Scotland in the 1980s: A nation on the move

It was a bold new era for the Scottish transport industry with major changes afoot, writes David Mclean

For many Scottish towns and cities, the 1980s marked the last decade of municipal bus services as privatisation and deregulation swept the nation.

Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government amended the Transport Act on two occasions, paving the way for local bus and national coach services to be provided by private firms.

One of the first bus companies to secure privatisation was Lowland Scottish Omnibuses Limited. The company was created in 1985 as part of the reorganisation of the state-owned Scottish Bus Group in preparation for the deregulation of the bus industry the following year. Another new bus company formed around this time was Stagecoach. Providing a distinct brand for the British Rail network north of the border, Scotrail was established in September 1983, the company run by manager Chris Green. British Rail and Scotrail would go their separate ways in the 1990s following privatisation of the rail industry.

Air travel in and out of Scotland increased massively during the decade with millions more people taking holidays abroad with global business travel also on the rise.

In the late 1980s, Glasgow Airport underwent a £55 million expansion, increasing the terminal size by 70 per cent to cater for six million passengers a year.

Focus was also on would-be air travellers in Scotland’s more remote regions.in 1984 the short-lived Highland Express Airways was formed, offering flights to London and New York via Glasgow Prestwick several times a week.

The number of car owners also shot up dramatically during the decade, and ambitious new road projects, such as the expansion of the M8 motorway and the Edinburgh City Bypass, were constructed.

Less bright, however, was Scotland’s car manufacturing industry. As homegrown companies struggled to compete with overseas competition, closures were imminent.

One of the major losses for Scotland was the closure of the Linwood plant, left, outside Glasgow.resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs, the plant’s sad closure was famously immortalised in song by The Proclaimers in Letter From America.