Omnibusse - Großbritannien (70er, 80er und 90er Jahre): Bücher

British Buses and Coaches in the Late 1970s

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 neighbours 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. 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.

In a selection of photographs taken between 1975 and 1980, author Stephen Dowle examines an interesting transitionary period, when much still remained of the 'old days' but developments were afoot that, in the mid-1980s, were to bring further convulsions to road passenger transport.

British Buses of the 1980s

The 1980s were some of the most tumultuous years for the British bus industry. The Thatcher Government, in power throughout the decade, brought about privatisation of the National Bus Company and the Scottish Bus Group.
In addition, 1986 saw the introduction of full deregulation of bus services with the exception of London. London was also affected by these changes, as the omnibus operations of London Transport was split up and then sold into private hands.

Deregulation meant competition and 'bus wars' broke out in many parts of the country, sometimes in the most unexpected of places. However, towards the end of the decade, larger groups emerged such as Stagecoach.
The author was fortunate enough to be able to capture the scene on colour film through the decade and the best of his results are seen in this full colour album.

British-Built Buses Abroad in the 1980s

Like the railway industry in the 19th century, Britain was a major player in supplying the world with buses, particularly double-deckers. The principal contributors in the mid-twentieth century were AEC, Daimler and Leyland Motors. Buses were exported throughout the world either as complete vehicles or as a chassis with locally assembled bodywork completing the bus.

As early as 1911, Leyland Motors sold five single-deck charabancs to Lisbon Tramways and three to Cape Town Electric Tramways. It says something for the endurance of the British-built chassis when examples of the Daimler CVG in Hong Kong and the AEC Regent III in Lisbon both managed to attain well over 25 years of service for their respective operators.

As London Transport found itself with a surfeit of serviceable buses in the 1960s, hundreds of redundant RTs, RTLs and RTWs were snapped up by the Ceylon Transport Board. Redundant Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines found favour with both KMB and CMB while sixty AEC Swifts saw further service with the Public Transport Association (PTA) and the Education Department on the island of Malta.

This book features previously unpublished photographs of British buses in China, India, South Africa, Portugal and Hong Kong.

British Bus Garages

Bus garages, also known as depots, find their historical lineage in tram depots established by pre-electrification-era tramway companies. These depots were originally constructed to house horse-drawn and steam-hauled tramcars, often featuring attached stables for the former.

Diversity characterized bus garages, with variations in both size and construction type. Some, like London Transport's enduring Stockwell garage and Salford Corporation's Frederick Road tram/bus depot, stand as architectural marvels. Garage capacities spanned a wide range, exemplified by Ribble Motor's Bowness-on-Solway outstation accommodating a single bus and Oldham Corporation's Wallshaw Street garage, initially designed to house 300 buses under one roof.

While former tram depots have transitioned into bus garages, their numbers are dwindling. The deregulation of bus services in 1986 marked a pivotal shift in the bus industry. Privatization during the 1990s led to operators moving away from their inherited garages to establish cost-effective facilities, typically comprising a moderately sized maintenance building and a spacious open-air parking area.
This book offers fascinating unpublished shots of the UK's extensive network of bus depots.

Bus Dealers and Breakers of Yorkshire

Since the late 1920s Yorkshire has played a major role in the sale of second-hand buses and coaches, as well as their ultimate end-of-life destruction. For many years, one of the UK's largest used bus dealers, who during its long and proud history purchased more than 1,500 redundant buses from London Transport in a single transaction, was located in Leeds, where several other smaller but similar concerns were also active.

Since the early 1960s Yorkshire has become the main UK hub for bus and coach dismantling, particularly in the Barnsley and Rotherham area due to its close proximity to the heavy metals market.
Within this book, the area's dealing and scrap industries are both covered in depth through text and photographs to illustrate the importance of their past and present activities in these fields.