Quirky or quaint practices on buses in the past

[WAB]

On fine sunny days in spring/summer when drivers used to drive buses in service with the doors open, H&S would have a fit if they saw that practice nowadays.

I've experienced that a lot more recently, but I suspect it was very much against company policy

 

[pokemonsuper9]

On fine sunny days in spring/summer when drivers used to drive buses in service with the doors open, H&S would have a fit if they saw that practice nowadays.

Yes, I'd almost forgotten about that.

The door constantly beeping was annoying but well worth it.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I've experienced that a lot more recently, but I suspect it was very much against company policy

I experienced a few years ago… with Hulleys of Baslow. I assumed that most vehicles have interlocks precluding it but evidently not in that case

 

[Simon75]

I remember some buses used to (not sure now) withe the destination 'Town service' without saying whereabouts eg instead of. 10 xxxx estate, it would say 10 Town Service

 

[John Luxton]

Talking of quaint practices from the past, in the recent past (something like the late 90s) West Yorkshire Metro funded a series of rural routes, some of which acted as local parcel delivery vans! For something like 50p, you could hand a parcel to the driver of a rural route (such as the 900 from Hebden Bridge to Huddersfield via Ripponden, Barkisland, and Pole Moor) and he would deliver it to an address on route, or up to half a mile off route!

Quite a few companies ran a parcels service. Western National did. Back in the day when I stataying on holiday in an outlying village I had gone into Exeter and bought something bulky which I didn't want to carry around as I was going off somewhere else for the rest of the day so I used the parcels service to send it to the village parcel's agent for pick up later. Didn't cost very much would have been around 1980ish. Quite handy really. I suppose I could have just left it as left luggage as I seem to recall the parcel's office and left luggage were the one at Exeter Bus Station but I thought I would try the parcels service.

 

[Roger1973]

Similarly, Reading Transport / Reading Buses did this from the 'Stations' and 'St Marys Butts' terminus points. I think there's a video of the last departure, but couldn't find it on a quick search.

Found the video from 2011 when there was the last mass departure from Reading Station(s) - here. Looks like there might not have been a late duty inspector to blow a whistle to despatch them by then.

 

[izvor]

On fine sunny days in spring/summer when drivers used to drive buses in service with the doors open, H&S would have a fit if they saw that practice nowadays.

That was pretty much mandatory on some mini/midibuses with small cabs right up against the engines - horrible in summer. My cab on one reached 46°C (117°F) one day and I refused to take it again - on H&S grounds!

 

[Harpo]

I remember some buses used to (not sure now) withe the destination 'Town service' without saying whereabouts eg instead of. 10 xxxx estate, it would say 10 Town Service

A couple of years ago I decided to get to the Severn Valley via Wolverhampton and a bus to Bridgnorth. I nearly missed it as both the bus and the bus station screens showed it as a service to ‘High Town’.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

A couple of years ago I decided to get to the Severn Valley via Wolverhampton and a bus to Bridgnorth. I nearly missed it as both the bus and the bus station screens showed it as a service to ‘High Town’.

The best part of 30 years ago there was at least one bus in Liverpool which had 'PSBS' as a destination on its front blind. Although I should have known I had to ask around before someone would explain that it was Paradise Street Bus Station.

 

[PeterC]

A couple of years ago I decided to get to the Severn Valley via Wolverhampton and a bus to Bridgnorth. I nearly missed it as both the bus and the bus station screens showed it as a service to ‘High Town’.

I have seen issues with local authority systems and publicity showing the destination stop name with no mention of the town but not on the bus destination display

 

[TheSel]

The best part of 30 years ago there was at least one bus in Liverpool which had 'PSBS' as a destination on its front blind. Although I should have known I had to ask around before someone would explain that it was Paradise Street Bus Station.

In the same vein, it was a common sight in Wrexham throughout the 1970s / early 1980s to find Crosville vehicles on the bus station parking area displaying 'W I E'. For the uninitiated, this stood for Wrexham Industrial Estate. Who knew? Not me, until I'd lived there about six months.

 

[Mark L]

In 1931, United Automobile bought the Scarborough Corporation Trams and replaced them with buses. It was like a proper franchise (not current parlance) and United paid Scarborough Council for the privilege but with a proviso.

For the next 45 years, they had two fleets allocated to Scarborough depot that were identical vehicles in United livery.The 1931 agreement dictated a “town” bus could only be used on a former SCT route, and the council paid for an inspector to ensure that there was no transgression in swapping buses between fleets!

I understand that a similar practice existed in Bristol but involved total vehicle mileage so you’d end up with older vehicles being cascaded out of the city to “get their miles up” before withdrawal.

