Stagecoach in Gloucester - History

History

Stagecoach West was formerly Western Travel Limited, acquired by Stagecoach Group in 1993. Western Travel was originally the management buy-out vehicle for Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus Company, split off from Bristol Omnibus Company in 1983 and privatised in 1986. Western Travel acquired Midland Red South in 1987, and the Eastern Division of National Welsh in 1991.

Stagecoach in Wye and Dean was formerly part of the operations of Red & White Services, which in 1978 became part of National Welsh. National Welsh was privatised in 1988, but failed in 1992. Its operations were acquired by Stagecoach, who separated the Wye and Dean operations from the Welsh operations. Stagecoach subsequently split the operations: the Welsh operations became part of Stagecoach in South Wales, and the Forest of Dean operations remained part of Stagecoach West.

Stagecoach in Swindon from 1983 it operated under the name Swindon and District. It was privatised in 1986 and absorbed into the Stagecoach Group in 1993.

Many bus services have been upgraded in recent years with more promotion of the routes, more frequent services and new easy access buses with CCTV, in a bid to win more passengers and to encourage greater use of public transport.

In more recent years the company had split itself into different divisions these were Stagecoach in Cheltenham, Stagecoach in Swindon, Stagecoach in Gloucester, Stagecoach in the Cotswolds and Stagecoach in Wye and Dean but recently all services have been branded as Stagecoach West.