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Bus wars in Royston, North Hertfordshire 1988

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slammerTel

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Would anyone have details of the bus war that occurred between Cambus & Premier Travel in the Hertfordshire town of Royston in around 1988? I have searched the internet but cannot seem to find any info on it so anyone with knowledge about it would be fantastic.
 
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A0wen

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Would anyone have details of the bus war that occurred between Cambus & Premier Travel in the Hertfordshire town of Royston in around 1988? I have searched the internet but cannot seem to find any info on it so anyone with knowledge about it would be fantastic.

Have to say I never heard of a "bus war" in Royston.

Most of the services in the Royston area were HCC contracts - Premier certainly had picked up a good number of those, but they tended to be at best 1 or 2 journeys a day and more commonly a couple of times a week. They did pick up the Royston town service which they ran as a minibus operation - as was common back then.

The only corridor they and Cambus could logically have competed on was the Royston - Cambridge service as Cambus didn't really operate south of Royston (except some joint operations with LCBS / Green Line on the 797 and 798).

Royston was an oddity even in NBC days as it didn't have a single operator - Cambus (previously Eastern Counties) covered the area out to Cambridge, United Counties the area towards Hitchin and Biggleswade. Not sure if London Country or Eastern National covered the area to the south ?
 

MedwayValiant

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Cambus and Premier did sort of compete between Cambridge and Royston in the late 80s. Premier had a Cambridge to Luton Airport service, which was basically A10 to Royston, A505 to Luton. It charged higher fares than the Cambus route between Cambridge and Royston, but it ran evenings and Sundays which Cambus didn't.

I don't think Royston ever had many very frequent bus services. In that era, the only ones that come to mind as operating more than about twice a day were the 797 to London via Hitchin, the 798 to London via Buntingford (both Green Line with some journeys run by Cambus), the Cambridge route, and the Bassingbourn route. I think Cambus and Premier may both have had that one at different times, but I do remember once taking a Luton & District bus from Letchworth to Steeple Morden, and connecting there with a Cambus double decker to Royston.

As for NBC days, from what I remember, the peak hours trips to places like Barkway, Chrishall, and Newport Grammar School were run by Premier. I'm not sure who had the market day runs to Bishop's Stortford via lots of villages, and Saffron Walden via even more villages. I don't think H V Richmond (Barley) was doing service bus work yet, Elsie Smith (Buntingford) was but only went to Hitchin, so those too may have been Premier.

The trip down the A10 to Buntingford only ran Wednesdays and Saturdays in those days. That was United Counties 188, starting from Biggleswade.
 

A0wen

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Cambus and Premier did sort of compete between Cambridge and Royston in the late 80s. Premier had a Cambridge to Luton Airport service, which was basically A10 to Royston, A505 to Luton. It charged higher fares than the Cambus route between Cambridge and Royston, but it ran evenings and Sundays which Cambus didn't.

I don't think Royston ever had many very frequent bus services. In that era, the only ones that come to mind as operating more than about twice a day were the 797 to London via Hitchin, the 798 to London via Buntingford (both Green Line with some journeys run by Cambus), the Cambridge route, and the Bassingbourn route. I think Cambus and Premier may both have had that one at different times, but I do remember once taking a Luton & District bus from Letchworth to Steeple Morden, and connecting there with a Cambus double decker to Royston.

As for NBC days, from what I remember, the peak hours trips to places like Barkway, Chrishall, and Newport Grammar School were run by Premier. I'm not sure who had the market day runs to Bishop's Stortford via lots of villages, and Saffron Walden via even more villages. I don't think H V Richmond (Barley) was doing service bus work yet, Elsie Smith (Buntingford) was but only went to Hitchin, so those too may have been Premier.

The trip down the A10 to Buntingford only ran Wednesdays and Saturdays in those days. That was United Counties 188, starting from Biggleswade.

Minor edit, the 797 didn't run via Hitchin, instead it went Baldock and the either Graveley or A1 to Stevenage. Cambus at one point used Olympian coaches which would have had a problem with the Cambridge Road rail bridge in Hitchin.....
 
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