Maxson Goh visits Anthony’s Travel, a coach operator in Runcorn celebrating its 40th birthday
If you’re a regular CBW reader, you may be familiar with Anthony’s Travel as we last featured an operator profile on the company in 2018’s issue 1353 (did you know that with a digital subscription to CBW, you can view past issues on our online archive?) and returned a few years later to test drive one of the company’s new coaches, a MobiPeople Premium. In the 2018 issue, we heard about how Anthony’s Travel Managing Partner Richard Bamber developed an interest in coaches early in his childhood, which ultimately led to the acquisition of his first minibus in 1985. Fast forward to 2025 and the company is proudly celebrating its 40th anniversary. What better occasion to visit Richard, his adorable dogs and one of the most uniquely coloured coach fleets in the business?
After a quick journey from Manchester to Runcorn, I found myself in Richard’s office, sat on an extremely comfortable sofa with his dogs, Rosie the Golden Doodle and Poppy the Cockapoo, on either side, both curiously studying the new visitor. “I think since the last proper chat with CBW before the pandemic, the coach industry has evolved massively,” said Richard. “There’s been a shrinking of the industry, there are fewer operators than before. There is lot of uncertainty about the industry regarding the future, be it PSVAR-wise, infrastructure or net-zero.
“I think all these different things that you put together along with general labour shortages and the economic climate, makes a very uncertain climate for certain operators. Anthony’s Travel has the benefit of longevity, so we’ve got a lot of regular customers. I’m quite happy with the size of the business, but I wouldn’t particularly want to be a new company starting up at this time, because I think there’s a lot of unknown factors to deal with. In the next 10 years the coach industry is going to be very interesting. Will we see more big coach companies and less small family coach companies, or will it be the opposite way?
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