Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) was founded in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1905 by

William Johnston Thomson Sir William Johnston Thomson MIME (1881 – 18 September 1949) was a 20th century Scottish engineer and businessman, highly involved in the early automobile industry, who served two consecutive terms as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1932 to 19 ...

. It operated buses in much of central Scotland. Aside from its traditional bus operations, it operated an air taxi service with a De Havilland Fox Moth between 18 July and 31 October 1932 and for many years owned Dryburgh Abbey Hotel. Following legislation, which allowed railway companies to invest in bus operators, the

London & North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At that ...

and

London, Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

took a major stake in SMT in 1929. In 1930, following the takeover of another operator, SMT started its Edinburgh to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

express coach service. SMT also acquired control of

Walter Alexander & Sons W. Alexander & Sons Ltd was a bus operator and coachbuilder in Scotland. The company grew from small beginnings to become the largest bus operator in Scotland, and one of the largest in the U.K., by the time it was split up in 1961. Its coachb ...

bus services and

coachbuilding A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

operations, the Alexander family joining the SMT board. SMT grew partly through the acquisition of smaller companies. Operations were decentralised to local areas, such as Central SMT in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scot ...

, and Western SMT in south-west Scotland (both with red buses), whilst the east of Scotland services operated as SMT (with green buses). Upon nationalisation of the SMT group's bus and coach services by the Attlee government in 1949, those of SMT itself were transferred to a new

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

subsidiary,

Scottish Omnibuses Scottish Omnibuses Ltd. (SOL) was a company set up by the British Transport Commission on 4 April 1949 to take over the bus and coach operations of Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) and its subsidiaries under the nationalisation provisions of the ...

Limited, which continued to operate as "SMT" until the early 1960s, when the fleet name " Eastern Scottish" was adopted. Meanwhile, the non bus operating activities remained in private hands as SMT Sales & Service Limited. Following the demise of the British Transport Commission, the SMT operations became part of the state-owned

Scottish Bus Group The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) was a state-owned group of bus operators covering the whole of mainland Scotland. The origin of the grouping was the operators owned by and including the Scottish Motor Traction company, which were transferred to ...

in 1962; this later became the Scottish Transport Group in 1969 following the addition of ferry services. The

Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October of 1986. The Act was created as a response to growing concern ...

led to the deregulation of bus services across the United Kingdom, followed by privatisation of the bus-operating Scottish Transport Group subsidiaries. Western Scottish (formerly Western SMT) was sold to its local management in 1991, and was bought out by the

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom. History Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...

in 1994, which renamed it Stagecoach West Scotland. The ferry services, run as

Caledonian MacBrayne Caledonian MacBrayne ( gd, Caledonian Mac a' Bhriuthainn), usually shortened to CalMac, is the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries, and ferry services, between the mainland of Scotland and 22 of the major islands on Scotland's west ...

remain owned by the Scottish Government. Following privatisation, Eastern Scottish briefly reverted to its former name SMT. It was bought out by GRT Group in October 1994. In June 1995 GRT Group and Badgerline merged to create First Bus. Soon after this, SMT was split into two, with operations passing to neighbouring Lowland and Midland Bluebird, although the SMT name and livery were initially retained. In 1999 the former SMT operations, along with those of Lowland and Midland Bluebird, were rebranded as First Edinburgh. These were then sold on in 2022 with the Lowland Operations being sold to West Coast Motors who rebranded as Border Buses and Midland Bluebird Operations were sold to McGills Group who rebranded as Midland Bluebird by McGills and Eastern Scottish by McGills

References

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Former bus operators in Scotland Transport in Edinburgh Transport companies established in 1905 1905 establishments in Scotland 1962 disestablishments in Scotland

See also

References