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City and Newcastle Busways - why the difference?

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robertclark125

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On my first visit to Tyne and wear in 1991, Busways main routes in Newcastle had vehicles carrying either "City Busways" fleetnames or "Newcastle Busways" fleetnames. TWPTE publicity reflected this, with rotues on the guides either showing "City Busways" or "Newcastle Busways". Eventiually, it was all replaced as Newcastle Busways. But, why the different fleetnames in Newcastle?
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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On my first visit to Tyne and wear in 1991, Busways main routes in Newcastle had vehicles carrying either "City Busways" fleetnames or "Newcastle Busways" fleetnames. TWPTE publicity reflected this, with rotues on the guides either showing "City Busways" or "Newcastle Busways". Eventiually, it was all replaced as Newcastle Busways. But, why the different fleetnames in Newcastle?

City Busways was Byker depot
Newcastle Busways was Slatyford depot

Byker did more of the heavy city routes like the 1, 38, 39, 40 etc whilst Slaty did stuff out to the suburbs (relatively). By 1992/3, both depots carried the same fleetname - was a bit daft to be honest.
 

plcd1

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This is just speculation on my part but I wonder if part of the thinking was to try to build some employee loyalty to specific divisions within Busways given the company was initially employee and management owned. There may also have been some element of profit centre attached to each bit of Busways - each of them had to cover their costs and generate profits. It's also clear that different bits of Busways had different cost profiles to allow tendered work to be mopped up by the lower cost units like Blue Bus and even Armstrong Galley (traditionally coaching work under PTE tenure).

I know that the rejuvenation of old company names like Blue Bus Services and Favourite were entirely deliberate as a tool to prevent new competitors springing up and using "nostalgia" for the "old times" as a competitive weapon against bits of Busways. Also a way of protecting "title" bought long ago by the predecessor businesses to Busways.
 

Teflon Lettuce

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It was all part of a move with deregulation to "localise" operations.. as stated above the different names were to differentiate between the 2 depots.. there was also Sunderland Busways and South Shields Busways... down south there was Luton & District who named their operations "Luton Bus" "Aylesbury Bus" and "Hitchin Bus" later adding "Dunstable Bus" and after adding LCNW operations we got "Hemel Bus" "Watford Bus" "Slough Bus" "Chiltern Bus" (Amersham) and "Stevenage Bus" all very inspired and inspiring I think not...
 

ChathillMan

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As someone from Newcastle as i always prefered the "Newcastle" routes. City Busways took you places only the brave dare travel...
 

flymo

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As a former employee of "Tyne and Wear PTE" then "PTE Buses" around dereg then "City Busways" and finally "Newcastle Busways" when they merged, I can only say that Byker was the best... :) Slatyford was a holiday camp. :lol:
 

ChathillMan

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Byker (Walkergate) still do have all the dodgy routes :lol:
Ha, Slatyford used to do all the exotic routes like the 82E out to Heddon and the 79 under Blue Bus limited.

I hated the Byker Olympians with a passion. Although the scania deckers were brilliant
 

DunsBus

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This is just speculation on my part but I wonder if part of the thinking was to try to build some employee loyalty to specific divisions within Busways given the company was initially employee and management owned. There may also have been some element of profit centre attached to each bit of Busways - each of them had to cover their costs and generate profits. It's also clear that different bits of Busways had different cost profiles to allow tendered work to be mopped up by the lower cost units like Blue Bus and even Armstrong Galley (traditionally coaching work under PTE tenure).

I know that the rejuvenation of old company names like Blue Bus Services and Favourite were entirely deliberate as a tool to prevent new competitors springing up and using "nostalgia" for the "old times" as a competitive weapon against bits of Busways. Also a way of protecting "title" bought long ago by the predecessor businesses to Busways.

As was Economic. That particular identity was revived in PTE days, in 1985, to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the original Economic operation which had been taken over by the PTE ten years previously and was continued by Busways.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Ha, Slatyford used to do all the exotic routes like the 82E out to Heddon and the 79 under Blue Bus limited.

I hated the Byker Olympians with a passion. Although the scania deckers were brilliant

Ah yes. The C-LFT Olympians with their loud "meep-meep-meep-meep-meep" indicators. So loud, they could be heard clearly upstairs! :lol:
 
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