THE biggest service-bus company in the Highlands, Highland Bus and
Coach, has been bought by Rapson's Coaches of Inverness.
Rapson's, with depots in Inverness, Thurso, Fort William, and Portree
on the Isle of Skye, will have a fleet of more than 100 buses and around
150 staff.
The company serves most of the northern region, with the exception of
Inverness town services, which are run by Inverness Traction, a
subsiduary of Perth-based Stagecoach Holdings.
Highland Bus and Coach was previously a 50/50 joint-venture between
Rapson's and Edinburgh-based Scottish Citylink.
Earlier this week, National Express paid #5.1m for Citylink, but did
not want the service routes in the North of Scotland.
Yesterday, Sandy Rapson, managing director of Rapson's, described his
new group as ''the largest family-owned operators in Scotland''.
He refused to put a figure on the takeover terms, but said that the
group planned to expand into England by bidding for privatisations of
municipal bus companies and parts of the London Transport Group.
The joint-venture partners bought Highland from the Scottish Bus Group
when it was privatised a few years ago and was losing #500,000 a year.
Mr Rapson said Highland was now trading profitably and thanked ''a
dedicated, hard-working and loyal staff'' for improving the company's
efficiency, which he said had enabled them to improve their services to
rural communities.
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