McGill's Bus Services
McGill’s Bus Services is based in Greenock and covers most of the west of Scotland. It is the largest private bus company in Scotland and the sixth largest in the UK.
532 Greenock to Devol Port Glasgow: © VintageBuses.org — Creative Commons BY 4.0
McGill’s is my local bus company and on the whole, it is a very good service. Being a private company, it is profit-driven, so timetables do not always benefit passengers. However, their 901/906/906X Largs to Glasgow services are excellent. The last passenger is picked up in Port Glasgow and the bus goes straight on to the M8 motorway, stopping only at the Braehead Shopping Centre before heading straight to Buchanan Street Bus Station in the heart of the city centre.
Brief history of McGill’s Buses
- 1933: — McGill’s Bus Services first came into being. This operator is based in Greenock and has grown to cover Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Glasgow and other areas.
- Early 2000s: In the 2000s the Easdale family (Sandy & James Easdale) became the majority owners; Alex Kean sold his shares to the Easdales in October 2004.
- 2005-2019: McGill’s expanded routes across Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, Glasgow and beyond, including acquisitions of local routes around Greenock and new depots.
- Late 2010s: McGill’s placed significant orders for new diesel single-deckers (notably Alexander Dennis Enviro200 and Enviro200 MMC models) as part of fleet renewal (examples: a 26-vehicle Enviro200 order announced in 2018).
- 2021: In February 2021 McGill’s announced a £17.5m investment in EV buses. (an initial package of 35 e-buses for Glasgow/Dundee services, later extended).
- 2021-2023: McGill’s became one of the UK’s largest operators of Yutong EV buses: initial deliveries of Yutong E12s arrived in late 2021 (55 E12s reported delivered before COP26), followed by further orders.
- 2021 onward: McGill’s purchased Xplore Dundee (effective 1 Jan 2021) and formed commercial partnerships such as operating FlixBus overnight coach services from Glasgow.
- 2023-2025: McGill’s significantly increased its zero-emission fleet. Reports in 2025 record further Yutong E12 deliveries.
Sources
uk buses: McGill’s Unofficial Fleet List PDF
Here is a very handy PDF for all you bus spotters out there. Uk buses has compiled this comprehensive list (although it may not be up to date) of each bus’s fleet and registration numbers and the depots they operate from.
Unofficial Fleet List © Copyright 2005 - 2025 uk buses.
Last updated: See PDF document date.
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Ignore X7, it’s the 901 to Glasgow: © VintageBuses.org — Creative Commons BY 4.0
Ignore X7, it’s the 906 leaving Buchanan St bus station Glasgow for Largs: © VintageBuses.org — Creative Commons BY 4.0
X23 leaving Buchanan St bus station Glasgow for Erskine: © VintageBuses.org — Creative Commons BY 4.0
