Western Greyhound

Optare Solo at Newquay in August 2011
Founded	January 1998
Defunct	13 March 2015
Headquarters	Summercourt
Service area	Cornwall Devon
Depots	2
Fleet	65 (December 2014)
Chief executive	Mark Howarth (1998 - 2014) Michael Bishop (2014 - 2015)
Website	www.westerngreyhound.com

Western Greyhound was a Cornish bus operator based in Summercourt, that operated services in Cornwall and Devon from January 1998 until March 2015.

Western Greyhound was established in January 1998 to take over the three vehicles and the contracts of Cornishman Coaches, whose owner was retiring. The new company's managing director was Mark Howarth who had previously managed Western National, the local Badgerline (later FirstGroup) operation, and he was joined by Robin Orwell who had also worked for Badgerline. Within a few weeks R&M Coaches, another local operator, also sold out to Western Greyhound which brought one more vehicle and an office near Newquay bus station. This left one other independent bus operator in the town, Pleasure Travel Minicoaches, but this went out of business and the contracts were also taken on by Western Greyhound.

The company expanded beyond contract and private hire work with their first public timetabled services on 14 December 1998. These two routes (592 and 594) were contracts awarded by Cornwall Council and were operated by three new minibuses. Further contracts were awarded in 2001, and double deck buses were added to the fleet to operate school routes relinquished by First Devon & Cornwall. Since then many more routes have been added to the network including some from Plymouth Citybus and DAC Coaches in the south east, and Hookways in the north. There have also been new routes instigated, such as Newquay to Bodmin, linking the two largest towns in the county hitherto not connected by bus, and a coastal route from Newquay to St Ives.

The expanding fleet needed to operate these additional services saw the company move to a larger depot at nearby Summercourt. Initially it used established facilities there, but in 2004 a new purpose-built depot and offices were constructed. In the same year the old Newquay bus station was closed and replaced by a new facility. This is owned by Cornwall Council but is managed on their behalf by Western Greyhound, and their town centre shop was moved into new premises on the site. The company maintains its bus stops and uses satellite tracking to monitor its fleet.