Go-Ahead Northern: Winners and Losers

Deregulation was something of a lottery with few winners and hundreds of losers. In this gold rush there was a lot of bullying and unpleasantness, and both long established operators and newcomers either fell on their swords or if they were efficient able to grab the money and run. Indeed parts of the NBC were sold off so cheaply by selling a bit of properly newcomers like Stagecoach had enough to buy the next and the next.  Who would have guessed at the time when I took this photo of a rather unpopular Willowbrook 003 coach bodied Leyland Leopard on a limited-stop service to Consett that it's NBC management buyout team who had formed Go-Ahead would become one of the main players to prosper and survive to the end of the game of public transport monopoly. 

PMT Glover Street Garage Stafford

The more recent structure that surrounds the former PMT bus garage at Stafford makes it look somewhat larger for it only held seven buses.

BTX 540J: A Gelligaer NC bodied Bristol VR with Rhymney Valley

Gelligaer UDC only ran a handful of double-deckers but was able to contribute three of these unusual Northern Counties bodied Bristol VR's to Rhymney Valley which brought the three local municipal fleets together centred around Caerphilly in the middle and where No.54 was seen.

Ribble Atlantean at Morecambe

One thing I hate about Britain is our overbearing health and safety culture, indeed close to where I live there's a footpath which has been closed off because someone deemed the willow trees along the route to be a dangerous. Maybe if there is a genuine risk they could put a warning notice up about not going in windy conditions but I think people should be able to decide for themselves whether they are about to be killed or not by a falling branch. What I like about this photo taken at Morecambe of a preserved Ribble ECW bodied Leyland Atantean AN68 is there are no plastic cones or temporary purple railings not even a high-viz vest.

Now A Distant Memory The Leyland National TOF 703S

It is so long now since the long reign of the Leyland National ended in a funny way I rather miss them, however there are a lot of buses I miss a lot more. But they were certainly a familiar sight in Stafford and as well as having all eleven of Chaserider's Mk2's at one point some of the earlier ones had their roof pods removed to go under a low bridge on the way to Rugeley. Formerly No.703 this bus heading west into former G.H.Austin (Happy Days) territory and bound for Eccleshall and Knightly had been renumbered to 903 to show it had been modified.

Ribble National Express Leopard BNB 234T at Hotham Place

Ribble used to have an allocation of coaches at Liverpool to operate the various long distance services from the city and although still operated from here these became part of National Travel West network. A fairly new Duple Dominant bodied Leyland Leopard goes through the wash at Hotham Place which adjoins the bus and coach station.

Ballerup 53

Just as in Britain the bus scene has totally changed in Denmark since the Eighties. Not only would I get hopelessly lost in those Copenhagen suburbs each place would no longer reward me with different operators and even unusual buses like these Van-Hool bodied Volvos at Ballerup.

D&G Optare in Hanley

In the good old days PMT could have boasted over five-hundred buses in service in the Potteries but it's successor First Bus now rarely operates one-hundred. In fact just as in the old days Independents are still hard at work herem they might not be the Berresford's and Poole's of old but D&G who owns this Optare and which also serves the surrounding area now runs more buses locally than First does. On some busy corridors one only had to wait a couple of minutes for a bus to come along, now it's more like half an hour and it's hardly surprising people don't use buses more than they have to as those which do come along are often overcrowded.

"Gis a job, I can do that"

I wonder if Yosser would have been able to find work in Walsall today now that poverty has been abolished. The 529 Route follows the old trolleybus route from Wolverhampton to Walsall and  boasts the latest West Midland's Alexander-Dennis Enviro double-deckers, but in the day when a Sunbeam also meant something else Platinum was not an 'admans' shade of grey it was my old fountain pen that just leaked when I tried to fill it.

Northern Scottish MCW Metroliner in Plymouth on the National Express 806

Looking very smart was this MCW Metroliner coach of Northern Scottish at Plymouth Bretonside preparing to make it's return journey back to Aberdeen which must have been the longest express route in the UK I imagine.

Lancashire United Fleetline at Wigan PTD 643S

It was sad to see the demise of Lancashire United but many of it's buses slotted nicely into the Greater Manchester fleet like this Fleetline with a standard Manchester Northern Counties body. When still quite new and looking a lot nicer in it's red and grey livery No.499 was seen boarding at Wigan on one of the trunk routes to Bolton.

Bloxwich 2018: World Cup Fever

I don't know yet if 2018 will be for ever carved into the nations heart for what happens the World Cup but it will certainly be remembered as 'the scorcher'. I rather like this view taken Bloxwich as it has that timeless feel of back-to-back houses and kids playing on the street.