During the Eighties the U.K. bus industry was deregulated and the pubic sector sold off to private enterprise. With few real safeguards there is now once more a near monopoly situation with about half a dozen big groups who are quite happy to see off any tiddler who tries to step in. Nowhere is the lack of choice more apparent than in express travel. Before Thatcher 'National Express' used to happily coexist alongside a number of relatively small but well respected coach operators who had been quietly running express routes for many years. Two of the best known were Premier Travel of Cambridge and Yelloway of Rochdale. Both operators favoured the AEC Reliance but like the Yelloway coach following into Stafford they had to turn to the Leopard instead when that icon of problematic industry British Leyland ditched AEC like other once great names from it's portfolio. On a few occasions I experimented with telephoto-lenses and my shots included another Premier Travel coach this time leaving Hanley Bus Station, and it is one of the Leyland Leopards also bodied by Plaxton.
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