Fife Scottish

Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was formed as a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from Walter Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd and is now part of the Stagecoach Group, trading as Stageoach in Fife.

Operation

From its head office, initially in Kirkcaldy but since moved to Cowdenbeath, Fife Scottish operated throughout the ancient kingdom of Fife and beyond to Dundee and Edinburgh. A network of express services also reach as far west as Glasgow.

Fife is the largest operator in the region and is responsible for urban, rural and interurban services in the towns of St Andrews, Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Methil, Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy. Depots are also located in these towns. Under SBG ownership a depot was maintained in Newburgh, but this has since been closed.

During the 1980s, Fife Scottish provided coaches for Scottish Citylink work, mainly from Fife to other destinations in Scotland. Since privatisation, however, Fife Scottish has built up its own substantial network of express services under the Stagecoach Express banner.

History

Walter Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd, which can be traced back to 1923, was renamed Fife Scottish Omnibuses Ltd through reorganisation of the Scottish Bus Group in preparation for deregulation of the bus industry in 1986, and eventual privatisation. Of the seven original SBG subsidiaries, Alexanders (Fife) was the only company to survive the reorganisation intact; it lost none of its operating area to any of the new companies formed and nor did it gain. The only impact of the shake-up was the legal name change.

On its creation, the company kept the vibrant red and cream livery adopted by Alexander’s Fife operations. The SBG corporate ‘Fife Scottish’ fleet name style was adopted, however, in an unusually large size, and larger areas of cream were the only visible differences. Some vehicles sported “Best Bus In The Kingdom” slogans as part of SBG’s marketing drive, rather than “Best Bus In Town” or “Best Bus Around”; playing on Fife’s proud history of once being a separate kingdom.

With the arrival of deregulation came the arrival of competition. Fife had previously enjoyed being the sole operator throughout much of the region and it’s response to the new operators showed the company’s intention to remain so. Despite the cities of Edinburgh and Dundee being on the edges of it’s operating area, Fife concentrated on protecting its home market rather than expanding into the cities to compete against the dominant operators there. Rennie’s of Dunfermline were the first challengers to Fife in and around that town, but by far the largest and most sustained competition came from local coach firm Moffat & Williamson. Moffat’s built up a substantial network of services throughout much of Fife, mirroring the larger operator’s network. A “bus war” broke out across the region, and vehicles from both operators could be seen nose to tail on services such as that between Dundee and St Andrews. Fife’s passenger base seemed loyal, however, and Rennie’s would soon withdraw from Dunfermline and Moffat’s would scale back its operations, though retaining pockets of strong competition in the industrialised towns in the south of the region.

Despite the competition, Fife remained the most profitable of all the SBG subsidiaries and was seen by potential buyers as the 'jewel in the crown' of the state-owned bus group. In July 1991, Fife Scottish was purchased by Stagecoach for £9.1m. The red and cream livery was replaced by the Stagecoach corporate look of red, blue and orange stripes on a white background. Stagecoach took a much more severe line with Moffat & Williamson, a strategy that drew criticism in the media for being predatory and uncompetitive. However, it was a strategy that worked. Moffat & Williamson would withdraw the majority of its competing services and Fife Scottish would once again become the sole operator in much of the kingdom, a position it enjoys today.

Now part of Stagecoach East Scotland, the company now trades as Stagecoach in Fife.

External links

Stagecoach in Fife website