the following brands that extend across operating divisions.
- Stagecoach Express – an express coach service that operates mainly between towns and cities where Stagecoach operate. It tends not to compete with National Express like Megabus, and in some cases tickets are available through the National Express website.[65]
Former operations
East Midlands Trains
Stagecoach commenced operating the new East Midlands Trains franchise in November 2007 that took over all of Midland Mainline's and some of Central Trains services.[71] During August 2019, it ceased operating when the franchise was taken over by Abellio East Midlands Railway.[72]
Manchester Metrolink
In July 2007, Stagecoach took over the operation of Manchester Metrolink on a 10-year fixed-term management contract, beating competition from Keolis, Serco and Transdev, to make it the biggest tram operator in the UK.[73]
No-frills brands
Stagecoach operate a number of so-called "no-frills" services across the United Kingdom and the United States. Applying the business model of the low-cost carrier air lines, these services aim to offer cheaper alternatives to the established operators in the bus, coach and rail markets, by reducing costs, and offering extremely low fares for the earliest bookings, rising nearer the journey time:
Magic Bus
Magic Bus was the first no-frills brand of Stagecoach. It was first used in red lettering on ex London Regional Transport AEC Routemasters, otherwise painted in Stagecoach stripes, in competition in Glasgow. Later, an allover blue with yellow lettering was adopted, on older service buses with simple fares and no travel passes, usually operated on routes with strong competition from other operators, most notably on the Manchester Piccadilly to East Didsbury Wilmslow Road bus corridor route in Manchester, but also in Newcastle upon Tyne and East Scotland (as Magic Mini). In 2008 Stagecoach Merseyside introduced a Magic Bus service competing with themselves and Arriva North West on the busy route 14 corridor, Magic Bus 14C runs every 7/8 minutes between City Centre and Broadway. By 2012, only the Manchester Magic Bus remained, these being upgraded from Volvo Olympians and Dennis Dragons to Alexander ALX400 and East Lancs bodied
Scottish Citylink
In September 2005, Stagecoach and ComfortDelGro announced a joint venture in the provision of express coach services in Scotland, ending intense competition between ComfortDelGro's subsidiary Scottish Citylink and Stagecoach subsidiaries Megabus and Motorvator. Under the terms of the joint venture, the Stagecoach Group acquires a 35% stake in Scottish Citylink Coaches Ltd, with Citylink assuming certain rights to the Megabus and Motorvator brands in Scotland.[107]
The Competition Commission ruled in October 2006 that the joint venture substantially reduced competition and that evidence suggested some routes were already experiencing higher fares as a result.[108] Though no firm conclusion was drawn, regulators are to consult the two companies about what they need to do to comply with competition regulations and they have indicated that this will likely lead to the forced divestment of some services to an independent operator. The ruling was criticised by Stagecoach as leaving vital services in limbo and jeopardising Scotland's intercity coach network, making it unable to compete effectively with rail and private car journeys.[109]
Controversy
Competitive strategy
Following the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom, Stagecoach bought a number of the newly emerged small bus companies and ran free or low fare buses to put local rivals out of business.[111] In Darlington, Stagecoach subsidiary Busways offered bounties to recruit drivers away from the existing bus service and offered free buses to deter the rival preferred bidder from taking over the existing bus service. This was "predatory, deplorable and against the public interest" according to findings from the Monopolies & Mergers Commission.[112][113]
In 2000, Stagecoach Manchester was found to have been employing bus inspectors to usher passengers away from competitor's services.[114] During 2005, alleged aggressive behaviour by Stagecoach drivers, seeking to compete with Scotbus, resulted in an arson fire at a
Guided Busway
Stagecoach operate buses along the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. The Guide wheels on the side of the buses, combined with a specially built track mean that hands free driving is possible. The main advantages of a guided busway, versus a normal road are higher speeds (meaning increased capacity) and increased safety as traffic of differing directions is physically separated.[122]
See also
- Bus transport in the United Kingdom
Further reading
External links
References
- Annual Report 2023 Stagecoach Group, retrieved 23 August 2023^
- Who we are Stagecoach Group, retrieved 23 August 2023^
- Stagecoach Group: last stop for founders