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Which past bus operators do you miss?

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Mr Manager

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An operator that was even bigger than Barton in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire was Midland General which was taken over by Trent in 1972. It was part of the Balfour Beaty Group but operated a very extensive network of routes especially in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coal mining areas. Towns along the border between the two counties like Eastwood, Heanor, Ilkeston, Ripley and Alfreton were all served by Midlands General. They also had many services into Nottinghamshire towns like Hucknall, Kirkby and Sutton in Ashfield and Mansfield. There was quite an extensive network of services serving urban areas in the west of the City of Nottingham especially in the Wollaton area. Just like Barton’s routes Trent were very quick to cut services after they took them over.

Ah Midland general. A company very close to my heart and where i cut my teeth in this industry. One can only think IF MG was partnered with East Midland instead of Trent (A swear word at Sutton Road) . But the old Green and red shall not mix came into into. MG drivers being TGWU not NUR . Hence why no Green companies ever amalgamated with a Red company. How Many of you knew that ? .
 
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Busaholic

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Ah Midland general. A company very close to my heart and where i cut my teeth in this industry. One can only think IF MG was partnered with East Midland instead of Trent (A swear word at Sutton Road) . But the old Green and red shall not mix came into into. MG drivers being TGWU not NUR . Hence why no Green companies ever amalgamated with a Red company. How Many of you knew that ? .
Not my (geographical) area at all, but I've recently read quite extensive correspondence on this in 'Classic Bus' magazine, over an issue or three, so anyone interested might care to try to find online. I only read print editions.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Midland General had been nationalised and by then was part of the National Bus Company; the amalgamation into Trent was part of NBC's policy at the time of reducing the number of subsidiary companies and creating large 'area' monopoly companies*. Others which went at the same time were Stratford Blue (absorbed into the parent Midland Red), Provincial and Wilts & Dorset (both merged with Hants & Dorset), and all the Northern Group subsidiaries into Northern General, Durham District into United.

Sorry to be a pedant but DDS was amalgamated in 1967 before the 1968 Transport Act and the 1969 creation of the NBC.

DDS was created in 1950 to allow the purchase of independents by Tilling Group without compromising an agreement with Northern General. It ceased to be necessary by 1966 so they could simply relivery the green fleet into red and close the separate depots in Darlington and Durham.
 

Cambus731

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Eastern National, Maidstone & District, Southend Transport, East Kent, Strathtay, Berks Bucks.
 

Busaholic

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Maidstone Corporation and, purely from old film and photo evidence, Kingston-Upon-Hull Corporation Transport.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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No, don't apologise, definitely my mistake. I'd started to alter my post to delete the DDS/United comment (hence the awkward sentence structure) as I realised I didn't actually know when DDS had been absorbed, but for some reason then posted it without completing the edit!

To be honest, I'm surprised anyone remembers DDS so felt a bit guilty TBH. It disappeared before my time but I was born in United country so hence my knowledge!
 

TheGrandWazoo

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I only know about DDS at all because I bought a collection of bus company long service badges (the often personalised, always hallmarked silver, badges they used to issue back in the days when companies actually valued their loyal long-serving staff rather than looking down on their "people resources"*) and there were a couple of DDS one with chevrons for (I think) each 5 years of service. So not knowing who or what DDS were, I looked them up...

* Sorry, I was heading into Rant Mode there. I get more than a little aerated by the way companies nowadays seem to much prefer brand new staff who can be brainwashed with this week's corporate bull than experienced staff who can actually do the job properly and incidentally also provide the customers with the service they want rather than just sweet smiles and platitudes.

No worries. Somewhere in my mum's house are my late fathers' badges for 25, 30 and 35 years with United Auto!
 

backontrack

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Stagecoach North Scotland will never be the company Rapsons was that's for sure!
Agreed! Once Stagecoach took over the old Rapsons network, they got rid of the railway/Scrabster connection by no longer stopping the 78 and X99 at Thurso station. They increased their services on the X99 route massively to compete, and then cut them back down to two per day!

Whilst Rapsons wanted to work with the railway for the benefit of the passengers, Stagecoach just want to compete with it.
 

Jordan Adam

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Agreed! Once Stagecoach took over the old Rapsons network, they got rid of the railway/Scrabster connection by no longer stopping the 78 and X99 at Thurso station. They increased their services on the X99 route massively to compete, and then cut them back down to two per day!

Whilst Rapsons wanted to work with the railway for the benefit of the passengers, Stagecoach just want to compete with it.

Yea Stagecoach North Scotland is no better down on the Bluebird side either. Some of the buses here are in such an awful cosmetic and mechanical state, on top of this some services have seen cuts of up to 75%, with one example seeing it's frequency reduced from Every 20 minutes to Every 3 hours. Most of the Ex-Rapsons stuff painted at Inverness are famous for their angular version of the beachball livery!

Stagecoach trying to compete with the railway continues in the situation of the 10 and 35. Out of the 2 services the 35 is far more profitable and runs on a higher frequency, but because the 10 follows the railway it gets all the new investment even though some runs on it make a loss! All the while the 35 gets a mix of everything. From clapped out E200s to B7Rs in need of a refurb that suffer from and smell of damp.

Speaking of the quality of Stagecoach North Scotland's Services, in the past hour or so a Solo has caught fire near Aberdeen Airport.
 

backontrack

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Yea Stagecoach North Scotland is no better down on the Bluebird side either. Some of the buses here are in such an awful cosmetic and mechanical state, on top of this some services have seen cuts of up to 75%, with one example seeing it's frequency reduced from Every 20 minutes to Every 3 hours. Most of the Ex-Rapsons stuff painted at Inverness are famous for their angular version of the beachball livery!

