Press Release

Inter-city coach joint venture “surprised and disappointed” at OFT decision

15 March 2006

The partners operating inter-city coach services in Scotland said today (15 March 2006) they were “surprised and disappointed” at the decision by the Office of Fair Trading to refer the joint venture to the Competition Commission.

Tom Wileman, Managing Director of the Stagecoach-Scottish Citylink joint venture, said: “We are surprised and disappointed at the decision of the Office of Fair Trading - not just for our business but for our passengers.

“We do not believe there was any need to refer the joint venture to the Competition Commission, particularly as it has delivered the biggest improvement to inter-city coach services in Scotland in years.

“We are confident that when the Commission looks at the issue in detail it will realise that the main competition to the coach is inter-city rail services run by First ScotRail. First ScotRail is operated by FirstGroup, which is the dominant bus and rail operator in Scotland, with an almost 70% share of public transport revenues.

“The improvements made by our inter-city coach joint venture have marked the return of the coach as a real alternative to the train in Scotland by offering a simpler timetable and faster, more frequent journeys, with excellent value-for-money fares.”