Northern General Transport Company
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The Northern General Transport Company was a bus company in
North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...
from 1913 to 1987.


History


Early history

Northern General originated in the early 1900s when
Gateshead and District Tramways The Gateshead and District Tramways operated a tramway service in Gateshead between 1883 and 1951. History The Gateshead and District Tramways commenced services on 22 October 1883 with steam-hauled tramcars operating on three routes centred o ...
asked Parliament's permission to extend their Tramway, which finished at
Low Fell Low Fell is a suburb of Gateshead situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. Built predominantly on sandstone, grindstone and clay, it is bordered by Sheriff Hill/ Deckham to the east, Saltwell/Bensham to the ...
, to
Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...
. Parliament denied this, so the directors decided to set up a motor bus operation instead. Hence the Northern General Transport Company was formed and its first depot was built at Picktree Lane, Chester-le-Street in 1913. Gateshead Tramways was a subsidiary of
British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Ren ...
. The first motor bus service was from Chester-le-Street, via Birtley, to Low Fell, where there was a connection to the Gateshead trams. The service was quickly extended to Gateshead and within a few years crossed the
River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...
to finish in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
. Other motor bus routes quickly developed from Chester-le-Street, its central location being ideal for other towns and colliery villages nearby. Northern even built the bus station in
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...
(as a terminus) before Tilling's
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 ...
arrived there. After
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, services really got going. In Newcastle two bus stations were opened, Marlborough Crescent and Worswick Street. Depots were built in
Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
and Gateshead which was to become the workshops and in 1933 the head office. Throughout the 1930s smaller independents were bought out and British Electric Tracton in the North East began to convert to motor bus operation, expanding into
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and
North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered by Ne ...
taking over the declining tramway routes and expanding the bus routes further. By now Northern even built their own buses to accommodate the high passenger numbers with the very low bridges in the area (meaning three-axle single deckers). There were by now excursion services, parcel deliveries and long-distance services to other cities including
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
Victoria Coach Station Victoria Coach Station in the City of Westminster is the largest bus station, coach station in London, and a bus terminus, terminus for medium and long distance Coach transport in the United Kingdom, coach services in the United Kingdom. It is ...
.


Post-war

After 1945, Northern and United started more co-operation on routes and further expansion in the Chester-le-Street and Stanley areas. As for vehicles,
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, Leyland and
Crossley Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1989, it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group. More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engin ...
were quite common. In the 1950s Northern bought up more smaller bus operators and with expanding industry at the time rebodied quite a few of their prewar buses. However, by the late 1950s these were showing their age, so in 1959 Northern General placed one of the first big orders for the new
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 ...
. By now the friendly rivalry between Northern and United was at its peak, and United being a Tilling Group company had
Bristol Lodekka The Bristol Lodekka is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, half-cab Lowbridge double-deck bus, low-height low-floor bus, step-free double-decker bus built by Bristol Commercial Vehicles in England. It was the first production bus design t ...
s and the underpowered Atlanteans put Northern at a disadvantage. After assessing and testing a demonstrator
AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport Executive, London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The ...
, Northern placed an initial order for 18, followed by another 32, and later prototype RMF1254 was purchased. They were fitted with Leyland engines and a higher-ratio rear axle for operation on longer trunk routes. However, throughout the 1970s it became increasingly uneconomic to have conductors on inter-urban services. Despite driver and customer satisfaction, Northern had little option but to replace them. Northern placed a large order for
Bristol VR The Bristol VR was a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was manufactured by Bristol Commercial Vehicles as a competitor to the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline. Development The Bristol VR was originally designed for single ...
s with
Eastern Coach Works Eastern Coach WorksCompanies House extract company no 318856
...
and Willowbrook bodywork in 1977 to replace them.


Nationalisation

On 1 January 1969, Northern became part of the National Bus Company. On 1 May 1970, neighbouring Venture Transport was purchased with 86 buses.


Privatisation

In February 1987, as part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company and by now trading as Go-Ahead Northern, Northern General Transport was sold in a
management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
, becoming the first company of what is now the
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 ...
. The Northern General Transport Company Ltd was renamed Go Northern Limited in June 1998, and is still owned by the Go-Ahead Group although the company has been dormant since approximately 2009. See the
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 ...
article for more information on the operating history since privatisation in 1987.


References

{{Authority control Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom 1913 establishments in England 1987 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1913 Transport companies established in 1913 Former bus operators in Tyne and Wear British companies disestablished in 1987 National Bus Company (UK)