Buses - England: books - bus companies (1)

Merseyside Transport: The 1950s-1970s

Merseyside can claim, with some justification, to have provided the transport enthusiast with a greater variety of transport modes than anywhere else in Britain.
By the 1950s, with many long-standing scenes about to disappear, photographers began faithfully to record what they saw in colour. It is these images, including road, rail, sea and other modes of transport, that illustrate this nostalgic pictorial portrait of key aspects of the richly varied scene.

Taking the reader on a journey from Liverpool and its suburbs to Birkenhead and Wallasey, with one small detour to include views of the remarkable Runcorn Transporter Bridge, this book gives a full-colour view of the historic transport that was part of the Merseyside townscape from the 1950s to the 1970s.

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British Buses and Trolleybuses 1950s-1970s (10) - Midland Independents

The photographs in this volume were taken between 1951 and 1978. Covering all the major independent bus operators in the area, most of the pictures show the buses in pre-National Bus Company and Passenger Transport Executive liveries. They also provide nostalgic views of street scenes, shops and road vehicles.

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British Independent Bus Companies - Since the 1970s

In the 1970s the main UK bus groups were the National Bus Company, the Scottish Bus Group, the Passenger Transport Executives and various council owned concerns. Today we have Stagecoach, First and Arriva, plus several smaller groups, with just a handful of councils still owning bus operations.
Throughout these major changes to the bus industry, there have been hundreds of smaller independent bus companies running stage carriage services on the roads of the United Kingdom.

In this book we look at these, from the small operators with just one or two buses, to the larger fleets, such as Lancashire United.
Many independent companies have, since the 1970s, been swallowed up by larger groups one or two have ceased trading. However, many are still thriving and other operators have taken the place of those that we've lost. Deregulation in 1986 brought a host of new bus operators, competing for business with the companies that had run their services for many years. Inevitably, there were some casualties, but today the independent bus sector is alive and well.
This purpose of this book is to illustrate the great variety of independent buses that has graced Britain's roads, from the early 1970s to the present day.

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Isle of Man Transport in the 1970s

Starting with a day trip (by air from Blackpool) in 1970, this book covers the rest of the decade with visits in 1971, 1972, 1976 and 1979. The island was a fascinating place for a transport enthusiast, with the traditional Douglas Corporation buses, horse tramway, Manx Electric Railway and the steam railway - not forgetting the Snaefell Railway and the lovely old Steam Packet Co. ships.

These traditional ships were the main loss in later years, but changes had also occurred prior to David's final visit, with the loss of the Douglas livery (all buses now being under a `National' fleetname) and the rationalisation of Douglas railway station.
With a range of interesting views and fascinating subject matter, Isle of Man Transport in the 1970s will appeal both to those who have visited the island and general transport enthusiasts.

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Isle of Wight Buses

The Isle of Wight is one of England's smallest counties and is situated off the Hampshire coast in southern England. The main bus operator is Southern Vectis, which was a National Bus Company throughout the 1970s into the mid-1980s and is now owned by the GoAhead group as part of their Go-Southcoast company.

The orange-coloured coaches of Fountain Coaches of Cowes, a subsidiary of Southern Vectis, offered the famous `Round the Island Tour', as did their parent company into the early 1990s.
Southern Vectis have operated route 42 between Yarmouth and The Needles Battery for many years using open-top buses climbing the steep, narrow, winding road to The Needles, with breathtaking views!

Seaview Services operated a bus service between Sea View and Ryde for many years, as well as offering coach tours around the island. Other well-known coach operators have included Moss Motors of Sandown and their subsidiary Paul's Coaches of Ryde, as well as, of course, West Wight Motors of Freshwater.

All these firms operated tours to such places on the island as Alum Bay, Blackgang Chine, Ventnor, and Yarmouth. Utilising his wonderful collection of photographs, Andrew Mead offers a fascinating pictorial history of buses on the Isle of Wight.

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West Yorkshire Independents Since Deregulation

Following the deregulation of bus services in 1986, West Yorkshire became flooded by small independent operators, some of whom survived while others were swallowed up by larger companies. Only a small handful remain today.

The wide variety of liveries and vehicle types will bring memories flooding back, and the wealth of previously unpublished photographs give this book a wide appeal.

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