Lowland Scottish
Encyclopedia
Lowland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus
operator in south eastern Scotland
and parts of northern England
. The company was formed in 1985 and operated under the identities Lowland Scottish, Lowland and First Lowland / First SMT, until 1999 when the company's operations were combined with the operations of Midland Bluebird in a new company, First Edinburgh
Ltd.
, Lowland Scottish operated throughout the Scottish Borders
and parts of Lothian
in south east Scotland
and across the border into Northumberland
in north east England
, bounded by Edinburgh
to the north, Peebles
to the west and Berwick-upon-Tweed
in the east.
Lowland Scottish operated from depots in the towns of Galashiels
, Berwick-upon-Tweed
, Dunbar
, Hawick
, Jedburgh
, Kelso, North Berwick
and Peebles
. Principal services linked these towns with Edinburgh
and with each other, along with a limited number of urban services in the larger towns and other rural or schools services. The most important route in the Borders was Service 95, linking Edinburgh and Carlisle, branded as the Borders Rail Link bus service.
in preparation for deregulation
of the bus industry in 1986, and eventual privatisation. It inherited the south eastern depots and operations of Scottish Omnibuses Limited
(Eastern Scottish
), in the Scottish Borders, eastern East Lothian and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The new company introduced a new livery
similar to the green
and cream
Eastern Scottish colours, but using a brighter green and a more striking yellow
.
Upon formation, Lowland initially faced no significant competition, thanks largely to its sparsely populated operating area. Town services within Berwick-upon-Tweed continued to be shared with recently-privatised Northumbria Motor Services, with Lowland and Northumbria having adjacent depot buildings fronting a shared bus station. This working relationship had been built up between the companies' predecessors, Scottish Omnibuses (SMT/Eastern Scottish) and United Automobile Services.
On deregulation, the relationship between Lowland and Northumbria in Berwick-upon-Tweed broke down, and fierce competition ensued between the two operators for several years. The 'bus war' eventually ended in the mid 1990s with Lowland pulling out of Berwick as part of an agreement between First and Cowie Group, by that time owners of Lowland and Northumbria respectively. Arriva
, Cowie Group's successor, withdrew from Berwick ten years later, leaving the town routes to a local independent operator, Perryman's Buses
.
Lowland Scottish became the first of the Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries to be privatised when in August 1990 the company's management and employees bought the business for £
3.1m through their holding company Reiver Ventures Ltd., the word "Scottish" then dropped from the company's legal and trading names at that time. Lowland had been a profitable unit within the Scottish Bus Group thanks largely to the limited competition in its rural territory, though this operating area did not give much scope for expansion. The company therefore sought to develop its coach business and to expand its presence in the more populated Lothians area. In 1991 the bus and coach business of Ian Glass Coaches was acquired, with a depot in Haddington. The depot in Dunbar closed shortly afterwards, as the East Lothian area operations were concentrated on Haddington. Smaller takeovers were of Shanks ('Border Travel') of Galashiels in 1992 and Grieve's Taxis of Hawick in 1993. Diversification included the acquisition of a van hire firm, and development of the PSV/HGV driving school business inherited from Shanks. The company also acquired an interest in Lothian Transit of Newtongrange, a low-cost operator running tendered bus services in the Edinburgh area.
In November 1994, GRT Group
(which later became First Group) bought Reiver Ventures for £2.4m. GRT had purchased neighbouring Eastern Scottish
(now trading as SMT once more) the previous month, and with its ownership of Midland Bluebird (the old Midland Scottish
), GRT operated across a substantial part of central Scotland, from Oban
in the west coast to the border with England. Reorganisation of the three companies quickly followed, breaking SMT in two and merging the parts with Midland and Lowland. As a result, Lowland inherited SMT's Dalkeith
and Musselburgh
depots in 1996. This changed the focus of the company from a rural operator serving the Borders to one dominated by suburban services around Edinburgh, and coincided with the start of a gradual retrenchment in the south which eventually resulted in the closure of all of the Borders depots except Galashiels.
