Ayrshire Bus Owners

Ayrshire Bus Owners (A1 Service) Ltd was set up as a legal entity on 27 May 1931. The related Ayrshire Bus Owners Association had been formed in 1925. Many of the companies which formed it had existed for much longer.

In the early 1920s there were over 60 operators in an area bound by Largs to the north, Kilmarnock to the east and Ayr by the south. To protect themselves from the main operator in the area, Scottish General Transport, many of the smaller operators grouped together and in 1925 began the Ayrshire Bus Owners Association. The association, which operated as A1 Service, was based on a similar concept in Lanarkshire. The Ayrshire group also chose this trading name and from 1926 offered a regular timetabled service between Ardrossan and Kilmarnock. Each member of the association continued to own and maintain their vehicles at their own premises.

Some regrouping took place in the late 1920s, and some members left to form Clyde Coast Services in spring 1929, operating between Saltcoats and Largs. In 1930 more members, including Dodds Of Troon, broke away to form Ayrshire Bus Owners AA Service, which would later become AA Buses. Clyde Coast Coaches and Dodds Of Troon continue to be prominent coach operators in the west of Scotland, though their bus operations were sold to Stagecoach in the 1990s.

The regulation of the British bus industry was introduced under the 1930 Road Traffic Act and Traffic Commissioners were introduced to licence operators, vehicles and routes. This prompted the Ayrshire Bus Owners to organise in a more formal manner, and the legal company Ayrshire Bus Owners (A1 Service) Ltd was created, with a base at Parkhouse Road, Ardrossan.

A mainly blue livery, with light cream round the window areas and a maroon belt was introduced for the owner's vehicles and over the course of 60 years the company would continue as a successful co-operative. Though it was rare for new members to join, many would leave through retirement or ill-health, with their vehicles and shares in the company being sold on to other members. A1 was slow to introduce 'one person operated' buses, only introducing them in 1983, primarily for evening and Sunday bus services, despite unsuccessfully lobbying against their introduction by other operators to the area Traffic Commissioner, and conductors continued on the arterial Ardrossan/Kilmarnock service well into the late 1990s, even under Stagecoach ownership.

In the mid-1990s A1 Service found itself in a difficult position. The only profitable service was the trunk Ardrossan/Kilmarnock service, which operated every 10 minutes and demanded the use of double decker buses. The company had also been warned about the mechanical state of some its vehicles by the Traffic Commissioner, as many were becoming elderly and unreliable. As a result, some members decided that they wanted out of the company and offered their shares for sale.

The owners came to the agreement that they would approach Western Scottish, which had just recently become a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and offer the company for sale. Western Scottish agreed to buy the company and some of its vehicles for £4.3 million, and in January 1995 A1 Service ceased trading as an independent operator and became a subsidiary company of Stagecoach.

At the time of sale, Ayrshire Bus Owners (A1 Service) Ltd operated 97 vehicles, owned by 10 members. A Monopolies and Mergers Commission report into the takeover cleared Stagecoach of being predatory and approved the sale.