Argyll’s bus wars develop new tactics

The bus war that has broken out following West Coast Motors’ rejection of the new and lower-value contract offered them by Scottish Citylink has been seen by our news staff to be developing new tactics. When the previous collaborative arrangement between the companies – in respect of the Oban to Glasgow (976) and Campbeltown to Glasgow (926) routes – broke down, Citylink began to run a duplicate and competitive services on these routes. West Coast Motors then re-scheduled its services on the routes to run ten minutes earlier than previously – and therefore ten minutes earlier than the new Citylink services. In Argyll and at the Glasgow end, service users from Argyll are noted largely to choose to travel by West Coast Motors while visitors, unaware of the situation, travel on either.

Citylink has been merged with Stagecoach for several years now, a merger that was the focus of an Enquiry by the Competition Commission, completed in December 2006. While a price-cutting war is of short term advantage to travellers -the potential loss to Argyll of a native employer in the public transport industry would be grave. Stagecoach have very deep pockets and can afford prolonged commercial guerilla warfare of this kind. Stagecoach / Citylink buses have been seen on the road recently running five to ten minutes ahead of the West Coast Motors’ services scheduled to run ten minutes ahead of them. When the Citylnk service arrives, travellers now face uncertainty on whether or not hey have missed the West Coast Motors service they tend to prefer.