Bus depot or bus garage

[Mojo]

Is there a difference between a bus depot and a bus garage, or are they merely different names for the same thing? I seem to hear depot used in some places and garage in others so perhaps wondering if it's a regional thing.

 

[theblackwatch]

I'd call a depot a more major facility myself. A garage is smaller in my view - some people have a garage for their car, but I doubt many have a depot for one!

 

[34D]

Trams have depots, buses have garages.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'd call a depot a more major facility myself. A garage is smaller in my view - some people have a garage for their car, but I doubt many have a depot for one!

Not really. It's more of a regional thing. The London sites are called garages, so that includes the biggest ones with 150+ vehicles such as Camberwell that have "BUS GARAGE" on the side.

In truth, in the UK, they're interchangeable. Only perhaps when you go overseas (e.g. North America) where garage is the servicing facility, and depot relates to what we would call the station (e.g. Greyhound bus depots are really coach stations)!

 

[flymo]

I used to work on the buses at Byker Depot in Newcastle and would suggest that in that particular case 'depot' was the name given to the whole site and that 'garage' was the name given to the undercover bits. In this case there were several 'garages' on the same 'depot' site, if that makes sense.....

Just my opinion, nothing more than that. No idea about anywhere else.

 

[martinsh]

in Latvia it's "bus park"

 

[185]

Trams have depots, buses have garages.

Selwyns has a "yard".

As said in "When you drove out the yard in a fit of rage, yer've flicked up some stones up with yer back wheels and broke the boss's office window. Selwyn says yer dead when yer get back to ther yard yer berk."

 

[CatfordCat]

Trams have depots, buses have garages.

That is / was certainly the case in London, but it does vary by operator and not necessarily by region - a very rapid bit of research shows that a 1960s East Kent timetable lists "garages", a similar vintage Maidstone & District timetable lists "depots" - both companies being BET companies.

Lincolnshire (which did not include any bits of former tramway operation) had 'depots' and 'depot superintendents'

The extent to which operating staff used the same terms as the 'official' ones also varied. Within an organisation the size of London Transport, the language varied around the network - possibly reflecting the previous ownership of particular bits of what became LT.

(Edit to add)

Some operators differentiated between full depots and sub-depots and /or outstations - the difference being the level of staff and / or engineering facilities available. 'outstations' tended to be the most basic of facilities - pretty much somewhere to park a bus or three overnight, with no engineering facilities, with arrangements usually being made for crews to pay in the next time they went in to a town with a main bus station / depot and for buses to be changed over at some point in duties to allow for cleaning and maintenance.

 

[scotsman]

My boss calls the part-rented warehouse we use a depot!

 

[driver9000]

Trams have depots, buses have garages.

Exactly what I was taught when I started driving in London. I still call them garages now even if most of them seem to be open air yards outside of London these days.

 

[Shrimper]

When I drove buses for a couple of different firms in Manchester, the term was used interchangeably both in conversation and in written forms - for example the board may refer to a depot, but an instruction by an inspector to a garage (with the destination being the same). I think it was always down to personal preference, although depot to me does seem to refer to a larger site.

 

[Greenback]

When I drove buses for a couple of different firms in Manchester, the term was used interchangeably both in conversation and in written forms - for example the board may refer to a depot, but an instruction by an inspector to a garage (with the destination being the same). I think it was always down to personal preference, although depot to me does seem to refer to a larger site.

I agree. My bus driver mate uses both terms frequently to refer to wher ehe is based. I think he just gets bored with using the same word over and over again, so feels he needs a bit of variety!

 

[ian1944]

I'd never say "tram depot", but call it a shed. Actually, I'd never call anything a depot, buses live in garages.

 

[dvboy]

Round here you'll quite often hear the bus station referred to as the depot by locals.

 

[Clip]

Holy Moly that was massive

Anyway West Ham Garage

 

[BestWestern]

I'd never say "tram depot", but call it a shed. Actually, I'd never call anything a depot, buses live in garages.

I would agree, trams definitely live in a shed! And I much prefer bus garage to bus depot.

 

[Shrimper]

Trams may live in a shed, but what about when there is no cover for them? For Metrolink, Old Trafford and Queens Road are both referred to as depot's for this reason.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I'd call a depot a more major facility myself. A garage is smaller in my view - some people have a garage for their car, but I doubt many have a depot for one!

Obviously, a journey to the rural parts of my own settlement at Prestbury in the "Cheshire Golden Triangle" would assure you that "depot" would be more apt than "garage" for some of the properties here, where 3 Range Rovers et al are "par for the course"...