Trivia: Bus firms with unfortunate nicknames

[alex397]

Well PMT wasn't even a nickname, it was it's proper name. Originally Potteries Motor Traction, later just PMT Ltd.

Referred to locally as Potteries Muck Trucks.

I always found PMT an unfortunate name. Clearly given that abbrieviation by men who may not have realised the abbreviation is much more common for Pre-Menstrual Tension.

 

[Taunton]

Hutchings & Cornelius in Somerset was quite a mouthful, so the buses just read H&C, which inevitably became Hot & Cold.

Subsequently Badgerline in the adjacent area was just a stupid name.

 

[nw1]

I always found PMT an unfortunate name. Clearly given that abbrieviation by men who may not have realised the abbreviation is much more common for Pre-Menstrual Tension.

I will admit to having come across PMT (the bus company) before I knew what the other meaning was. But I was only 12 when I first saw their buses. (Well actually I would have probably seen them even earlier than that, but I was 12 when I actually noticed them...)

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Hutchings & Cornelius in Somerset was quite a mouthful, so the buses just read H&C, which inevitably became Hot & Cold.

Subsequently Badgerline in the adjacent area was just a stupid name.

I thought Badgerline was quite a good name as it suggests 'rural' and quite well represents the predominantly rural area of Somerset, Avon and Wiltshire that they served.

But my opinion of them did decline a little when I actually started using them regularly... And I remember "Bodgerline" was one common nickname for them.

They weren't that bad IMO (this was in the privatised days in the mid nineties) but the fares were a little high. I found their operations, diagramming, and variety of vehicles interesting which helped my opinion of them.

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Also...

Not buses, but trains, but when I was using Wales and West regularly in the late 90s, I nicknamed them "Snails and Pest". Don't think it was a widely used moniker though.

Overcrowded 2-car 158s (few 3- or 4-car in those days, and the one train booked a 4-car - and it needed it, the "17.35 Wales and West Alphaline service to Portsmouth Harbour" as announced at Bath - was frequently only 2) and frequently late services (the same 17.35 being a notorious one for delay, I remember it not-infrequently arrived behind the following 17.51 to Weymouth and then crawled along behind it making it even later) was the cause...

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Cambus = Scambus. And let's not go there with their Citi services.

 

[nw1]

When Arriva first had the rail franchise in the North and various staffing problems somebody on a forum doctored their logo to NODRIVA which could probably apply to some of their bus operations at the moment.

I've always assumed Arriva to be pronounced "Areeva" which wouldn't make that work so well. Is that not the case?

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Aldershot & District had play-on words by their passengers: "Have a shot & risk it!"

lol...though looking at the Aldershot and District timetables on timetableworld.com for 1969, if we got that level of service back nowadays I'd be very happy. Frequencies which one could only dream of in the 1980s and onwards on many routes, and rural services now long, long gone.

 

[DunsBus]

Two from when Lowland and SMT were both employee-owned with little funds to invest in new vehicles:

Lowland - Lots Of Wrecks Left And Nothing Decent.
SMT - Scrap Metal Traction.

 

[CN04NRJ]

Slavecoach if you happen to be an employee

 

[Stan Drews]

Two from when Lowland and SMT were both employee-owned with little funds to invest in new vehicles:

Lowland - Lots Of Wrecks Left And Nothing Decent.
SMT - Scrap Metal Traction.

Whilst on the SBG theme, one of the other ‘new’ company’s was Clydeside Scottish, which was often heard referred to as Kerbside Scottish due to their perceived reliability!

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Slavecoach if you happen to be an employee

I worked for them for quite a long time, and never heard them referred to as Slavecoach, by employees or others!

 

[CN04NRJ]

Whilst on the SBG theme, one of the other ‘new’ company’s was Clydeside Scottish, which was often heard referred to as Kerbside Scottish due to their perceived reliability!

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I worked for them for quite a long time, and never heard them referred to as Slavecoach, by employees or others!

Must have been at a good division then as people I know who work/have worked at South Wales use it.

