Geoffrey Hilditch

[Mr Manager]

Sadly passed away on the 20th of June.

A man i learnt a hell of a lot from about how to run Buses.

For those who don't know who he was

He ran Various Companies.

His first municipal posting was at Leeds City Transport prior transferring to Daimler of Coventry

Subsequently he became Deputy General Manager at Plymouth before his first General Manager posting at Great Yarmouth.

Positions at Halifax and West Yorkshire PTE followed before his appointment as chairman of Leicester Citybus in 1993. There he inspired the production of the Dennis Dominator.

Rest in peace

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Sadly passed away on the 20th of June.

A man i learnt a hell of a lot from about how to run Buses.

For those who don't know who he was

He ran Various Companies.

His first municipal posting was at Leeds City Transport prior transferring to Daimler of Coventry

Subsequently he became Deputy General Manager at Plymouth before his first General Manager posting at Great Yarmouth.

Positions at Halifax and West Yorkshire PTE followed before his appointment as chairman of Leicester Citybus in 1993. There he inspired the production of the Dennis Dominator.

Rest in peace

A gentleman that I only knew by reputation. However, only ever heard positive things. Sad to hear his passing

 

[Busaholic]

A gentleman that I only knew by reputation. However, only ever heard positive things. Sad to hear his passing

I too only knew of him by reputation, but what a reputation. In a world where you can go from flogging baked beans to heading a large public transport company, we shall not see his like again, more's the pity. I became aware of his name almost from the first issue of 'Buses Illustrated' I bought in 1958.

R.I.P.

 

[martinsh]

Positions at Halifax and West Yorkshire PTE followed before his appointment as chairman of Leicester Citybus in 1993. There he inspired the production of the Dennis Dominator.

You've got your dates wrong. The Dennis Dominator was developed in the late 1970s. [ Pretty certain Geoffrey was manager at Leicester in the early 80s, but not sure of exact dates ]

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

You've got your dates wrong. The Dennis Dominator was developed in the late 1970s. [ Pretty certain Geoffrey was manager at Leicester in the early 80s, but not sure of exact dates ]

Think he was there c.1983 when Leicester Citybus emerged and did a joint operation with Maidstone and possibly Lancaster?

 

[Welshman]

It was LeicesterCity bus, Maidstone and Burnley & Pendle.
They joined forces to run the "City Flyer" between Blackpool, Halifax, Leicester, Maidstone and Dover.

 

[Busaholic]

It was LeicesterCity bus, Maidstone and Burnley & Pendle.
They joined forces to run the "City Flyer" between Blackpool, Halifax, Leicester, Maidstone and Dover.

A wonderful mad idea. I was working in Maidstone at the time and, having a copy of the timetable, looked out for the coaches at the supposed times and certainly hardly ever saw one Dover-bound at least. Still, Maidstone were trying everything at the time and then went into tendering for London bus routes.

 

[LewFinnis]

To return to the original point, Geoffrey Hilditch also wrote some excellent books based on his experiences (and others under a pseudonym I believe)

 

[Welshman]

A wonderful mad idea. I was working in Maidstone at the time and, having a copy of the timetable, looked out for the coaches at the supposed times and certainly hardly ever saw one Dover-bound at least.

It was, as you say, a "wonderful mad idea"

I remember there were three through services per day to Dover, and one short-working from Blackpool to Maidstone only!

I used in on several occasions to travel from Leicester to Dover, and from Leicester to Blackpool, but, unfortunately, there were never more than a dozen or so passengers on board.

The service's prospects were not improved by it's not being allowed access to Preston Bus station, Bradford Interchange, Leeds, Nottingham, and London Victoria. So it ran non-stop from Blackpool to Blackburn, and Halifax to Sheffield, but it did deviate from the A50 between the M1 Motorway and Leicester to serve the suburban estate of Beaumont Leys, and I remember travelling from Beaumont Leys to Dover and return for £6!

But that was Geoffrey Hilditch - a great innovator. During his time at Halifax he oversaw the mergers with the former Todmorden Joint Omnibus Co, and then with Hebble Motor Services.

Details of these, and many other interesting facets of his career, are detailed in his two autobiographical works "Steel Wheels and Rubber Tyres, Vols. 1 & 2" published by Oakwood Press.

When I was younger, I wrote to him, through his publishers, asking about his memoirs of Halifax at the time, and, much to my surprise, he replied with a most graceful letter, written in his own hand.

But that was the man, who, when faced with letters complaining about his bus services in Halifax, took the trouble to visit the complainant, and sort things out personally over a cup of tea and a piece of cake.

A truly remarkable man.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

To return to the original point, Geoffrey Hilditch also wrote some excellent books based on his experiences (and others under a pseudonym I believe)

He wrote under the pseudonym of "Gortonian" [referring to his engineering training at Gorton Loco works], and some of those pieces were published by Ian Allan in the books "Looking at Buses" [2 vols.]

 

[edwin_m]

There's also a reminiscence of his use of the Delph branch as a schoolboy here:

http://www.ribblevalleyrail.co.uk/Delph/Delph Donkey Final 1.htm