Stagecoach Highlands

Stagecoach Highlands is the division of the Stagecoach Group which covers most of the former Rapson Group operations after the take-over by Stagecoach in May 2008.

History
Rapsons Coaches covered most of the Highlands and Orkney. They were Scotland's largest independent bus company with approx 250 vehicles which employed up to 400 staff and had depots based at Inverness, Thurso, Fort William, Portree, Aviemore & Kirkwall and compromised as Rapsons Coaches, Highland Country, Orkney Coaches & Causeway Coaches as they remained a separate subsidiary to Highland. Rapsons were founded in 1945 just an Inverness coach company. Highland Scottish was sold to Rapsons in August 1991 and privatized Scottish Citylink £800k and in October 1995, the company was split in two and Highland Country Buses was bought by National Express for £1.8m. The two companies continued to exist under separate ownership until August 1998 when Rapson's bought Highland Country Buses back from National Express for £4m – £2.2m. In April 1999, Rapsons took over Orkney & Shetland opeartors, James D Peace & Shalder Coaches and they began their operation in Shetland with a depot based at Lower Scord, Scalloway. However, Rapsons pulled out of Shetland in 2003 with most vehicles previously run by Shalder or purchased for Shetland passing onto the Inverness or Orkney depots. In March 2005, Rapsons completed their Orkney takeover trading as Orkney Coaches. In March 2006, Rapsons gave up most of their long-distance coach contracts with Scottish Citlylink and National Express. In 2006, Rapsons bus drivers threatened to strike before voting by a majority to accept an improved pay offer from their employers. About 200 workers with Rapsons came close to taking industrial action. In May 2007, Rapsons spent almost £500,000 to cut the amount of harmful exhaust gasses emitted by its vehicles. Rapsons received a further £160,000 from the Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Partnership (HiTrans) towards the £650,0000 cost of buying five new low-emission buses. The Euro 4 buses feature floors low enough to allow wheelchair users to access the vehicles, making them fully compliant with the disability discrimination legislation. The 45-seaters are also the first regular service buses in Inverness to be fitted with a seatbelt for every passenger. 5 of these were Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urbans as 3 were in Inverness with the other 2 in Orkney. In May 2008, Stagecoach were in talks with the possible sale of Rapsons and it was rumored for a while until it was finally announced on 19 May 2008 that Stagecoach had consolidated its position in the north of Scotland and swelled Stagecoach's north of Scotland fleet to 370 vehicles, covering Britain from Cornwall to Orkney. The takeover was finally complete in 2009. Some of the Rapson colours and logo are still on some of the fleet but have the Stagecoach logo at the front and the 'Rapson' logo on the side and both the Rapsons and Stagecoach logo on the rear known as Stagecoach Highlands's Pre-Livery. In April 2011 the operations at Inverness & Easter Ross were transferred to the Highland Country operating license from the Bluebird Buses license. In late 2011, the depot at Burnett Road closed and now operate from the former Rapsons Inverness depot at Seafield Road, Inverness.



Operation

 * Stagecoach in Caithness is used for services around the Caithness area covering Thurso, Wick and John O'Groats.
 * Stagecoach in Inverness is used for services in and around the city of Inverness, Aviemore & Easter Ross area.
 * Stagecoach in Orkney is used for services around the Orkney Islands.
 * Stagecoach in Skye is used for services around Skye and Kyle of Lochalsh.
 * Stagecoach in Lochaber is used for services around Fort William and Lochaber.

Depots

 * Aviemore (Myrtlefield Industrial Estate), (o/s Newtonmore)
 * Fort William (Ardgour Road, Caol)
 * Inverness (Seafield Road, formerly Burnett Road) (o/s Nairn)
 * Kirkwall, Orkney (Scott's Road, Hatson Industrial Estate), (o/s Stromness, Orkney, St. Margarets Hope)
 * Portree (Park Road) (o/s Kyle of Lochalsh)
 * Tain (Scotsburn Road)
 * Thurso (Janet Street) (o/s Wick)

Mainland Services
All Mainland services that operate on the Mainland of Scotland including Isle of Skye

Orkney Services
All Orkney services that operate on Mainland, Orkney.