Busways Travel Services
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Busways Travel Services was a bus operator formed in 1986 which operated local and regional bus services in
Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...
, England. The company was purchased by the
Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom. Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as ''Gloagtrotter'', a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. Dur ...
in July 1994.


History


Formation

In October 1986, to comply with the
Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 (c. 67) was an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October 1986. The act was created as a response to growing ...
, the bus operations of the
Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive The Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, branded as Nexus, is an executive body of the North East Combined Authority and is best known for owning and operating the Tyne and Wear Metro. It replaced the Tyneside PTE on 1 April 1974. O ...
were transferred to a new legal entity named Busways Travel Services. Busways divided its main services into four colour-coded divisions. Services operated out of Slatyford and Byker depots were branded as Newcastle and City Busways respectively, taking on a maroon livery, while
South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...
and
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
depots' Busways operations were branded blue and green respectively. These divisions were eventually reduced to three with the merger of City Busways into Newcastle Busways in 1993. White-painted
minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...
es operated by each division were branded "Mini Busways" to allow them to be quickly transferred between divisions, while low-cost subsidiaries, such as Blue Bus, Economic and The Favourite, were also set up by Busways to compete with rival operators, such as Trimdon Motor Services, Go-Ahead Northern, the Tyne and Wear Omnibus Company (TWOC) and Welcome Passenger Service, on services across Tyne and Wear for passengers. In May 1989, Busways Travel Services was sold to its employees in an employee share ownership plan (ESOP), with management owning 51% of shares and employees owning 49%. The newly privatised Busways made their first acquisition of a competing bus operator on 17 November 1989, purchasing the Tyne & Wear Omnibus Company, which had then recently been engaged in a bus war with Busways, from Go-Ahead Northern for £2 million (). The sale of the Tyne and Wear Omnibus Company to Busways proved highly controversial with TWOC's 187 workers, with the company's Gateshead depot announced to close and workers being issued "precautionary" 90-day redundancy notices, before later being made to apply for new jobs at Busways; only two workers out of 33 applicants would get engineering jobs at Busways, while no ex-TWOC drivers were hired by Busways to operate former TWOC services. This eventually resulted in Busways being ruled to have unfairly dismissed TWOC workers by an industrial tribunal in June 1992. By March 1994, the company was considering options of geographic expansion, merger, acquisition or sale to a national group. The company had become concerned at its proximity to the recently floated
Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead Group Limited is a Multinational corporation, multi-national transport group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While the majority of its operations are within Great Britain, it also operates services in Ireland, Australia, Singapo ...
, and the fact that
United Automobile Services United Automobile Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne & Wear, England. It provided bus services across a wide geographical area, stretch ...
to the south, and Northumbria to the north, were also possible targets for the larger groups. It believed that independently it would struggle to defend the company against expansion by these neighbours in the future. The Busways board came to the conclusion that a merger with one of the larger groups was the only viable option.


Stagecoach ownership

Stagecoach Holdings acquired Busways Travel Services for £27.5 million () in July 1994. This takeover had to be accepted against two other national groups by Busways' 1,700 employee shareholders, 99% of which accepted, receiving between £4,700 () and £13,800 () in
windfall gain A windfall gain is an unusually high or abundant income, net profit or profit margin, that is sudden, unexpected, or, at times, anticipated. Types Examples of windfall gains include, but are not limited to: *Unexpected inheritance or other large m ...
s based on their length of service. Similar to Stagecoach subsidiaries such as Cleveland Transit and GM Buses South, Busways initially retained its identity as an autonomous unit of the group between 1994 and 1995, with the fleet carrying new straplines reading 'Part of the Stagecoach Group'. On eventual adoption of Stagecoach's group livery of base white with red, orange and blue stripes from July 1995, the Busways, Blue Bus Service and Economic names were retained by the company. This rebrand was accelerated with a £6 million () investment in 40 Alexander RL bodied Volvo Olympians and 17 Alexander PS type bodied
Volvo B10M The Volvo B10M is a mid-engine design, mid-engined city bus and coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Volvo Buses, Volvo between 1978 and 2003. It succeeded the Volvo B58, B58 and was equipped with the same 9.6-litre horizontally mounted Vo ...
s that were delivered between late 1995 and early 1996, the largest single purchase of new vehicles by Busways since deregulation. The Busways, Economic and Blue Bus names were eventually dropped with rebranding of the Stagecoach Group in 2000, with operations continuing under Stagecoach North East. The Busways name is retained today as the registered company name for the Stagecoach subsidiary.


