Providing greener, smarter travel across the East of Scotland

Developing an accessible bus and coach network.

Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.

Within Scotland, three key regional companies serve the local communities – East, West and North Scotland. Stagecoach East Scotland operate bus and coach services across Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perthshire, with routes extending to Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, Aberdeen and megabus.com services to other major UK cities and European destinations. The East Scotland operating company also includes Rennies of Dunfermline, which specialises in coach

hire and contract work.

With its Group Headquarters based in Perth and regional head office in Kirkcaldy, Stagecoach is committed to operating quality services across East Scotland, connecting towns and villages, recruiting local staff and working with local suppliers.

Employees

Stagecoach East Scotland employ around 1,300 staff working from 11 depots across the region. This includes almost 1,000 drivers, over 200 engineers and cleaners and around 100 supervisors and managerial staff. Recruitment for the positions is carried out at depot level with a dedicated training department in Dunfermline.

All staff are fully trained in their respective skills, with the emphasis on passenger safety, comfort and courtesy. All drivers have completed their Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) a

legal requirement stipulating that all drivers need to complete 35 hours of periodic training every five years to maintain their professional licence.

Stagecoach employ eight engineering apprentices from within the local community to ensure the necessary skills are provided for the future. The four-year programme involves a combination of residential training undertaking the Technical Certificate in Transport Engineering Maintenance and on the job training at a local depot. On successful completion of the training the employee is awarded an Apprenticeship in Transporting Engineering Maintenance and has the opportunity to become a licensed member of IRTEC ( The Institute of Road Transport Engineers) as well as being offered a full time position within the local company.

Other staff development programmes include graduate trainee schemes; recruiting graduates into managerial level positions where they shadow and learn from fellow managers, experiencing every aspect of the business as part of their two year training programme. Similarly staff development programmes (SDP) invite applications from staff at any level to carry out similar extensive training around the business. Graduates and SDP candidates are often the future talent of the business becoming operation or engineering managers, often leading to director level roles in the future. A new scheme for marketing graduates has also been launched in 2013.

Investment

Stagecoach East Scotland continually invests in its fleet and depot facilities, often sourcing from local suppliers, such as vehicle manufacturers Alexander Dennis Ltd in Falkirk.

The company operates a fleet of around 540 buses and coaches, 46 of which were replaced during the last 18 months, a total investment of over £9 million. All new buses are fitted with CCTV to ensure passenger and driver safety, and many have included additional features such as free wifi, and leather seats.

The new vehicles have been introduced to the following routes: 9 Electric-hybrid buses for route 7 in Perth 9 luxury coaches for the Fife to Glasgow routes 11 single deck vehicles for route 99 between Dundee and St Andrews 7 single deck vehicles to operate a number of local routes in the Kirkcaldy area Further investment in the Fife area will also see an additional eight luxury coaches launched onto the remaining Fife to Glasgow routes this November.

The new, state-of-the-art electric-hybrid vehicles launched in Perth produce up to 30% less carbon emissions than standard vehicles. The buses, manufactured by Alexander Dennis, with break-through technology developed by BAE systems, were the first Enviro 350H vehicles to be introduced in the UK and are set to reduce the company’s fuel consumption on this route in the future. Other environmental developments include the use of 5% biodiesel throughout the fleet and a hi-tech fuel additive manufactured using nanotechnology to keep emissions to a minimum.

The Government requires all buses to be fully wheelchair accessible by 2017. Stagecoach are well advanced with the fleet modernisation, with 92% of the fleet (excluding school buses) being low floor or wheelchair lift equipped to provide easy access for the elderly, disabled or childrens buggies.

Development

Stagecoach are committed to developing the transport network across the region with an overall aim of providing safe, reliable, punctual, clean and comfortable services with a good value for money range of fares and tickets.

The company works closely with local authorities, transport bodies and community representatives to ensure it can achieve this aim, consulting with passengers where required and monitoring and developing routes wherever possible.

An upcoming example is the launch of Halbeath Park and Ride. The site is due to be completed in November and through local consultation, Stagecoach East Scotland have reviewed local routes in order to serve the site effectively, offering vital new transport links with interchanges to Edinburgh and Glasgow, both on the bus and coach network as well as air travel via Edinburgh Airport and rail travel via a number of local stations.

Consultations have also taken place with a number of large employers in the area, including SSE, Aviva and Amazon, to ensure appropriate services are provided to transport staff to and from their workplaces.

A number of money saving ticket options have been introduced in recent years, improving the already competitive range of dayrider and megarider tickets on offer which provide unlimited travel in certain areas. New child and student tickets have been launched offering significant discount for students and under 16 year olds travelling regularly. Stagecoach also recently confirmed it was making permanent its ground-breaking discounted bus travel scheme for jobseekers.

Stagecoach work closely with community groups to make travelling more accessible, these include the Fife Independent Disability Network and Insight. The company are keen to be involved in local community events and often support their staff in fundraising efforts and projects.

Stagecoach East Scotland is committed to developing the network of services and welcome opportunities to work with new investors to stimulate further growth in local economies.