When the 'First' corporate style was introduced, the trading names First Lowland and First SMT were used, the latter being restricted to the former SMT operations around Edinburgh. A final round of reorganisation in 1999 saw Lowland Omnibuses absorbed into Midland Bluebird Ltd and a new company, First Edinburgh Ltd.
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
operator in south eastern Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and parts of northern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The company was formed in 1985 and operated under the identities Lowland Scottish, Lowland and First Lowland / First SMT, until 1999 when the company's operations were combined with the operations of Midland Bluebird in a new company, First Edinburgh
First Edinburgh
First Edinburgh is a bus operator which operates in the south east and central Scotland, and was created by the merger of three companies: Lowland Scottish, Eastern Scottish and Midland Scottish to form a single company for the area and is part of First Group plc...
Ltd.
Operation
From its head office in GalashielsGalashiels
Galashiels is a burgh in the Scottish Borders, on the Gala Water river. The name is often shortened to "Gala" .Galashiels is a major commercial centre for the Scottish Borders...
, Lowland Scottish operated throughout the Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
and parts of Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
in south east Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and across the border into Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
in north east England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, bounded by Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
to the north, Peebles
Peebles
Peebles is a burgh in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 8,159.-History:...
to the west and Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
in the east.
Lowland Scottish operated from depots in the towns of Galashiels
Galashiels
Galashiels is a burgh in the Scottish Borders, on the Gala Water river. The name is often shortened to "Gala" .Galashiels is a major commercial centre for the Scottish Borders...
, Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
, Dunbar
Dunbar
Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
, Hawick
Hawick
Hawick is a town in the Scottish Borders of south east Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-southeast of Selkirk. It is one of the farthest towns from the sea in Scotland, in the heart of Teviotdale, and the biggest town in the former county of Roxburghshire. Hawick's architecture is...
, Jedburgh
Jedburgh
Jedburgh is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and historically in Roxburghshire.-Location:Jedburgh lies on the Jed Water, a tributary of the River Teviot, it is only ten miles from the border with England and is dominated by the substantial ruins of Jedburgh Abbey...
, Kelso, North Berwick
North Berwick
The Royal Burgh of North Berwick is a seaside town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately 25 miles east of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the 19th century because of its two sandy bays, the East Bay and the...
and Peebles
Peebles
Peebles is a burgh in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 8,159.-History:...
. Principal services linked these towns with Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and with each other, along with a limited number of urban services in the larger towns and other rural or schools services. The most important route in the Borders was Service 95, linking Edinburgh and Carlisle, branded as the Borders Rail Link bus service.
History
Lowland Scottish Omnibuses Limited was created 1985 as part of the reorganisation of the state owned Scottish Bus GroupScottish Bus Group
The Scottish Bus Group was a state-owned Scottish holding company that included a number of bus operators covering the whole of Scotland. The group was formed in 1961 as Scottish Omnibuses Group Ltd, to take control of the British Transport Commission's bus operating subsidiaries in Scotland...
in preparation for deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
of the bus industry in 1986, and eventual privatisation. It inherited the south eastern depots and operations of Scottish Omnibuses Limited
Scottish Motor Traction
Scottish Motor Traction was founded in Edinburgh in 1905. It operated buses in much of central Scotland. Aside from its traditional bus operations, it operated an air taxi service with a De Havilland Fox Moth between July 18 and October 31, 1932 and for many years owned Dryburgh Abbey Hotel...
(Eastern Scottish
Eastern Scottish
Eastern Scottish, of Edinburgh, Scotland, was a bus and coach operator and a subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group . Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd. was formed in June 1985 from the main part of Scottish Omnibuses Ltd., which had itself traded as 'Eastern Scottish' since the 1960s...
), in the Scottish Borders, eastern East Lothian and Berwick-upon-Tweed. The new company introduced a new livery
Livery
A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...
similar to the green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
and cream
Cream (colour)
Cream is the colour of the cream produced by cattle grazing on natural pasture with plants rich in yellow carotenoid pigments, some of which are incorporated into the cream, to give a yellow tone to white. Cream is the pastel colour of yellow, much like as pink is to red. Cream is used as a skin...
