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The company was taken over by the Stagecoach Group in January 1995. The simple blue and cream livery the buses wore since the company's formation gave way to the Stagecoach corporate blue, red and orange stripes on white, and the legal name of the firm became Stagecoach (A1 Service) Ltd. Though for several years after the take over buses on the former A1 Service routes wore Stagecoach A1 Service fleetnames, the unit was eventually amalgamated with Western Buses Ltd and all vehicles except those on the Ardrossan-Kilmarnock service began trading as Stagecoach Western. However, buses on route 11 (Ardrossan-Kilmarnock) continued to trade as Stagecoach A1 Service, complete with the historical blue and cream livery, which was re-introduced when FirstGroup began competing on the service. Despite the withdrawal of First from Ayrshire in October 2005, new Dennis Tridents were still delivered in the Stagecoach A1 Service livery and brand.
Some of the former A1 members continue to operate their own businesses, including Parkhouse Garage of Ardrossan (service station and car repairs), McKinnon of Kilmarnock (haulage) and Steele's Of Stevenston (coach and limousine hire). McMenemy of Ardrossan wound up their car repairs business in December 2004 and sold their premises to Clydeport plc, although the coach hire operation continued a little longer, till March 2005. Though Docherty Of Irvine had always run a parallel coach hire firm separate to A1 Service, this former owner ventured back into local bus operation around the Irvine and Kilmarnock area in competition with Stagecoach Western in the late 1990s. It sold its routes and associated vehicles to Stagecoach Western in October 2004. Docherty has now stopped all operations and its vehicles were sold off at the beginning of 2009.
The A1 service branding was removed from Stagecoach's vehicles on route 11 30 May 2010. The next day, Stagecoach rolled out 27 brand new buses in current "swoops", spelling the end of the A1 livery after over 80 years.
Read more about this topic: Ayrshire Bus Owners (A1 Service)
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