Stagecoach West

Stagecoach West is an operating division of the Stagecoach Group. Based in Gloucester, it operates bus services in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and South Herefordshire.

History
Stagecoach West was formerly Western Travel Limited, acquired by Stagecoach Group in 1993. Western Travel was originally the management buy-out vehicle for Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus Company, split off from Bristol Omnibus Company in 1983 and privatised in 1986. Western Travel acquired Midland Red South in 1987, and the Eastern Division of National Welsh in 1991.

Stagecoach in Wye and Dean was formerly part of the operations of Red & White Services, which in 1978 became part of National Welsh. National Welsh was privatised in 1988, but failed in 1992. Its operations were acquired by Stagecoach, who separated the Wye and Dean operations from the Welsh operations. Stagecoach subsequently split the operations: the Welsh operations became part of Stagecoach in South Wales, and the Forest of Dean operations remained part of Stagecoach West.

Stagecoach in Swindon from 1983 it operated under the name Swindon and District. It was privatised in 1986 and absorbed into the Stagecoach Group in 1993.

Many bus services have been upgraded in recent years with more promotion of the routes, more frequent services and new easy access buses with CCTV, in a bid to win more passengers and to encourage greater use of public transport.

In more recent years the company had split itself into different divisions these were Stagecoach in Cheltenham, Stagecoach in Swindon, Stagecoach in Gloucester, Stagecoach in the Cotswolds and Stagecoach in Wye and Dean but recently all services have been branded as Stagecoach West.

Depots
Stagecoach West has 5 depots.


 * Cheltenham (Lansdown Industrial Estate, Gloucester Road) (CM)
 * Gloucester (London Road) (GR)
 * Ross On Wye (Great Western Court) (RS)
 * Stroud (London Road) (SD)
 * Swindon (Eastcott Road) (SN)

Routes
Stagecoach West mainly operates services across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and South Herefordshire, although some services serve a wide range of areas, these include places as far as Chepstow, Oxford and Hereford.

Branding
In Gloucester routes 1, 3/4, 7 & 9 are part of Gloucester's 'citi' network and is operated by fleet branded buses on all advertised routes While route has recently been upgraded to run Stagecoach Gold busses.

In Swindon they operate a Gold specification service on its Route 66 (Swindon - Faringdon - Oxford). This includes leather seats. Popin 6 - Town route branded in Green. 2 Buses (36126 & 36127) branded for work on this route. Trans Wilts Express (49) - 3 double deckers branded in Blue (15648,15649,15650) for work on this route. Route 55 - 7 Double Deckers branded in Green (15730-15736) for work on this route. Route 66 - 7 Gold specification buses are branded for routes on this route.

Fares
Stagecoach West offer a range of tickets covering smaller areas such as Gloucester or tickets that cover Cheltenham and Gloucester and tickets that cover the whole West region.

In Swindon tickets issued by Thamesdown Transport are accepted on the majority of Swindon Urban routes.

Fleet
Stagecoach West operate a number of low-floor buses.

Stagecoach West received an order of Alexander Dennis Enviro400s for the Stagecoach Gold branding of the 94 Service between Cheltenham and Gloucester, these replace the fleet of 04 reg Dennis Trident ALX400's which were transferred to other Stagecoach West services in the Wye and Dean area, this replaced their 6 R-reg Volvo Olympias which themselves transferred to other services.

Stagecoach West used two of these ALX400'S to supplement the 94U Service, this was due to a shortage on the order of Enviro400's.