Eastern Scottish colours, but using a brighter green and a more striking yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
.
Upon formation, Lowland initially faced no significant competition, thanks largely to its sparsely populated operating area. Town services within Berwick-upon-Tweed continued to be shared with recently-privatised Northumbria Motor Services, with Lowland and Northumbria having adjacent depot buildings fronting a shared bus station. This working relationship had been built up between the companies' predecessors, Scottish Omnibuses (SMT/Eastern Scottish) and United Automobile Services.
On deregulation, the relationship between Lowland and Northumbria in Berwick-upon-Tweed broke down, and fierce competition ensued between the two operators for several years. The 'bus war' eventually ended in the mid 1990s with Lowland pulling out of Berwick as part of an agreement between First and Cowie Group, by that time owners of Lowland and Northumbria respectively. Arriva
Arriva
Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
, Cowie Group's successor, withdrew from Berwick ten years later, leaving the town routes to a local independent operator, Perryman's Buses
Perryman's Buses
Perryman's Buses is a bus operating company based in the Northumberland town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.In addition to running scheduled bus services the company also offer private coach hire and organise bus tours.-History:...
.
Lowland Scottish became the first of the Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries to be privatised when in August 1990 the company's management and employees bought the business for £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
3.1m through their holding company Reiver Ventures Ltd., the word "Scottish" then dropped from the company's legal and trading names at that time. Lowland had been a profitable unit within the Scottish Bus Group thanks largely to the limited competition in its rural territory, though this operating area did not give much scope for expansion. The company therefore sought to develop its coach business and to expand its presence in the more populated Lothians area. In 1991 the bus and coach business of Ian Glass Coaches was acquired, with a depot in Haddington. The depot in Dunbar closed shortly afterwards, as the East Lothian area operations were concentrated on Haddington. Smaller takeovers were of Shanks ('Border Travel') of Galashiels in 1992 and Grieve's Taxis of Hawick in 1993. Diversification included the acquisition of a van hire firm, and development of the PSV/HGV driving school business inherited from Shanks. The company also acquired an interest in Lothian Transit of Newtongrange, a low-cost operator running tendered bus services in the Edinburgh area.
In November 1994, GRT Group
GRT Group
GRT Group plc was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom. Created in 1989 as a holding company to effect the buyout of Grampian Regional Transport , it grew by acquisition and in 1995 merged with Badgerline to create FirstBus plc, forerunner to worldwide transport company FirstGroup...
(which later became First Group) bought Reiver Ventures for £2.4m. GRT had purchased neighbouring Eastern Scottish
Eastern Scottish
Eastern Scottish, of Edinburgh, Scotland, was a bus and coach operator and a subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group . Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd. was formed in June 1985 from the main part of Scottish Omnibuses Ltd., which had itself traded as 'Eastern Scottish' since the 1960s...
(now trading as SMT once more) the previous month, and with its ownership of Midland Bluebird (the old Midland Scottish
Midland Scottish
Midland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd, in Scotland, was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from Walter Alexander and Sons Ltd, and operated until 1991 when it became Midland Bluebird Ltd.- Operation :...
), GRT operated across a substantial part of central Scotland, from Oban
Oban
Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...
in the west coast to the border with England. Reorganisation of the three companies quickly followed, breaking SMT in two and merging the parts with Midland and Lowland. As a result, Lowland inherited SMT's Dalkeith
Dalkeith
Dalkeith is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the River North Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540...
and Musselburgh
Musselburgh
Musselburgh is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre.-History:...
depots in 1996. This changed the focus of the company from a rural operator serving the Borders to one dominated by suburban services around Edinburgh, and coincided with the start of a gradual retrenchment in the south which eventually resulted in the closure of all of the Borders depots except Galashiels.
When the 'First' corporate style was introduced, the trading names First Lowland and First SMT were used, the latter being restricted to the former SMT operations around Edinburgh. A final round of reorganisation in 1999 saw Lowland Omnibuses absorbed into Midland Bluebird Ltd and a new company, First Edinburgh Ltd.