Darlington Bus War involvement

In January 1994, employee owned Busways had been considering expanding in the Darlington area, although by March this study was suspended while other possible futures were being considered. In the months following the Stagecoach takeover, the Busways subsidiary was a key player in the Darlington Bus War.


Operations


Economic

The name "Economic" had been used by the associated businesses of GR Anderson and EW Wilson of Whitburn for their services between Sunderland and South Shields. These had been acquired by Tyne & Wear PTE on 1 January 1975. Prior to deregulation, TWPTE had painted a
Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...
double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...
in the old Economic colours of maroon and off-white with black lining to mark the 60th anniversary of the business, and as deregulation approached, two brand-new
Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian is a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis that was manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear ...
double-deckers were delivered to the PTE in those colours, bearing gold "ECONOMIC" fleetnames. At deregulation, Economic was revived as the low-cost competitive operation of South Shields Busways, with Sunderland to South Shields services 505 and 506 becoming Economic routes E1 and E2.


Armstrong Galley

On 24 August 1973, Tyne & Wear PTE acquired two associated Newcastle-based businesses, R Armstrong (Bus Proprietor) Ltd. and Galley's Coaches Ltd., and immediately the "Armstrong Galley" name was adopted for the PTE's coaching and private hire division. Initially retaining the original PTE yellow and cream colours (of Newcastle Corporation), a new colour scheme of mid-blue with yellow, orange and red stripes was adopted around 1980. Armstrong Galley introduced a flagship service to London in the early 1980s, competing with
National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
, using
MCW Metroliner The MCW Metroliner was an integral coach manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1983 and 1988. Launched by MCW in April 1983 ahead of the 1984 tourist season as the company attempted to diversify its manufacturing business away ...
coaches branded as the "Non-Stop Clipper". The Armstrong Galley operations continued unchanged with the creation of Busways in October 1986, however in the early 1990s, it expanded into low-cost bus operation, culminating in an "Armstrong Galley Buses" operation being set up. After the Stagecoach takeover, Armstrong Galley's bus operations were closed down, with the coach operation later sold to East Yorkshire Motor Services' Tyneside Coach Travel subsidiary in late 1996.


Fleet

As of the purchase by Stagecoach in July 1994, Busways Travel Services was operating a fleet of over 600 buses based at four depots. Busways inherited a large fleet of panoramic windowed
Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...
s and
Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...
s from Tyne and Wear PTE, although these had been supplemented in 1986 by 65 Alexander RH bodied
Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian is a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis that was manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear ...
s. Busways also inherited several Bristol LH single-deckers from the PTE, many of which were scrapped or converted to driver trainers. Some examples survived into 1994, used in the main fleet, Blue Bus Services and Favourite Services, and the type was added to in this time with many second hand examples. In PTE ownership the company acquired several 1987 Mercedes-Benz 709D minibuses, and 1989
Leyland Lynx The Leyland Lynx was a High-floor, step-entrance integral single-deck bus manufactured by Leyland Bus, Leyland in Workington, England between 1986 and 1992. After the takeover by Volvo Buses, Volvo, it was succeeded by the Volvo B10B. Backgrou ...
es. In 1989 and 1991, employee owned Busways standardised on the Scania N113 chassis, on Northern Counties and
Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...
RH double-deck bodies, and
Alexander PS The Alexander PS-type was a High-floor, step-entrance single-deck bus body built by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders in Falkirk, Scotland and was produced from 1988 to the late 1990s on the Dennis Lance, Mercedes-Benz O405, Scania N113 and Volvo ...
single-deck bodies. The double deck fleet was also added to with the purchase of Northern Counties-bodied 1987 Leyland Olympians from London Transport's Bexleybus operation. In November 1992, Busways moved into the midibus market, purchasing 20 Alexander Dash bodied
Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...
s during a period of direct competition with Welcome Passenger Services, although 1993 batches were augmented with Plaxton bodied examples.


References


External links

* {{Defunct British Bus Companies Former bus operators in Tyne and Wear Former PTE bus operators Stagecoach Group Transport companies established in 1986 Transport companies disestablished in 1995 1986 establishments in England 1995 disestablishments in England