| Industry | Transport |
|---|---|
| Fate | Buyout |
| Successor | Stagecoach Merseyside |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Merseyside |
| Products | Bus transport |
| Revenue | £25 million (2005) |
| Employees | 830[1] |
Glenvale Transport Ltd (now trading as Stagecoach Merseyside) is a bus company formed in 2001 as a result of a management buy-in of Gillmoss bus depot from Arriva plc.[2] The buy-in was in response to the Competition Commission that Arriva's dominance in Merseyside bus transport exceeded a reasonable share and therefore another bus company to compete with Arriva must enter the Merseyside market to retain competition among bus operators.
Contents |
In February 2000 Merseyside's largest bus operator MTL Trust Holdings Ltd was acquired by Arriva Passenger Services plc. The Drawlane Group, which had renamed itself British Bus and had sold to Cowie (which renamed itself Arriva) had acquired the North Western Road Car Company Ltd in March 1988. In turn North Western had gained substantial parts of the former Crosville and Ribble operations and acquired or created other companies - most notably Amberline, City Plus and Liverline in Liverpool, Beeline Buzz Company and Star Line Travel in Greater Manchester, Dee Line, Leigh Line, Little White Buses in West Lancashire, Runcorn Busways, South Lancashire Transport in St Helens, Warrington Gold Line and Wigan Bus. By the year 2000 Arriva North West Ltd (North Western) had built up a substantial presence in many parts Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and West Lancashire. The acquisition and subsequent merger of the former MTL companies now known as Arriva Merseyside Ltd into Arriva North West Ltd gave Arriva a dominant position on Merseyside and in Liverpool in particular.
As a result, the Competition Commission ruled that as a condition of the sale of MTL to Arriva and to preserve competition within the Merseyside bus market - Aintree-based CMT Buses being the only major competitor in Liverpool at that time - Arriva had to divest one of the former MTL garages to a new buyer within one year and not compete with that buyer for a period of three years. The bus corridors of South/East Liverpool were lucrative and had experienced more competition than those to the North of Liverpool and it was Liverpool's Gillmoss depot on the East Lancashire Road that Arriva offered for sale. The sale of Gillmoss, however, would turn out to be a rather protracted process. Its most profitable routes - 12/13 (Stockbridge Village Circular - Liverpool), 14 (Croxteth - Liverpool) and 53/55 (Thornton/Old Roan - Liverpool) were allowed to remain with Arriva Merseyside/North West and were transferred to its Green Lane and Bootle depots. It is unknown whether this detterred prospective buyers but an early buyer did emerge in the form of Go-Ahead Group plc who considered Gillmoss as similar to its Go North East operation and therefore almost came to an agreement to buy Gillmoss towards the beginning of 2001. However at the 11th hour Go-Ahead pulled out of the deal, opting instead to acquire Arriva Croydon & North Surrey Ltd as it had more strategic fit with its Metrobus subsidiary in Surrey and West Sussex.
Arriva was having difficulty selling Gillmoss and put a proposal to the Competition Commission to re-invest in Gillmoss if it were allowed to keep the depot. The Competition Commission refused and the search for a buyer continued. In the Spring/Summer of 2001 a number of bids began to emerge. The first of these came from Merseyside's largest independent operator, CMT Buses, who were looking to strengthen their position on Merseyside. The second bidder was Singapore-based DelGro Corporation, which purchased stock-market listed Metroline a siginifcant contractor to London Buses and in turn had purchased MTL London in August 1998. The third was an unknown consortium which at the time was shrouded in mystery and was revealed to have come from Stagecoach Holdings plc. However a fourth bid emerged, fronted by ex-MTL managers Dominic Brady and Ian Campbell. This was Glenvale Transport Ltd/(GTL) and it successfully acquired Gillmoss and took over from Arriva in July 2001.
