Quantock Motor Services is a privately owned bus operator in

Bishops Lydeard Bishops Lydeard () is a village and civil parish located in Somerset, England, north-west of Taunton. The civil parish encompasses the hamlets of East Lydeard and Terhill, and had a population of 2,839 persons as recorded in the 2011 census; th ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. The company operates a substantial heritage fleet for private hire and on route 300.

History

Quantock Motor Services FNZ1052 157TYB TCZ6122 TCZ2613 TCZ2621

Minehead Parade Quantock Motor Services WA10LHO

Rexquote, a transport engineering business in

, operated a fleet of old buses under the name of ''Rexquote Heritage''. As well as private hire, some regular circular tourist routes were advertised. One such was between

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

, Sand Bay and nearby tourist attractions in the summer of 2000. In 2002 the

Exmoor Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

Explorer circular service was started from Minehead. In 2001 Rexquote established a new Quantock Motor Services operation. It was initially based in

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay towar ...

, with three vehicles to operate schools contracts and a service from

Combe Martin Combe Martin () is a village, Civil parishes in England, civil parish and former Manorialism, manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor Nati ...

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

. On 6 September 2014, Quantock Motor Services ceased operating its four route services as well as school services. The vintage hire business continues to trade."Quantock Heritage bus operations cease trading" ''

Buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

'' issue 716 November 2014 p. 8

Routes

Public services ceased in September 2014, at which time four services were being operated: * 10

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

- Wiveliscombe - Langley Marsh * 25A

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

- Norton Fitzwarren - Tithill * 39

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

- Porlock Weir * 300 Minehead -

Lynmouth Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern edge of Exmoor. The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn River, West Lyn and East Lyn River, East Lyn rivers, in a gorge directly below the neighbouring town of Lynton, w ...

Service 300

Route 300, between

and

, was for a time branded 'Exmoor Coastal Link'; it appeared in April 2008 in the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' list of the 20 best bus routes in England for over 60s to use free their bus passes. In 2010 it featured on a local

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programme that featured "great South West journeys". The regular vehicle for many years was an East Lancashire bodied Scania N94UD open top bus. After the 2012 season this was sold and replaced with a single-deck open top

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 ...

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 ...

. The service ceased operating in September 2014, but returned the following summer using heritage (not necessarily open top) buses. Today, the 300 is now run by The Buses of Somerset as the open top 'Exmoor Coaster' service. File:Minehead - Quantock Motor Services R928XVM.jpg, Minehead sea front File:Woodcombe YN55RDV.jpg, Woodcombe File:Porlock Wier from Quantock Motor Services YN55RDV.jpg, Near the top of Porlock Hill File:Lynmouth Countisbury Hill Quantock Motor Services YN55RDV.jpg, Countisbury Hill, Lynmouth

Service 400

Until 2011 the service 400 'Exmoor Explorer' operated a circular tour from Minehead to

Dunster Dunster is a village that is home to Celtu and civil parish in Somerset, England, within the north-eastern boundary of Exmoor National Park. It lies on the Bristol Channel southeast of Minehead and northwest of Taunton. At the 2011 Census, ...

, Timberscombe, Wheddon Cross, Exford and Porlock. Operated by heritage open top buses, it only ran on selected days during the summer but was withdrawn after

Somerset County Council Somerset ( , ), archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to ...

funding was withdrawn. It had been a recommended route in ''Scenic Britain by Bus''.

Depots

During 2010 the depot was relocated from Norton Fitzwarren, to a facility next door to Bishops Lydeard railway station on the heritage

West Somerset Railway The West Somerset Railway (WSR) is a heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The freehold of the line and stations is owned by Somerset Council. The railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc (WSR plc), which is suppor ...

. Heritage vehicles undergoing restoration are at an outstation in Langley Marsh, Wiveliscombe. File:Langford Mead - Western National 1935 and Southern Vectis 501.jpg, Taunton File:Bishops Lydeard Rossendale 45.jpg, Bishops Lydeard File:Langley Marsh workshop Barton 467.jpg, Langley Marsh

Fleet

As at October 2013 Quantock Motor Services operate 15 modern vehicles painted in a red livery. A new

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro200) is a midibus that was manufactured by TransBus International and later Alexander Dennis between 2003 and 2018. The original TransBus Enviro200 design was innovative but ...

was purchased in 2010 for new contracts.

Heritage vehicles

A number of older vehicles are operated by Quantock Motor Services, although not all are licensed for paid operations. Norton Fitzwarren - Barton 851 (851FNN).jpg, Northern Counties bodied AEC Regent V Taunton Castle Green - Blackburn 43 (ABV43B).jpg, East Lancashire bodied Leyland PD2 Taunton Castle Green - London Transport D130 (CCX777).jpg, Duple bodied Daimler Taunton station - Ipswich 65 (DPV65D) beside old hotel.jpg, East Lancashire bodied AEC Regent V Norton Fitzwarren - Northampton 258 (GNH258F).jpg, Charles H Roe bodied Daimler CV Taunton Castle Way - Crosville TA5 (JFM575).jpg, Strachan bodied AEC Regal Minehead Western National 1936.jpg, ECW bodied Bristol LDL6G

References

External links

* {{Bus companies in South West England, state=collapsed Bus operators in Somerset Companies based in Somerset Transport companies established in 2001 Vintage bus operators in the United Kingdom 2001 establishments in England