Stagecoach Merseyside is a major operator of bus services in the city of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and the surrounding

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

region. It is a sub-division of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire. Stagecoach Merseyside was formed in July 2005 with the acquisition of Glenvale Transport, which in turn had initially been formed by ex- MTL managers bidding for the company, following a

Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

ruling that Arriva Merseyside must sell their newly acquired Gillmoss depot to preserve competition between bus operators within the Merseyside area.

History

Glenvale Transport

The fleet of the newly created Glenvale Transport mostly comprised elderly Leyland Titans and aging

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...

s, although efforts were made to update the fleet via an agreement with Essex-based dealer

Ensignbus Ensign Bus Company Limited, trading as Ensignbus, is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. As of March 2023, it is a part of FirstGroup. History Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved ...

, seeing newer buses arrive regularly from the end of 2003 right up to the Stagecoach takeover in the summer of 2005. Several much newer buses, although in need of repair, were permanently stationed at the depot. Glenvale had an annual turnover of approximately £25 million.

Stagecoach Merseyside

On numerous occasions Stagecoach made bids for some or all of the companies making up the former MTL Trust Holdings. In June 1998 MTL sold off MTL London but Stagecoach were outbid by the then independent

Metroline Metroline is a bus operator operating primarily in Greater London and partially in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro and operates bus services for London Buses under contract to Transport for Lon ...

. When MTL went bankrupt in January 2000 Stagecoach were very interested in acquiring the company but was again outbid this time by

Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

. Apart from a Stagecoach Ribble/North West service between

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

and Preston and a Sunday only Lancashire County Council contract from

to Preston/

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

it seemed unlikely that Stagecoach would ever have significant operations on Merseyside. When rumours of a sale at Glenvale Transport surfaced around 2005 it was

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First Chester & The Wirral and First Greater Manchester - which at the time had a school bus division in nearby

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, Historic counties of England, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 wa ...

, the

Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead Group Limited is a Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While the majority of its operations are within Great Britain, it also operates services in Ireland, Australia, Singapo ...

and

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

who at the time were bidding for

Merseytravel Merseytravel is a public transport body and the passenger transport executive of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority responsible for delivering Public transport and other transport functions in the Liverpool City Region. It was origin ...

's cancelled Merseytram scheme who seemed like the front runners to buy Glenvale Transport. However, on 13 July 2005, Glenvale Transport accepted a reported £3.4 million cash offer for the company from the

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom. Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as ''Gloagtrotter'', a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. Dur ...

who in turn agreed to absorb Glenvale's debt of approximately £7 million. Rebranded Stagecoach Merseyside, Glenvale Transport Limited was retained as the company's legal name and introduced 75 new low-floor

Plaxton Pointer The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) is a single-deck midibus body that was manufactured between 1991 and 2006, predominantly on the Dennis Dart chas ...

-bodied

buses to replace elderly step entrance buses. The management of Stagecoach Merseyside as GTL had become - although Glenvale Transport Ltd is still the company's legal lettering, was passed to Stagecoach UK Bus MD Les Warneford, and Tom Wileman, Regional Director, Stephen Riggans, formerly of Arriva UK Bus, would later become Managing Director. In late January 2013 Stagecoach purchased First Chester & The Wirral bus operations in and these now operate as part of Stagecoach Merseyside.

Fleet

Stagecoach Merseyside MAN Enviro300 PO59 HXV

As of July 2024, the Stagecoach Merseyside fleet consisted of 380 buses, which are operated from a single depot in Gillmoss.

References

External links

Stagecoach Merseyside official website
{{Bus companies in North West England Stagecoach Group bus operators in England Bus operators in Merseyside