Good news for local bus services

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year opened an investigation into East Coast Buses running the Dunbar-Edinburgh, and North Berwick-Edinburgh services, recently abandoned by First Group. The argument was that, as a subsidiary of Lothian Buses, it was not providing proper competition on the Musselburgh end of the routes. RELBUS is delighted to see that a sensible decision has been made on this matter as, on 23rd January, ahead of the 9th February deadline, the Competition and Markets Authority released the following statement:

“The CMA investigated and cleared the completed acquisition by East Coast Buses Limited of the east coast operations of First Scotland East Limited.”

RELBUS gave evidence twice to this investigation – at first when the investigation was initially announced in September 2016, and last month, at their request to comment upon what had actually happened since East Coast Buses had commenced operations.

Harry Barker, chair of RELBUS said, “This of course is excellent news and a common sense decision.”