McGill’s bus operator fined almost £30,000 over faults.
A renowned bus company has been fined over £30,000 by Scotland’s traffic commissioner for a series of service failures, including two vehicles catching fire.
Richard Turfitt issued a final warning to McGill’s Buses, saying the errors had “severely tarnished” the reputation of the firm’s sister firms Scotland East and Midland Bluebird.
One of the accidents was a bus carrying 30 passengers on the A91 near Blairlogie that caught fire while travelling from Dollar Academy to Stirling.
A representative for the Greenock firm told BBC Scotland News that the problems primarily occurred shortly after McGill’s took over services from First Bus in 2022.
The panel also chastised McGill’s for failing to fulfil published deadlines. The Stirling event occurred in September 2023. The bus driver was informed by students on the ride that smoke and flames had arrived.
She had already informed the firm’s Bannockburn depot that the water warning light was lighted, but was assured that there would be enough coolant/water to safely return there.
A later assessment concluded that the fire was caused by the collapse of the rocker cover, which protects a component in the internal combustion engine.
This resulted in flammable fluids leaking from the engine onto hot components. Midland Bluebird’s second vehicle caught fire in December 2023, even though it was not transporting people.
The back wheel caught fire while going on the A811 between Arnprior and Garden Lodge, near the start of the M4 road. A passing motorist aided the driver and used a fire extinguisher on the rear wheel.
Gov.UKDuring a later audit of Midland Bluebird, eight vehicles were inspected, and two prohibitable problems were discovered: an oil leak larger than 75mm and a minor fuel leak.
The business stated that 106 of the 294 vehicles it purchased when purchasing Midland Bluebird were “in an unfit state for operation.”
However, Mr Turfitt said that this should have been detected during the purchasing process, when McGill’s conducted due diligence. He also expressed worries about Bannockburn’s management style, with “shifts being run to suit the individual staff rather than the needs of the business and to deliver effective risk management”.
Since then the firm has recruited more staff and carried out performance improvement plans.
Increase in bus cancellations
Scotland East, the second affected company, was criticised after receiving public complaints about cancelled services.
A monitoring experiment conducted in May and June 2024 found that “cancellations and changes to services increased almost exponentially.” According to them, “the recorded figures are both unprecedented and unacceptable to travelling passengers for whom, these failures of services are critical to all aspects of their daily lives.”
External variables affecting punctuality, according to the firm, include temporary roadworks, road closures with complex diversions, increased traffic in Stirling’s west end, and utilities upgrades in greater Glasgow.
A Midland Bluebird official stated that safety and dependability were non-negotiable for the company.
They added: “We appreciate the Traffic Commissioner’s conclusions, and it is regrettable that we experienced unacceptable maintenance and punctuality concerns, the majority of which started shortly after we bought the firms in 2022.
“Since then, we’ve strengthened engineering leadership, implemented more extensive IRTEC inspections every four weeks, and funded independent audits and monitoring with Bus Users Scotland.” Importantly, we are also spending extensively in renewing our fleet.
In September of this year, we launched a new fleet of 30 zero-emission electric single-decker buses with a £14 million investment, and we continue to aim to reduce the fleet’s average age.”
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