Trivia - Bus companies with (or had) a single type of bus?

[TheGrandWazoo]

I've always been mystified why Provincial sold off their J&K reg REs prematurely, in favour of
early Leyland Nationals from various sources some of which were absolute sheds (3 x MCN 84*L ex Northern being particularly unpleasant vehicles which often didn't see the day out in my experience). But then not many of the REs saw further service, so that may tell it's own tale.........

I think it may have been a combination of factors. Standardisation might have been one thing. The NBC had a theoretical 13 year age limit on vehicles (though not so rigidly applied to deckers) and so lots of fleets were binning off vehicles at that age (whilst other fleets continued with older vehicles). Remember Northern getting rid of their last REs in 1983 and they were only 11/12 years old.

 

[baza585]

Fair point. Neighbours Hampshire Bus and Southdown also didn't keep their REs long after privatisation, whereas Wilts and Dorset kept them much longer. Maybe engineering director influence also played a part.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Fair point. Neighbours Hampshire Bus and Southdown also didn't keep their REs long after privatisation, whereas Wilts and Dorset kept them much longer. Maybe engineering director influence also played a part.

Very possibly. It was all a bit weird in those days when you had youngish REs and LHs heading off for scrap as the onus moved first onto deckers (MAP schemes) and then onto minibuses.

My local firm was United and they had a few mature LNs pre-dereg as they were going spare, reducing the number of REs they had. IIRC, United had about 20 REs (RESLs and RELHs) in October 1986 and replaced them all during 1987 with ex Devon General and Western National LNs (replaced by minibuses) and London Country examples so you had K/L and N reg REs replaced by M/N/R reg Nationals - all for standardisation. Anyhow, we digress.... (before @GusB sanctions us )

It's quite ironic how people complain that there's no variety in fleets nowadays (esp Stagecoach) when you consider how standardised some fleets were. In the early 1980s, you would have had quite a few NBC fleets with one type of decker (VR/ECW of series 1/2/3), Nationals (Mk1/2 or B series if being exotic), some REs (usually ECW) and some lightweight stuff, with the coach fleet providing the only real variety.

 

[TheSel]

Cumfybus of Southport seem to have a fetish for Optare Solos.

... but that's by no means the only vehicles they operate. There are several Versa Hybrids on Southport Park & Ride, and more often than not, there's at least one out on one of the two workings on the 15 / 15A in Southport. Then there are at least two former London United Enviro 400s primarily for schools. Actually, they look quite smart in yellow, as seen on SN58EOS, seen in Southport below:

View attachment SN58EOS - Southport, Lord Street West.jpg

 

[upasalmon]

My qualifcation threshold would be a medium sized fleet accumulated over years. Depots of large companies shouldn't count because they are not single operators
Going back to Halton Transport they only had a chassis type monopoly of Dennis etc Darts in the early 2010s. Post dereg Halton snapped up Leyland Nationals to replace Leyland Leopards and Bristol REs But then Halton started buying Leyland Lynxes and they were the only operator buying new in the early 90s. However Leyland Bus ceased production in 1993 and Halton opted for the Dennis Dart and bought some step entrance Darts at first but then snapped up SLFs. They could have gone all Dart but decided to hang on to Leyland Lynxes for school services, for which the early step Darts were too small. Then bizarrely having sold early step Darts 65-67, acquired three identical Marshall bodied step Darts which became 65-67!
However the last Lynxes and step Darts were withdrawn and Halton was all SLF Darts at last. Until used Scanias 80-92 came in 2014. Haltons school bus needs delayed a SLF monopoly for a few years as some S LFs were sold earlier. Haltons final Darts arrived in 2010 and to their frequent purchases of new buses ceased, and early 2020 the operator ceased trading I still expect to see Haltons buses in Huyton town centre on the 61 Liverpool-Runcorn service.

 

[Robertj21a]

Provincial were 100% Leyland National in the mid 80s.

Didn't they also have an ex-Southdown open topper?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

My qualifcation threshold would be a medium sized fleet accumulated over years. Depots of large companies shouldn't count because they are not single operators
Going back to Halton Transport they only had a chassis type monopoly of Dennis etc Darts in the early 2010s. Post dereg Halton snapped up Leyland Nationals to replace Leyland Leopards and Bristol REs But then Halton started buying Leyland Lynxes and they were the only operator buying new in the early 90s. However Leyland Bus ceased production in 1993 and Halton opted for the Dennis Dart and bought some step entrance Darts at first but then snapped up SLFs. They could have gone all Dart but decided to hang on to Leyland Lynxes for school services, for which the early step Darts were too small. Then bizarrely having sold early step Darts 65-67, acquired three identical Marshall bodied step Darts which became 65-67!
However the last Lynxes and step Darts were withdrawn and Halton was all SLF Darts at last. Until used Scanias 80-92 came in 2014. Haltons school bus needs delayed a SLF monopoly for a few years as some S LFs were sold earlier. Haltons final Darts arrived in 2010 and to their frequent purchases of new buses ceased, and early 2020 the operator ceased trading I still expect to see Haltons buses in Huyton town centre on the 61 Liverpool-Runcorn service.

However, Halton didn't achieve single type status. The bought their first National then REs and back to Nationals and then Lynxes before losing the last REs.

Didn't they also have an ex-Southdown open topper?

That was after the minis appeared - the two PD3s were part of the swap deal for some Ivecos.

 

[bus man]

Historically Yorkshire Terrier when they started they only used Leyland Nationals

 

[MackTen]

Might be wrong, but the short lived deregulation entrant in Newcastle called Welcome or something, red and yellow livery, had only one type of minibus, Ivecos maybe?

They only operated for a year or too, having tried to run a high frequency duplicates of Busway's most profitable routes.

EDIT: Reading Mainline !?!? Only Routemasters?

 

[peters]

How strict are you being about the definition? For instance, if an operator has Optare Solos and Optare Solo SRs would they count?

I guess they will all be small companies.

The smallest companies I can think of have quite a mixture that they've acquired from various sources. Also sometimes one type wouldn't be suitable for the type of work they have e.g. they might need a 45 seater for a school contract or rail replacement work but for a contracted village route it might be a 21 seater is adequate and the 45 seater would have difficulty getting along some of the village lanes.