Description

The provincial bus operations of Britain underwent great upheavals following legislation enacted in 1969. An expanded state-owned sector had merged the Tilling and BET groups to form the National Bus Company. The great corporation fleets of the Midlands and North had been combined with their smaller municipal neighbors to form the Passenger Transport Executives. Elsewhere, municipal bus operations endured, ranging in size from Edinburgh Corporation to Bedwas & Machen Urban District Council, with its fleet of three vehicles. Further consolidation took place to bring transport arrangements into line with the new local government structure introduced in 1974. North of the border the Scottish Bus Group provided state-owned services, and Greater Glasgow had its PTE. London Transport retained, for the time being, its own arrangements and unique mode of operation. Less affected by these changes were the Independents, which were mostly small, family-owned businesses more heavily involved with tours and excursions than stage-carriage bus services, but often owning a variety of interesting second-hand vehicles for working school and factory contracts. In a selection of photographs taken between 1976 and 1980, illustrating all sectors of the industry throughout Britain, the author examines an interesting transition period, when much still remained of the old days, but developments were afoot which, in the mid-1980s, were to bring further convulsions to road passenger transport.