old routes. At the end of the century Citybus operated about 75% of routes in Plymouth along with a few routes beyond the city boundaries. Go-Ahead Group In May 2009, Plymouth City Council announced that it intended to sell the company. Early interest came from FirstGroup and local taxi owner John Preece who had been behind the privatisation of Western National and had made previous attempts to purchase Citybus. The proposed sale led to increased competition in the city but FirstGroup withdrew its interest. It was debated in the House of Commons in October 2009. A £20 million bid by the Go-Ahead Group was accepted in November 2009. Operations As of October 2013, Plymouth Citybus employed 443 people, operated 151 buses and coaches, and carried about 14 million passengers annually. In addition to its bus and coach operations, it also provides vehicle repairs and servicing for other commercial road operators and private car drivers through its Car and Commercial division. Its fleet is based at a depot in Milehouse. In October 2013, Plymouth Citybus launched a new service to Tavistock. This has since been withdrawn leaving Tavistock-Plymouth services in the hands of Stagecoach South West. Plymouth Citycoach Plymouth City Transport's first coach-seated vehicles was a Leyland National fitted with coach seats. Plymouth Citycoach was created as a separate unit within Citybus with its own management and a remit to produce a profit. It offered both advertised day trips and holiday tours, as well as hiring out its vehicles. They carry a version of the bus livery, but generally with more white. Go Cornwall Bus The Liskeard-based operations of Western Greyhound were purchased on 8 December 2014 with 9 Optare Solo buses and relaunched as Go Cornwall Bus. This included the Liskeard-Plymouth section of route 593 but the Liskeard-Newquay section of the same route remained with Western Greyhound and through tickets were made available. It was announced on 6 January 2020 that Cornwall Council had awarded the entire tendered county bus network (except the Truro Park & Ride) to the Go-Ahead Group from 1 April. It will be operated under Go Cornwall Bus brand. The contract consists of 73 routes and will require approximately 130 vehicles. FirstGroup subsidiary Kernow retained the Truro Park & Ride contract and will continue to run their commercially-operated routes. The Flash In more recent years, Citybus launched a range of services known as the Flash, with