 

[Eyersey468]

That entire area is notorious for cowboy bus operators. Travel Express, Lets Go, Discount Travel, Social Travel, Sunny Travel, R K Travel, Hi Ride, Sandwell Travel, Thandi Coaches, etc. I am sure there were probably a lot of other nicknames for bus operators in that area.

I wonder why some areas seem to get more cowboy operators than others. Sorry for going off topic mods.

 

[ChrisC]

Camms Coaches which used to run a few local services around Nottingham had a reputation for breaking down. They were often referred to as Camms Collapsables.

 

[philthetube]

National Express as National Distress.

Also National Excuse

 

[Titfield]

Perhaps it would be easier to name bus companies which do not have a derogatory nickname?

 

[Mr Manager]

Amberline -Sham berline or hard shoulder Holidays..

 

[Gloster]

After a patch when morning buses were late or missing (not a regular occurrence, but there were several in a week or two), a friend’s missus started referring to a Wincanton based operator as Not AWakes.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Perhaps it would be easier to name bus companies which do not have a derogatory nickname?

Hornbys, East Yorkshire Motor Services, Blackpool Transport, Trent Barton, Nottingham City Transit.

 

[Dai Corner]

Perhaps it would be easier to name bus companies which do not have a derogatory nickname?

Well-run South Wales independent Phil Anslow is well-loved by its passengers so the obvious nickname Full and Slow is not used.

 

[chorleyjeff]

We all know that First Bus gained the moniker "Worst Bus" but there have been some other firms that have attracted unfortunate and unwanted alternative names.

Not wishing to offend anyone but Go OK Travel was an unfortunate portmaneau/corruption. However, more in the nickname stakes were:

• Pride of the Road (West Yorkshire) - nicknamed Side of the Road on account of their reliability
• TMS (aka Trimdon Motor Services) - known locally as Trimdon Muck Shifters

Any others out there?

Along time ago Bamber Bridge Motor Services - BBMS . Bloody Bus Mont Start

 

[Flange Squeal]

Perhaps it would be easier to name bus companies which do not have a derogatory nickname?

White Bus in Surrey and Berkshire have, since their large expansion in the last few years, so far been able to keep standards high and avoid the obvious switching of the ‘W’ to something else(!)

 

[riceuten]

Arriva known locally as "Non-Arriva" due to the level of cancellations.

 

[johnnychips]

When on a Geography field trip to Shropshire in 1977, our local transport was provided by Salopia Saloon Coaches which I assume are no longer extant. As schoolboys do, we renamed them ‘Sloppy Saloon Coaches’ though there was, of course, nothing wrong with them.

 

[Busaholic]

Isn't it lucky Scunthorpe never had a municipal operator?

 

[GusB]

Isn't it lucky Scunthorpe never had a municipal operator?

Steady...

 

[700007]

I've often heard Trustybus referred to as "Rustybus"...

This funny enough was the company's own doing...a lot of their buses were grimy and in incredibly poor condition at the time (several PG9s mind you). One of the buses had the logo half as--d applied and was missing the 'T' in Trustybus. An enthusiast quickly picked this up, and well as they say the rest is history.

National Express as National Distress.

Bringing misery to a coach stop near you....!

 

[philthetube]

Going back a while NAT travel use to be known as never again travel, and, nt really derogatory Wallace Arnold were wallies trolleys.

 

[randyrippley]

Hutchings & Cornelius in Somerset was quite a mouthful, so the buses just read H&C, which inevitably became Hot & Cold.

Subsequently Badgerline in the adjacent area was just a stupid name.

That must have just been on the Taunton routes - on the Yeovil routes they were just known as "Hutchins"

 

[TheManWho]

A company many years ago called Nostalgia Bus in London had quite a few bridge strikes in a short space of time, earning the nickname the "Three Bridges Bus Company"

Blue Triangle was also often nicknames "Blue Tingle"

 

[Ken H]

Isn't it lucky Scunthorpe never had a municipal operator?

Or Penistone

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Or Penistone

Or Clitheroe

 

[Ken H]

Or Clitheroe

.