The protracted sale of Gillmoss did lead to poor staff morale, compounded by Arriva using Gillmoss as a dumping ground for the remaining ex-London Buses Leyland Titans that Merseybus/MTL had been acquiring since the end of 1992. Gillmoss did have a modern fleet of 25 Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II that Liverbus and Merseybus/MTL North had bought new between them in 1995 and 1998 respectively and had been dubbed The Millennium Fleet. However GTL decided to not take up the leasing arrangements for these vehicles and remained with Arriva Merseyside who transferred them mostly to the Speke and Green Lane depots in Liverpool along with a handful for the Laird Street depot in Birkenhead. In return around 30 MCW Metrobuses which were more than 20 years old and had previously operated for Arriva Croydon & North Surrey and had been refurbished in 1999. MTL's cream and crimson livery was retained.
As a result of the Competition Commission's requirements Arriva couldn't compete with GTL's core route network in North Liverpool and Kirkby for three years and GTL decided to exploit this advantage: the next 18 months saw GTL rapidly expanding its route network throughout much of Merseyside. GTL promised investment in new vehicles for Gillmoss, however this never materialised. Instead further ex-London vehicles in the form of another large batch of Leyland Titans, along with Reeve Burgess/Plaxton Pointer-bodied Dennis Darts and a smaller batch of Metrobuses (some of which briefly operated in the liveries of their former owners) were acquired and at its peak GTL acquired a fleet of around 120 Titans and 60 Metrobuses.[3] GTL's newest vehicles in 2000 were a batch of 11 Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capitals[3] - which were the last batch of vehicles to be purchased new by MTL in 1999, and eight 1997 Dennis Dart SLF/East Lancs Sprytes acquired secondhand from Speke-based Express Travel in 2002. Furthermore these vehicles only usually operated Merseytravel contracts. A significant amount of the GTL fleet was approaching 25 years of age and as GTL charged higher fares than Arriva Merseyside and CMT Buses it gave GTL a more unfavourable impression in the eyes of Merseyside's bus users. In order to remain operating, GTL had to consolidate its position within Merseyside's bus market. The only remaining opportunity for GTL to do this was Aintree-based CMT Buses and it was perhaps unsurprising that GTL acquired CMT Buses.
CMT Buses was formed from C&M Travel Ltd who were a long established coach hire operator in the Merseyside area. After deregulation CMT gained a foothold into bus operation by winning Merseytravel contracts and by the late-1980s had begun a commercial service network on the Wirral. Between 1991 and 1994 the company turned its focus to the Liverpool bus market which was already a hotbed of intense competition between Merseybus/MTL, City Fleet, Fareway, Liverline, Liverbus, Halton Transport, Merseyline, North Western, Village Group and GM Buses (North/South). The coach hire and Wirral based services were discontinued and a significant number of new services on many of Liverpool's most lucrative bus corridors were started by CMT with a large fleet of Leyland Nationals. These were very successful and sparked a 'bus war' in Liverpool which led to a period of consolidation in which MTL acquired Fareway, Liverbus and Village Group, North Western acquired Liverline, GM Buses North/South withdrew from Merseyside and MTL, North Western, CMT Buses, GM Buses North/South and Halton Transport entered into a controversial agreement which limited competition between these parties in the North West and fixed fares. A Competition Commission investigation which ruled this was illegal and fined the parties involved.
Despite this, CMT Buses was successful within the Merseyside bus market and from the Summer of 1995 to the Summer of 2002, it gradually began adding substantial numbers of new vehicles to its fleet including Volvo B10B/Wright Endurance, Volvo B10L/Wright Liberator, Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown, Dennis Dart/Northern Counties Paladin, Dennis Dart SLF/Wright Crusader and Dennis Super Dart/Plaxton Pointers, along with relatively modern secondhand acquisitions including Volvo B10B/Alexander Striders from Blazefield-owned Harrogate & District and Leyland Lynxes from a variety of sources to replace the aging Leyland Nationals.
Towards the end of 1998, CMT acquired Formby-based independent ABC Travel which operated a substantial number of contracts for Merseytravel services and a modern fleet of mainly Optare products including MetroRiders, Deltas, Excels and Solos. Merseytravel contractor L&M Transport/Greenbus, in which it was rumoured CMT Buses had an interest, was integrated into CMT around 2001 and the operations centred upon the CMT base in Aintree. On 15 June, 2003 GTL acquired the CMT operation, further consolidating GTL's position within the Merseyside bus market, expanding the fleet to approximately 290 vehicles and adding CMT's Aintree[4] garage to that at Gillmoss.
