Kelvin Scottish - History

History

Kelvin was created by the Scottish Bus Group (SBG) as a limited company wholly owned by the group in March 1985 in preparation for bus deregulation the following year, and began operation three months later. It was the largest of the four new companies created by the SBG in 1985, with an initial fleet of 381 vehicles, of which almost 300 were sourced from the former Alexander (Midland) fleet.

In early 1986, maintenance problems saw a number of vehicles banned from use by vehicle examiners from the Ministry of Transport. The company was forced to hire eight vehicles from other companies to keep services running; they remained in the fleet for four weeks while the regular vehicles were repaired. Similar issues resurfaced in February 1987, when twelve vehicles were hired for three weeks.

Although deregulation itself took place in October 1986, Kelvin received permission to introduce its new routes from 31 August. A number of new services were started in competition with Strathclyde Buses, running from Glasgow to Clydebank, Drumchapel, Easterhouse and Springburn. Strathclyde responded by extending its services into Clydebank, Cumbernauld, Dumbarton, Kirkintilloch and Milngavie.

In 1987 Kelvin made a reported loss of £3 million, leading to the closure of the depot at Milngavie. Many of the competing routes introduced in 1986 were withdrawn in July 1987, and 70 vehicles were taken out of service. Two years later both Kelvin and neighbouring Central were severely affected by a strike by 700 of the companies' drivers, caused by the dismissal of four shop stewards.

In July 1989, it was announced that SBG was to be privatised. In an effort to make Kelvin Scottish more attractive on the approach to privatisation, Kelvin was merged with Central Scottish to form Kelvin Central Buses Ltd. Upon the merger, Kelvin Scottish ceased trading as a stand-alone subsidiary.