Luton & District at Blackpool.

A mouthwatering collection of NBC coaches to be seen at Blackpool Coliseum Bus Station including as well as local operator Ribble, a Luton and District Tiger NNH 190Y and a Yorkshire Traction Leopard behind it.

Chase Bus Service in Walsall

It was miraculous so of course it was too good to last but in the West Midlands a number of small operators managed to keep a bit of the old bus world alive whilst the rest moved on running defunct types. Not so tiny was West Midlands with it's many Metrobuses soldiering away, Warstone's 'Green Bus' with Leyland Leopards and more,  North.Birmingham with smart Leyland Atlanteans from Plymouth and Greater Manchester and of course Chase with it's indestructible Nationals. This National Mark1 at Bradford Place in Walsall AYR 309T started life as London Transport LS 309 in 1979 and was pictured in the mid-Nineties.

Manchester: First Class Travel with Fewer Stops

I don't think it caught on but Greater Manchester South Buses by this time a part of Stagecoach painted Northern Counties Olympian coach 3139 B139 WNB in blue as it's key colour to brand it for limited stop services to the south of the city including Woodhouse Park.

North Western 661 crosses the Mersey at Warrington

At Privatisation Crosville was split into two with one part still called Crosville whilst the western part became Crosville Wales. The English buses quickly adopted a rather unpleasant deep orange and dark green livery, but the orange was quickly replaced by a much more subtle cream whose effect at first glance reminded one of the old Maidstone and District.colours. By the time in the Nineties when ECW bodied Leyland Olympian A151 UDM was photographed in Warrington the English part of the old company had been split yet again with PMT buying the Chester and Wirral operations. Totally unrelated to the old North Western what was left of Crosville in Cheshire joined North Western whose name had been reused to go on Ribble's former Liverpool empire which was also owned by British Bus..

VBK bodied Volvo in Roskilde

Generally one had to get a good distance away from Copenhagen to enjoy a rich variety of Danish bus operators. But just in the HT outer zone area the famous Viking city of Roskilde offered an interesting number of liveries and operators. Like most Danish towns it had a 'Town Bus' too which wore this cream and light green livery. As well as DAB-Leyland buses there were a number of Volvo's with VBK bodywork like No.20 HB-92-707 seen outside the railway station in 1982.

Chaserider forced to buy London Fleetlines

The former Midland Red companies were starved of it's traditional ration of double-deckers in the NBC years and forced to take Leyland Nationals. So when the NBC relaxed it's grip as elsewhere London's cast off DMS Fleetlines were most welcome to plug the gap as seen here at Cannock in the mid Eighties..

The London Commuter Rush-hour

To preserve the monopoly of London Transports Green Line cross-city limited-stop stage services there used to be a restriction of a about thirty-fives miles preventing rival operator's taking it's commuter traffic. With Deregulation this was more than halved to fifteen miles which was more or less the urban boundary of the M25. Consequently many old fashioned Green Line stage services were replaced by faster workings from other former NBC operator's wanting to expand plus others like Reading and Southend who sought to provide a regular service throughout the day. Better train services and the congestion have killed a lot of this off but Independent's did much better with more flexible commuter services particularly along the M40 and M4 Corridor plus down the M2 from North Kent and the highly populated Medway Towns. This Plaxton Paramount bodied Leyland Tiger B46 XKJ of Smiths of Sittingbourne could regularly been seen picking up for the homeward journey along the London Embankment in the Nineties.   

You had to go to London to see these and of course Blackpool

Blackpool is so well known for it's fleet of fabulous still operational historic trams and older buses that elsewhere had almost all gone plus an individualistic buying policy that once typified the progress Municipal fleets. Hardly surprising then that these short lived little Handybus minibuses like E570 OCW are so easily forgotten. At one time as in much of Lancashire the mighty Leyland Motors ruled here but with it's gradual demise a new favourite supplier came along in the shape of Optare. Even though it now has very little in common with the old Leyland it is one of it's few surviving children as the company was born when the former Charles Roe bodybuilding business in Leeds was privatised with the sell off of British Leyland that had swallowed up the proper Leyland. Optare quickly evolved into a manufacturer of modern but not over-sophisticated operator friendly complete buses. This seaside town has bought a number of it's single-decker ranges and especially the splendid Delta, but now probably forgotten were these eye-catching early minibuses based on a VW which even though not successful showed that minibuses need not look like bread vans. This model was quickly killed off when Optare took over the bus busness of MCW and instead put it's efforts into that manufacturer's to become very successful Metrorider which rather looked like this tiddlers bigger brother. So it was to become something of a rarity only really be found in small numbers in parts of fashionable London and of course here running alongside the trams and other gems here in Blackpool by the sea.

"What time yer goin me hearty?"

Not a very nice day for the obligatory harbour boat trip to Devonport, but there must be worse places to go on a wet day than Plymouth. Once almost a fixture Wallace Arnold is long gone but in a different guise regular caller Ellen Smith still come to Bretonside. As well as seagulls, the roar of Plymouth's native Atlanteans and Leopards from various operators, it's was this attendant's rustic West Country accent that most sums up the old days at this once very busy bus station. The chap left here grew a beard and got a job greeting the same trippers but this time luring people with his local charm on to a local money earner the boat trip down at The Hoe.

Grey day in Geneva

Cities like Geneva in Switzerland have a certain reputation for their sophistication and expensive civilised lifestyle. However  despite all that cash one rarely finds any money lying in the street and on a cold grey day it feels to the stranger not much better than anywhere else. Articulated buses have operated here for many years and with it's Swiss bodywork Volvo No. 184 looked very much at home as it set off from the main station for another station, Gare Zimeysa.

Wet Day in Liverpool

As you will have guessed from my postings I'm much more interested in the buses of yesteryear than today. However some things never change like the British weather which always presents and interesting clallenge. This was probably my favoutrite of the photographs I took in Liverpool at Easter. I expect Wright bodied Y457 KNF is a VDL much loved by Arriva.

Warstone's No12 sets out from Rugeley

In it's prime much missed are the historic buses of Warstone's Green Bus Service especially the half-cab deckers including No.12 a lowbridge Massey bodied Leyland PD3 GNY432C new to Caerphilly and now preserved. On Market Days these fine buses used to appear on the Wolverhampton service from Rugeley also crossing Cannock Chase and passing through Hednesford.