Yellow fronts herald Scots' dereg plans
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YELLOW FRONTS, traditional open-platform buses and minibuses form part of the Scottish Bus Group's developing plans for deregulation next year.
Buses operated by Kelvin Scottish, one of the new subsidiaries running around Glasgow, are being repainted with bright yellow fronts to help passengers identify them from a distance.
Plans are being advanced for Central and Clydeside Scottish, the other Glasgow area subsidiaries, to apply yellow fronts to their buses, too.
The idea is to provide some family identity, without losing the companies' individual image on the rest of the buses, arid to let passengers know that SBG buses carry local traffic in Glasgow and, unlike Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, give change.
Clydeside, meanwhile, has acquired at least two exLondon Buses Routemasters for use around Paisley on services which are to be converted back to conductor operation.
The company has already reintroduced conductors on some duties where it competes for traffic with an independent, McGill's of Barrhead, which has conductors on all of its services. And it is expected that SBG will shortly announce an order for a pilot fleet of Alexander-bodied Mercedes-Benz minibuses which are to be used on experimental urban services in several Scottish towns.
• Rennie of Dunfermline has announced a new service from Dunfermline to Preston to link up there with its existing Preston services to Blackpool and Manchester.
It will use the Preston bus station, whereas Dunfermline District Council is still refusing the company use of the new Kingsgate Bus Station in its redeveloped town centre.