Stagecoach trying to compete with the railway continues in the situation of the 10 and 35. Out of the 2 services the 35 is far more profitable and runs on a higher frequency, but because the 10 follows the railway it gets all the new investment even though some runs on it make a loss! All the while the 35 gets a mix of everything. From clapped out E200s to B7Rs in need of a refurb that suffer from and smell of damp.

Speaking of the quality of Stagecoach North Scotland's Services, in the past hour or so a Solo has caught fire near Aberdeen Airport.
Pretty awful. Didn't the 35 get cutback from running straight through from Inverness fairly recently as well? It does seem like an increasingly shoddy operation in any case - Stagecoach are only in it for the tourist traffic...
 

61653 HTAFC

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A few contenders:
Yorkshire Rider (pre-First/Badgerline takeover): the sight of a green and cream Atlantean was always a sign of being "home".
County Motors: their blue buses were always better turned-out than the Yorkshire Traction ones, even for years after YT had absorbed them.
Cooks Coaches: This Taunton independent always seemed to have modern, clean buses compared to First who at the time had lots of ex-London Marshall Capital Darts that rattled like a 141 in Morley Tunnel. Not a major issue on Town services but if I was heading to London on SWT I'd always use Cooks to Honiton rather than First to Yeovil.
 

Jordan Adam

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Pretty awful. Didn't the 35 get cutback from running straight through from Inverness fairly recently as well? It does seem like an increasingly shoddy operation in any case - Stagecoach are only in it for the tourist traffic...

Yea the Elgin - Inverness section of the 35 was axed. The Elgin - Banff section was cut from Half hourly to Hourly and the Old Meldrum - Aberdeen section from Every 15 minutes to Every 30 minutes.

The Coastrider Aberdeen - Stonehaven has also been heavily cut. Newtonhill for example has went from a Every 15 minutes service (Hourly evenings) to a hourly service with only 3 buses after 18:15.

Pretty much every route on the network has seen a significant cut of some sort.
 

SCH117X

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On the basis of variety is always interesting every operator that has been swallowed up by First, Stagecoach and Arriva.
 

Jordan Adam

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On the basis of variety is always interesting every operator that has been swallowed up by First, Stagecoach and Arriva.

There are some exceptions though. Companies like West Coast Motors have a very smart fleet and are expanding fast. Places such as Shetland have not been touched any of the "big 5", although if history was slightly different in the early 00s Stagecoach would be there now!
 

richw

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Western Greyhound, although their legacy has been a much improved First in Cornwall.

WG circa 2010 when they were driving first out I miss. Enthusiast cap on the variety of their later days, but as a passenger those days are best gone
 

A0wen

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Hants & Dorset (green) amalgamated with Wilts & Dorset (red)
Western National (green) amalgamated with Devon General (red)

United Counties (green) and Luton Corporation (red).

Alder Valley was formed from a 'green' and 'red' company as well.
 

Busaholic

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If I was being really nostalgic I'd go for Western Welsh and their Haverfordwest depot, seeing as how I took a photo of it with loads of buses in the yard, mostly Leyland Titan PD2s, but also an Albion nimbus or two, these being fascinating to my young eyes as very unlike what I saw every day in London. Never been on one though! The company which I don't miss is Silcox of Pembroke Dock, whose double decker backed into our family car on the same holiday (but denied liability) and whose buses were roundly booed (and steered clear of) for the rest of the holiday.
 

DavidGrain

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My first choice has to be 'The Friendly Midland Red' as they advertised themselves. Living on the Birmingham city boundary I did of course also travel much on the Birmingham Corporation buses.
With Midland Red, I preferred the buses that they built themselves (As well as the 1953 Leylands) more than the later buses they bought in.
Birmingham Corporation had the Birmingham 'Standards' all looking the same but built by different manufacturers.

What I really missed were the coaches operated by all the different companies. Birmingham Digbeth and London Victoria are just not the same with all the white coaches.

As I have mentioned on other threads I used to travel all over the Midlands on a Midland Red 5/- childs Day Anywhere ticket and Nottingham is a city I particularly remember for the multitude of different bus operators.
 

backontrack

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Yea the Elgin - Inverness section of the 35 was axed. The Elgin - Banff section was cut from Half hourly to Hourly and the Old Meldrum - Aberdeen section from Every 15 minutes to Every 30 minutes.

The Coastrider Aberdeen - Stonehaven has also been heavily cut. Newtonhill for example has went from a Every 15 minutes service (Hourly evenings) to a hourly service with only 3 buses after 18:15.

Pretty much every route on the network has seen a significant cut of some sort.
That's very shoddy to cut the only direct link from the Banffshire towns to Inversneckie.

Newtonhill should have a rail station really, and Oldmeldrum looks like a pretty easy rail reopening too. But it's a shame that the bus service has been cut.
There are some exceptions though. Companies like West Coast Motors have a very smart fleet and are expanding fast. Places such as Shetland have not been touched any of the "big 5", although if history was slightly different in the early 00s Stagecoach would be there now!
Shetland has a fairly extensive bus network. Only its own operators, West Coast Motors, morebus and McGill's operate buses that travel on ferries, I believe...
 

SCH117X

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As I have mentioned on other threads I used to travel all over the Midlands on a Midland Red 5/- childs Day Anywhere ticket and Nottingham is a city I particularly remember for the multitude of different bus operators.
Although until 1986 NCT had a protection zone within which no other operators could pick up city centre bound drop down outbound except for joint workings (South Notts & West Bridford UDC on the Clifton Estate services, and West Bridgford UDC on services to West Bridgford [WBUDC where taken over by NCT in 1968])
 
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