Buses (70s, 80s and 90s) - Great Britain: Books - History

British Buses and Coaches in the Late 1970s

The provincial bus operations of Britain underwent great upheavals following legislation enacted in 1969. An expanded state-owned sector had merged the Tilling and BET groups to form the National Bus Company. The great corporation fleets of the Midlands and North had been combined with their smaller municipal neighbours to form the Passenger Transport Executives.
Elsewhere, municipal bus operations endured, ranging in size from Edinburgh Corporation to Bedwas & Machen Urban District Council, with its fleet of three vehicles. North of the border the Scottish Bus Group provided state-owned services, and Greater Glasgow had its PTE. London Transport retained, for the time being, its own arrangements and unique mode of operation.

In a selection of photographs taken between 1975 and 1980, author Stephen Dowle examines an interesting transitionary period, when much still remained of the 'old days' but developments were afoot that, in the mid-1980s, were to bring further convulsions to road passenger transport.

British Buses of the 1980s

The 1980s were some of the most tumultuous years for the British bus industry. The Thatcher Government, in power throughout the decade, brought about privatisation of the National Bus Company and the Scottish Bus Group.
In addition, 1986 saw the introduction of full deregulation of bus services with the exception of London. London was also affected by these changes, as the omnibus operations of London Transport was split up and then sold into private hands.

Deregulation meant competition and 'bus wars' broke out in many parts of the country, sometimes in the most unexpected of places. However, towards the end of the decade, larger groups emerged such as Stagecoach.
The author was fortunate enough to be able to capture the scene on colour film through the decade and the best of his results are seen in this full colour album.

British-Built Buses Abroad in the 1980s

Like the railway industry in the 19th century, Britain was a major player in supplying the world with buses, particularly double-deckers. The principal contributors in the mid-twentieth century were AEC, Daimler and Leyland Motors. Buses were exported throughout the world either as complete vehicles or as a chassis with locally assembled bodywork completing the bus.

As early as 1911, Leyland Motors sold five single-deck charabancs to Lisbon Tramways and three to Cape Town Electric Tramways. It says something for the endurance of the British-built chassis when examples of the Daimler CVG in Hong Kong and the AEC Regent III in Lisbon both managed to attain well over 25 years of service for their respective operators.

As London Transport found itself with a surfeit of serviceable buses in the 1960s, hundreds of redundant RTs, RTLs and RTWs were snapped up by the Ceylon Transport Board. Redundant Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines found favour with both KMB and CMB while sixty AEC Swifts saw further service with the Public Transport Association (PTA) and the Education Department on the island of Malta.

This book features previously unpublished photographs of British buses in China, India, South Africa, Portugal and Hong Kong.