Two top transport authors have pooled resources to produce what is surely a landmark book covering the British bus industry from 1980 to 2000. Prolific photographer Peter Rowland took all the photos featured, which are accompanied by text from Stewart J Brown. “We have collaborated before and we had the material at our disposal. What we wanted to do was to produce a comprehensive look at the era – we can’t say definitive as we would never have got it finished,” said Stewart.
The 1980 industry is described in the book as one of ‘stable decline,’ with bus passenger figures having fallen steadily over the previous 30 years, but the coach industry was on the verge of remarkable expansion.
The National Bus Company ran 15,538 vehicles, Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs) 10,479, London Transport 5,631, the municipal sector 5,361 and the Scottish Bus Group 3,718. Then there was a myriad of independents.
There were still just under 1,000 traditional front-engined double-deckers running outside London in 1980, many of them being Bristol Lodekkas with the NBC – along with 2,800 AEC Routemasters in the Capital.
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In 1980 the vast majority of vehicles were publicly owned, and Leyland was still the most prolific manufacturer, but had ‘faded away’ by 2000 when almost all vehicles had private owners, many being the emerging major groups.
The bus scene would change radically with the sell-offs of NBC subsidiaries and during the post-deregulation era from 1986, not forgetting the major shift to minibuses in some quarters.
Colourful liveries, some introduced in the dying throes of NBC, and often local innovation became the order of the day along with much uncertainty. Dennis, Wright and Optare would become major players in a depleted manufacturing industry, with Bedford, MCW and Leyland all ending up on the scrapheap.
The bus contains fascinating tables listing everything from the fate of municipals to the rise of the big groups, with Arriva, First, Go-Ahead and Stagecoach getting their own chapters along with much information on groups that didn’t stay the course. Vehicles including the Leyland Lynx, Dennis Domino and Marshall Minibus are covered, as are the Routemaster operations which sprang up across the country, from Manchester to Perth.
If you are looking for nostalgia – 1980 is now more than 40 years ago – as well as being a highly entertaining read the book is a super piece of reference material.
And the big question: Is a follow-up planned, say covering 2001-20? Said Stewart “Let’s just say it’s on our minds.”
‘Twenty Turbulent Years – The Transformation of Britain’s Bus Industry’ is published by Fawndoon Books (fawndoon.com) and costs £30.
