THE “bus wars” of the 90s are breaking out again with a row between Stagecoach and Flixbus, with the focus this time in Aberdeenat the city’s major bus station. With the new Scottish Transport Minister, Kevin Stewart, MSP representing Aberdeen Central, the row looks set to become highly political.
FlixBus is a relative newcomer to the UK transport scene and partnered Scottish company McGill’s to provide regular coach services, up to hourly by the summer, for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and Stirling. This is all part of FlixBus’s plans to build the largest intercity coach network in the UK. The collaboration will by summer see 25 luxury coaches on the FlixBus-McGill’s partner network.
Stagecoach, now owned by Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank, don’t own the bus station but have a mandate to run it, and recently announced that FlixBus could not be given any further slots to pick up and drop off passengers as part of their expansion plans.
Now FlixBus are being forced to operate from the street as they cannot have some stops in the station and some outside. This now sees passengers carrying suitcases and other luggage on the street which is totally unacceptable.
Stagecoach’s Managing Director for North Scotland, David Beaton, informed Flixbus Managing Director Andreas Schorling in an email on April 24, that owing to a recent Health and Safety Assessment that the FlixBus slots would be withdrawn.
Mr Schorling said: “Stagecoach has an ownership stake in Scottish Citylink which is a direct competitor to FlixBus and operates some of the lines for them. There is a glaring conflict of interests when it comes to their management of the bus station.”
Flixbus’s legal adviser Professor Peter Watson of PBW Law has now intimated by letter to Stagecoach at their Inverness HQ that a formal complaint will be submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) should the matter not be immediately resolved.
Professor Watson points out that the so-called “Health and Safety assessment” has never been seen by Flixbus.
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He adds: “Stagecoach and its associated company Citylink are in a dominant position insofar as the operation of the Aberdeen bus station. Our clients’ inability to provide further services for which there is demand has the effect of restricting competition and frustrating customer demand. Our client has suffered loss and will continue to suffer loss as a direct result of Stagecoach’s actions. Our client considers the situation requires, in the public interest, a full and open investigation by the CMA.”
Mr Schorling added: “We will be informing Scottish Transport Minister Mr Kevin Stewart, MSP of our actions. And as he is the local MSP we are certain he will also appreciate the appalling manner in which our passengers are being treated in Aberdeen by Stagecoach. We also know Mr Stewart and his Scottish Government colleagues are huge supporters of getting people out of their cars and back into public transport.”
McGill’s CEO Ralph Roberts, who is also President of the Confederation of Passenger Transport and has been 40 years in the business, added: “We cannot see a return to the days where a city is being treated as a personal fiefdom. We fully support the government in their green initiatives, and we all want to see more people choosing to travel by bus.”
