Staying in-house
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• The Scottish Bus Group's coaching subsidiary, Scottish Citylink, has been taken over in a management-employee buyout.
The buyout, led by managing director Alan Howes, follows the announcement last month that the 75/25% management/ employee team were the preferred bidders (CM 16-22 August).
The £20m-turnover company has 150 staff and carries 3.5 million passengers annually.
A new holding company called Clansman Travel & Leisure has been set up, but the Scottish Citylink name will be retained for coach operations.
"This comes at a time when the company is doing very well indeed," says Howes. "We're carrying an exceptionally large number of passengers at the moment on all our cross-border routes, as well as our network within Scotland."
Since last October Citylink has faced intensive competition from National Express subsidiary Caledonian Express — National was an unsuccessful bidder for Citylink.
0 Caledonian has introduced its winter timetable two
months early. One new service is being introduced between Edinburgh and Glasgow, in direct competition with Citylink's flagship 500 service, and with lower fares.