There were similar arrangements in Keighley and York between the local council and West Yorkshire. Buses carried “Keighley-West Yorkshire” or “York-West Yorkshire” fleetnames as appropriate. After the introduction of NBC corporate livery buses received the new shade of red but retained gold block fleetnames without an NBC symbol.

 

[Statto]

Buses from Ribble & Crosville depots on Merseyside had similar arrangements, were buses carried both Merseyside PTE & NBC logos, but had NBC corporate Red/Green livery.

Another thing, Earlestown & Newton Le Willows has been in Merseyside, & Merseyside PTE/Merseytravel area since the county boundary changes in 1974, had an amusing situation in the early 80s until deregulation, were the routes & buses were provided by another PTE (GMPTE), this situation came about as historically buses & routes in the Town were operated by Lancashire United (LUT) as the Town was well outside the St Helens corporation area, but LUT were bought by GMPTE in the mid 70s however LUT were kept independent until 1981 when GMPTE merged LUT into GMPTE, thus the situation in Earlestown & Newton Le Willows.

 

[edwin_m]

Buses from Ribble & Crosville depots on Merseyside had similar arrangements, were buses carried both Merseyside PTE & NBC logos, but had NBC corporate Red/Green livery.

The other way round for United buses on North Tyneside - TWPTE livery with United text and both logos.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135607661662?msockid=2d2fbf33ad946e9b2ba0aacfac746fbb

 

[Statto]

The other way round for United buses on North Tyneside - TWPTE livery with United text and both logos.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135607661662?msockid=2d2fbf33ad946e9b2ba0aacfac746fbb

All buses in & around the TWPTE area (including Northern) were painted in the TWPTE livery weren't they?

 

[mangad]

All buses in & around the TWPTE area (including Northern) were painted in the TWPTE livery weren't they?

I was just reading the other day that Northern didn't use the TWPTE but used a National Bus Company approved yellow livery. The article's on National Corporate Identity Manual website.

From the article:

The Tyne and Wear PTE had taken over municipal bus services across much of the north east of England – notably in Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead – and its own modernisation applied a livery of bright ‘cadmium yellow’ and cream, derived from the colours which had previously adorned Newcastle Corporation’s trams, trolleys and buses. Northern aimed to break away from the uniform red bus livery it had applied across its buses, suggesting initially to adopt the same Tyne and Wear PTE colours on its routes mainly within the PTE area.

As custodians of the corporate identity, NBC headquarters initially objected strongly. But at the same time NBC was trying to shape a new relationship with the PTEs as powerful arbiters – and major funders – of urban transport, including issuing subsidies and service contracts to NBC itself. So a compromise was struck. Northern could apply a yellow livery to the fleet for its urban routes, but not the PTE’s yellow. It had to be an NBC yellow livery, using the yellow specified in the Corporate Identity Manual, generally reserved for auxiliary and training vehicles.

So if Northern were compelled to use NBC Yellow, why did United get away with not doing so?

(I am sure I also recently read something about a painter at Northern painting a vehicle in the PTE approved yellow whilst his boss was away, but I can't find it now!)

 

[Leyland Bus]

(I am sure I also recently read something about a painter at Northern painting a vehicle in the PTE approved yellow whilst his boss was away, but I can't find it now!)

Sounds about right (it's sth i'd do tbh!) and would love to know more!

Wasn't there a similar thing (or was it a mix up?) at Strathclyde Buses upon FirstBus taking over. The new livery was meant to be allover Strathclyde Red (orange) but a different shade (red) was ordered/used and no one seemed to notice so it stuck? It was sth like that, I read about it a long time ago...

 

[Zooty]

I was just reading the other day that Northern didn't use the TWPTE but used a National Bus Company approved yellow livery. The article's on National Corporate Identity Manual website.

From the article:


So if Northern were compelled to use NBC Yellow, why did United get away with not doing so?

(I am sure I also recently read something about a painter at Northern painting a vehicle in the PTE approved yellow whilst his boss was away, but I can't find it now!)

Northern used the NBC yellow for a while but later changed to full T&W livery.

 

[edwin_m]

All buses in & around the TWPTE area (including Northern) were painted in the TWPTE livery weren't they?

There were also red United buses working into Newcastle, presumably on longer-distance routes from outside the PTE area.

 

[mattb7tl]

First with the gold stars near the front destination boards in the era of barbie/early olympia. I never found a concrete answer but people commonly mentioned those stars meant buses received 'enhanced maintenance' but at least with my local operation you could not spot a difference.

 

[Statto]

Sounds about right (it's sth i'd do tbh!) and would love to know more!

