Large group budget operations

[61653 HTAFC]

Perhaps worthy of a mention is Blue Bus: an independent from the Oldham area who expanded into Huddersfield during the 1990s and competed with Yorkshire Rider along the Colne Valley with low fares and older buses. Yorkshire Rider saw them off from Huddersfield after around 18 months, but Blue Bus continued in Lancashire before being bought by First (who by then also owned Yorkshire Rider and what had been GM Buses). Around the Oldham area, Blue Bus continued as a 'budget' brand for a few years, complete with FirstGroup branding.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Perhaps worthy of a mention is Blue Bus: an independent from the Oldham area who expanded into Huddersfield during the 1990s and competed with Yorkshire Rider along the Colne Valley with low fares and older buses. Yorkshire Rider saw them off from Huddersfield after around 18 months, but Blue Bus continued in Lancashire before being bought by First (who by then also owned Yorkshire Rider and what had been GM Buses). Around the Oldham area, Blue Bus continued as a 'budget' brand for a few years, complete with FirstGroup branding.

I don't think that's quite right.

Blue Bus was based in Horwich near Bolton and was owned by Roger Jarvis (whose son in Andrew Jarvis, latter First Scotland supremo and now senior in UK Bus). They did expand into West Yorkshire and First Group did indeed buy out that operation.

However, sale of Yorkshire was partly to enable the expansion of the Lancashire/Greater Manchester operation, eventually leading to the acquisition of the Lancashire United depot and ops in Bolton from Blazefield some years later. Those operations then continued for a few years before being sold to Arriva and that much slimmed operation still exists in Bolton from the same, former Ribble, depot.

 

[JD2168]

do I recall correctly that there was a Firstbus operation in Sheffield called Bargain Bus and using purple double deckers?

Yes you are correct it was called Bargain Bus and buses displayed "it’s a bargain" on the sides with 40p max fares. It ran on route 25 between Sheffield & Woodhouse using Dennis Dominators.

 

[WibbleWobble]

I don't think that's quite right.

Blue Bus was based in Horwich near Bolton and was owned by Roger Jarvis (whose son in Andrew Jarvis, latter First Scotland supremo and now senior in UK Bus). They did expand into West Yorkshire and First Group did indeed buy out that operation.

However, sale of Yorkshire was partly to enable the expansion of the Lancashire/Greater Manchester operation, eventually leading to the acquisition of the Lancashire United depot and ops in Bolton from Blazefield some years later. Those operations then continued for a few years before being sold to Arriva and that much slimmed operation still exists in Bolton from the same, former Ribble, depot.

(We're really drifting off topic! but.....)

Blue Bus set up in Huddersfield because Andrew was at university there, so it was in effect his uni project. The Oldham link was because by running their initial service, the 365, to/from the town, it meant Roger could run the service on the "original" license until the new one for Yorkshire was approved.

Roger quit Yorkshire in 1996 (so six years before the Bolton Blazefield acquisition) because First had just bought Yorkshire Rider, and was on the cusp of buying GM North. Blue Bus was such a threat that it contributed to Rider upgrading the Huddersfield fleet. He didn't want to have to try and fend off First on two fronts, so decided to close down that operation. It also allowed the updating of the Horwich fleet as Huddersfield had some of the newest buses. There were some other members of staff who moved over, including a leading driver who was still at Bolton until he retired not too long before Arriva bought the business.

 

[domcoop7]

In the mid 90s, MTL (of Merseyside) bought a coach company in Morecambe, Heysham Travel, and ran services in competition with the main operators as a cheap, low cost fleet. According to Wikipedia, it was originally planned to be a springboard to get a foot in the door into buying Lancaster City Transport (LCT), but Stagecoach got LCT instead during the "bus wars". However, MTL kept the bus operation going until MTL itself was sold to Arriva.

I'm not sure if this example counts, but Heysham Travel when it ran was very much a "low cost" operation. The tickets were cheaper than Stagecoach and the buses were clapped out run-down offcasts (much worse than in the core Merseyside operation). When I was younger and lived that way I used them a couple of times, but whereas Stagecoach would run every 20 minutes, Heysham Travel would be hourly - if they bothered to turn up at all. For that reason getting a return ticket would be pointless. I don't remember now if they did tendered routes but they certainly did some commercial routes, although I never really saw the point. It seemed more like a "we've got a bus, let's run it somewhere" type operation.

However, if I remember right, despite the external branding as "Heysham Travel", the actual licensing wording on the side of the buses was MTL Holdings Limited.