retained for the Midland Scottish fleet, and some coaches and dual-purpose vehicles continued to wear the bluebird logo that had long been used by Alexander's coaching operations. The Bluebird name was also revived as a marketing name for express services into Glasgow and Edinburgh and for the coach fleet. Compared to some other SBG subsidiaries, Midland Scottish's operations continued largely unchanged by deregulation. The company did not compete against city operators in Glasgow or Edinburgh which were on the outer extremities of its territory, and within the core Stirling and Falkirk area it faced only light competition from small independent firms. As a result, Midland was one of the most successful of the Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries, being the second most profitable after Fife Scottish. The Argyllshire operations were detached from the rest of the company but had been given to Midland Scottish in 1985 as it was the closest subsidiary with a partially rural operating area. They were considered too small to become a separate company in their own right, too far from Inverness to be managed by Highland Scottish, and too dissimilar to Kelvin Scottish's largely urban network around Glasgow. Nevertheless they were peripheral to Midland's operations and the company soon began to divest itself of them. The Islay operations were surrendered to a local independent, whilst the Ardrishaig depot was sold to West Coast Motors of Campbeltown in 1987. In 1988 SBG Engineering closed the Larbert works, and Midland Scottish took it over as their head office. In 1990, as the company prepared for privatisation, it began trading as Midland Bluebird. It became the second SBG subsidiary to be privatised when it was sold for £8.5m in September 1990 to GRT Group, one of the predecessors of the FirstGroup. Shortly afterward, the company changed its legal name to Midland Bluebird. In 1992 Oban depot was sold to Oban & District, completing the withdrawal from Argyllshire. In September 1992 the company announced a smoking ban on all its services from 12 October, after a highly publicised public consultation found that 91% of respondents wished smoking to be banned on its services. The former operations of Midland Scottish are today part of McGill's Scotland East. References External links First Edinburgh website Defunct transport companies of Scotland Former bus operators in Scotland Transport in Stirling (council area) Transport in Falkirk (council area) Transport in Clackmannanshire Transport in Argyll and Bute