Wasn't there a similar thing (or was it a mix up?) at Strathclyde Buses upon FirstBus taking over. The new livery was meant to be allover Strathclyde Red (orange) but a different shade (red) was ordered/used and no one seemed to notice so it stuck? It was sth like that, I read about it a long time ago...

I've heard similar at Crosville, they were having a new livery post deregulation, apparently someone said what type of Green should the livery be, another person said, what Brunswick wants, (as Brunswick was one of the senior managers at the time) & they went with Brunswick Green, i'm not sure if that story is true.

Green & Marigold was one livery Crosville used & was awful, used mostly for Runcorn Busway buses, another was Cream/Green/Red similar to South Wales Transport, i quite liked that livery made the buses look brighter, Brunswick Green & Cream was the main livery post deregulation

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There were also red United buses working into Newcastle, presumably on longer-distance routes from outside the PTE area.

Northern did indeed have their own version of yellow NBC livery before they joined United in adopting TWPTE livery.

Both United and Northern had vehicles running in poppy red as TWPTE Livery was only supposed to be used on services wholly within the county. That meant buses at Northern’s Gateshead, Winlaton, High Spen and others were in yellow. However, at United’s Whitley Bay depot, most were yellow but they had some red vehicles for running to Morpeth and Blyth.

Blyth was the oddity as it was in Northumberland and was overwhelmingly red but it also operated some services around Killingworth so it had a small fleet of yellow buses.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jan 2026 ==

There were similar arrangements in Keighley and York between the local council and West Yorkshire. Buses carried “Keighley-West Yorkshire” or “York-West Yorkshire” fleetnames as appropriate. After the introduction of NBC corporate livery buses received the new shade of red but retained gold block fleetnames without an NBC symbol.

They even had separate fleet numbers with York vehicles gaining a 3*** prefix e.g.normal fleet 1456 would be followed by York 3457. I believe there were K and Y prefixes in the earlier numbering system

 

[Leyland Bus]

I've heard similar at Crosville, they were having a new livery post deregulation, apparently someone said what type of Green should the livery be, another person said, what Brunswick wants, (as Brunswick was one of the senior managers at the time) & they went with Brunswick Green, i'm not sure if that story is true.

I could believe that! Stranger things have happened!

 

[nw1]

I remember some buses used to (not sure now) withe the destination 'Town service' without saying whereabouts eg instead of. 10 xxxx estate, it would say 10 Town Service

I remember the 203/204 Alton town service, later the 23/24, later the 9, now seemingly gone altogether, was one such example in NBC days. Only saw it once in the NBC era but recall that standing out.

 

[DanT2014]

I remember a time when a strange man used to come on the bus and ask to see our tickets. That was back when they still did paper tickets for bus pass holders.

 

[MotCO]

I was just reading the other day that Northern didn't use the TWPTE but used a National Bus Company approved yellow livery. The article's on National Corporate Identity Manual website.

From the article:


So if Northern were compelled to use NBC Yellow, why did United get away with not doing so?

(I am sure I also recently read something about a painter at Northern painting a vehicle in the PTE approved yellow whilst his boss was away, but I can't find it now!)

Wasn't there also a dark blue NBC livery? Was that on the official colour palette?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Wasn't there also a dark blue NBC livery? Was that on the official colour palette?

Yes - in the early days. Sunderland District, East Yorkshire and Midland General all had blue NBC liveries (different pantones?) whilst Jones of Aberbeeg retained official NBC blue livery until 1981.

 

[Statto]

When some companies fitted buses with vinyl seats rather than fabric, & some had a mix of vinyl & fabric, vinyl seats weren't that great, guess they were a cheap alternative to fabric seats, they were freezing in winter & roasting hot in summer, similar issue to e - leather seats nowadays.

 

[PG]

When some companies fitted buses with vinyl seats rather than fabric, & some had a mix of vinyl & fabric, vinyl seats weren't that great, guess they were a cheap alternative to fabric seats

I wonder if the Leyland National was responsible for that trend? It seemed to me that you were most likely to find vinyl seats in them as compared to other buses.

Was that a case of Leyland giving the market what it wanted at the time, or Leyland dictating to the market what it would supply?

 

[DunsBus]

I wonder if the Leyland National was responsible for that trend? It seemed to me that you were most likely to find vinyl seats in them as compared to other buses.

Was that a case of Leyland giving the market what it wanted at the time, or Leyland dictating to the market what it would supply?

Edinburgh used leatherette on its buses up until 1978 then red vinyl from then on until the last batch of Olympians in 1997. Basic, but it did the job.