Autobuses (desde 1970) - Gran Bretaña: libros - historia

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.

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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.

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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.

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Low-Floor Double-Deckers

In just under 25 years, double-deck buses in the UK have undergone a transformation. Every double-decker in normal service in the UK today is a low-floor bus offering easy access to everyone.
This book traces the story of the UK's low-floor double-deckers, from the first tentative steps to the widespread adoption of this layout and the moves from diesel buses to diesel-electric hybrids, to gas, electric and even hydrogen buses built for bus companies of all sizes. It covers the London operators that initially drove the low-floor revolution, along with the major groups, the remaining local authority fleets and a range of enterprising independents that operate them.

Where once every double-decker for service in the UK was built in the UK, today many chassis come from mainland Europe and, increasingly, from manufacturers based in other and more distant parts of the world - and UK builders have gained an important foothold in Europe, North America, and the Far East as well. The story is told for the first time, on a model-by-model basis, supported by many unseen colour images, which show the buses in use throughout the UK.

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Low-Floor Single Deckers

For many years, individuals with disabilities, wheelchair users, and parents with young children faced challenges when attempting to access single-deck buses with high steps and raised floors.
However, a pivotal shift occurred in the 1980s when a new generation of buses with stepless entrances and level floors was introduced. This transformation reached the UK in 1992, prompting operators to gradually phase out older high-floor single-deckers in favor of these innovations.
Many of these buses were adaptations of existing European models, but UK-based manufacturers, such as Dennis, Optare, and Wright, designed more cost-effective models tailored to the domestic market. The most prominent example is the best-selling Dennis Dart, which later evolved into the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 series.

Traditionally, low-floor single-deckers were powered by diesel engines. However, environmental concerns in the early 2000s spurred engineers to reconsider this approach, leading to the emergence of diesel-electric hybrids, gas-powered buses, battery electric buses, and currently, hydrogen-powered buses. Diesel models are gradually giving way to zero-emission alternatives as the latter gain popularity.
Illustrated with over 150 images, this book tracks the evolution of low-floor single-deck buses from their initial introduction three decades ago to the latest gas, electric, and hydrogen-powered models.

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