The acquisition of CMT Buses enabled GTL to become Merseyside's second largest bus operator. Initially GTL kept CMT Buses as a separate entity, maintaining their all over bright red livery and yellow CMT Buses/liver bird logos along with CMT's route network, some of which duplicated those of GTL.
In October 2003, however, management of the Aintree depot was passed over to GTL's management team and service network rationalised to co-ordinate with those of GTL. New blue 'GTL' logos were applied to the CMT vehicles and GTL adopted a darker all-red livery to replace the ex-MTL cream/crimson livery. There was again talk of investment in new vehicles along with possible expansion on Merseyside (opening a depot in the Speke area to compete directly with Arriva's South Liverpool services) and beyond.
A possible network of services on the Wirral along with rumours of GTL acquiring First Cheshire & Wirral's depot at Rock Ferry and a move into London Buses tendered contracts - Dominic Brady and Ian Campbell had been part of MTL London's management team - along with an Alternative Investment Market listing on the London Stock Exchange as a means for GTL to raise funds for investment. However GTL achieved none of this and by the end of 2003 it was still perceived by many within the bus industry as a small Merseyside-based operator with a rapidly aging fleet of ex-London double deckers - even after the CMT Buses acquisition.
Despite this, GTL patronised Essex-based dealer Ensign Bus to modernise the fleet and from late 2003 to the Spring of 2005 approximately 94 Volvo B6/Dennis Darts with Alexander Dash bodywork - ironically coming from various companies within the Stagecoach Group, along with smaller batches of Dennis Dart/Wright Handybuses from Go North East and ex-Metroline Dennis Dart/Northern Counties Paladins - ironically once part of the fleet at MTL London - were purchased. However these vehicles were 9-12 years old and not the new vehicles GTL had promised.
By autumn 2004, the Competition Commission ban on Arriva competing against GTL in Kirkby and North Liverpool was over. In response to significant expansion by GTL throughout Merseyside, Arriva registered high frequency copycat services over much of the GTL network in Kirkby and North Liverpool including 2 (Kirkby Northwood-Liverpool), 14A/B (Kirkby Tower Hill-Liverpool), 17 (Fazakerley Hospital-Liverpool), 19 (Fazakerley Lower Lane-Liverpool), 20 (Skelmersdale-Kirkby-Liverpool). These services mostly used modern low-floor vehicles and gave Arriva a competitive advantage over GTL's ageing fleet .
GTL never bought any new vehicles, despite promises on numerous occasions of significant reinvestment. Despite GTL's core routes in Kirkby and North Liverpool being considered as lucrative, profitable bus territory, GTL had an annual turnover of approximately £25m. Furthermore, levels of car ownership were relatively low, with significant declines in patronage.
By March 2005 GTL had run up debts of approximately £7m and was rumoured to be struggling to meet its financial commitments. GTL was therefore put on the market and after months of speculation Stagecoach Group plc was announced as buyer.
A final event of note for GTL was ex-Stagecoach East Midlands Volvo B6/Alexander Dash (7282/L448LWE) had a starring role in the successful Liverpool FC UEFA Champion's League homecoming on 26 May 2005. After becoming stranded in the vast crowd of people on Lime Street some Liverpool fans used 7282's roof as a vantage point to see Liverpool's open top bus parade in the city centre. Apart from a few small dents to the roof no damage was caused to the vehicle.
On numerous occasions, rival transport operator Stagecoach had made bids for some or all of the companies making up the former MTL Trust Holdings Group. GTL had put itself on the open market, with bids for the company submitted by open tender. After several bids by other potential buyers, GTL accepted a reported £3.4M cash on 13 July 2005 by Stagecoach[5], an offer which also agreed to absorb GTL's debt of approximately £7m.