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COLIN Craig, the managing director of West Coast Motors is adamant that he is not entering into a bus war as his Campbeltown-based family firm stands its ground against Scottish Citylink.
West Coast Motors has been busy getting coaches re-sprayed from the blue and yellow of Citylink back into its own iconic red and cream livery as the contract between the two has come to an end after 22 years.
The routes West Coast Motors operated for Citylink are now in the hands of other bus companies but on two, Glasgow-Oban and Glasgow-Campbeltown, West Coast Motors has decided to continue running on the routes in opposition to Citylink.
‘You might call it a bus war but I don’t like using the word ‘war’,’ said Mr Craig, ‘basically we are providing a competitive service.’
‘We couldn’t agree terms. The terms we were being offered were not commercially viable,’ Mr Craig said.
Citylink is a booking and marketing middleman; West Coast Motors had up until now operated its own buses, coaches and crews under Citylink livery to Glasgow from Campbeltown, Oban, Skye, Inverness and Dundee.
‘We operated the routes on their behalf at a set rate per mile; they collected the fares and West Coast Motors got a set rate for the journey,’ said Mr Craig.
It was a decision that wasn’t taken lightly by the family firm which was founded by Colin’s grandfather and today employs more than 200 people.
‘We played a part in building up the Citylink brand in Scotland; we have invested huge amounts of money so it was a great disappointment to us to have been forced into this position,’ said Mr Craig.
‘However, we are delighted to be operating our own service. We have complete control over the setting of the fares and the operating of the services and we look forward to meeting the needs of our customers with local drivers and high quality coaches as we have done over the years.’
With the removal of Citylink from its Oban and Campbeltown to Glasgow operations the West Coast Motors customers will no longer have to pay a booking fee. This 50 pence charge was a bugbear for those people eligible for concessionary travel.
‘With West Coast you can reserve your seat in advance if you want but there is no longer a booking fee – that was a Citylink insistence,’ said Mr Craig. ‘You can hop on the bus or reserve a seat, no fee.’
Stagecoach West has been brought in as the new operator, with lower fares, by Citylink in Campbeltown and they went head-to-head on Monday.
The Courier can report that on a number of occasions the Citylink Campbeltown to Glasgow bus took the wrong road out of town and ended up in Stewarton; on another occasion the service was running early as the driver had not been told he had to call in at certain villages along the way as part of the service.
Graeme Hoggan, Citylink’s commercial manager said that he was unable to go into into any details about the relationship between West Coast Motors and Citylink.
‘Yes, we used to contract West Coast Motors to carry out journeys between Argyll and Glasgow for us and yes, that is no longer the case. However, discussions are ongoing with the company and I would not rule out the possibilty of us contracting them onto our Argyll routes again.’
He added that passengers should make the most of the increased service.
‘Argyll has never had such a great bus service to Glasgow before. It will make transport links with the rest
of Scotland much more accessible.’
The Craig family’s operation has seen off competition before. In 1995 the company lost all its local authority contracts to Essbee.
‘They pulled out after 12 months,’ said Mr Craig. West Coast Motors is going to rely on the same approach now as it did then: ‘Quality vehicles, good, knowledgeable, local drivers who know the roads and have driven them for years, with good back up from our depots,’ said Mr Craig.
Now that they have registered their services both West Coast Motors and Citylink are obliged by law to run them for 90 days.
‘It’s going to be an interesting summer,’ said Mr Craig.
