5: Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd
After the original Trathens operation went bang rather spectacularly in September 1985, the various assets were sold off by the adminstrators. The London operations and the band bus business went to Len Wright Travel, with the National Express Rapide work being bought by the then owners of Yelloway, Carlton PSV, a subsidiary of ATL Holdings. They acquired an existing company from the administrators called Trathens Rapide Ltd, renamed it briefly Trathens Express Ltd and then renamed it again to Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd. The company didn't have a licence at the time but one was applied for and coaches carried Yelloway Trathen as a fleetname. In the meantime, Yelloway itself maintained the services for the first few months.
The initial fleet consisted mainly of former Trathens’ Skyliners – Yelloway took ten ex-Trathens coaches, including all seven Skyliners and an Astromega. These were supplemented by a further pair of Skyliners from Yelloway’s own fleet and were soon joined by another one, a brand new one registered C174 KET. Owners Carlton PSV being the UK Neoplan importer meant that a fleet standardised on that make was always going to be very likely!
At least one new Skyliner appeared every year, along with various second-hand coaches, usually more Neoplans, and including a couple of single-decks - a Cityliner and a Jetliner. The Yelloway relationship soon meant that Y-TE vehicles started running up-country too, as well as on the Westcountry – London runs and this would set the scene for many, many years. To augment the Plymouth fleet, a batch of four-year old, one-time National Travel (East) Volvos with Jonckheere bodies was transferred in.
When ATL Holdings got into financial difficulties themselves in 1989, the group was taken-over by National Express and Y-TE found itself becoming a joint venture between National Express and the Trathen brothers. National Express was quite keen on joint venture companies at that time, having already set-up Durham Travel Services and Dorset Travel Services. More would soon follow. Accordingly, Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd was renamed Trathens Travel Services Ltd. The fleet at this point numbered 17, consisting of ten Neoplan Skyliners and seven of the Volvo/Jonckheeres. The Volvos didn’t last much longer, being seen off as the fleet was updated with new Skyliners and some nearly new Volvos with Plaxton Paramount bodies acquired from Parks of Hamilton.
The Company grew with the acquisition of Devon General’s National Express work in November 1990, inheriting four MCW Metroliners which were not operated but were quickly swapped with Happy Days for two, three-year old, Skyliners, augmented by yet more new ones, plus a couple of brand new Plaxton Paramount bodied Volvos.
In 1991, the company made a tentative move back into the band bus business with an incredibly rare Ayats bodied Magirus Deutz. The original Starider operation, had passed originally to Len Wright Travel, which went bust in 1988, being taken over by Cantabrica Travel and whilst Len Wright restarted operations, the upshot was that the Starider name was no longer being used. Trathens’ new band bus operation resurrected the previous name, although it now tended to be styled as StarRider (with two ‘r’s) and was consolidated with the acquisition, and conversion of four Van Hool Astron semi-deckers from Mandale of Greystoke in 1993. Over the next fifteen years, the fleet would be a common sight around the UK and Europe, sporting a very smart and bright, metallic blue livery.
Band buses and a small private hire operation aside, it was the National Express contracts which were the company’s bread and butter. The joint ownership with National Express only lasted a few years before National Express started to sell off their various joint venture holdings and in 1996 the company became wholly owned by Parks of Hamilton.
New coach deliveries had moved away from Neoplan from 1994, in favour of Van Hool bodied Volvos, most however, were still double-deck. By the turn of the century, Neoplans had all but been eradicated from the fleet. The National Express fleet was now around thirty (two-thirds were Van Hool bodied Volvo deckers and the remainder, single-decks with a mix of Van Hool and Plaxton bodies. The band bus fleet stood at around a dozen vehicles - four Van Hool Astrons, a Van Hool Astromega and a selection of Van Hool bodied Volvo deckers. A natural cascade path now existed, regularly seeing members of the main fleet converted to band bus use after their age rendered them surplus from National Express work.
The policy on new coach purchases changed again at the end of 2001, seeing a switch back to Neoplan Skyliners for the double-deck requirements and in line with Parks’ own intakes, the single-deckers were still Volvos but now featured Jonckheere bodywork. Not surprisingly there was much more swapping of vehicles with the parent fleet and considerable use of Parks’ numerous HSK, KSK and LSK cherished registrations.
Most of the 2001 Skyliners were replaced with another similar, but longer, batch over the winter of 2006, however they were not to stay for long. Just as the last ones were being delivered, one of the first to arrive was involved in a fatal accident, overturning on the M25 near Heathrow in January 2007. The driver was later held responsible and jailed. The media had a field day and National Express ordered double-deckers to be suspended from use on all of its workings, which saw Parks transfer single-deck coaches from its Scottish fleet to Plymouth to cover. Of course, they were in a variety of liveries but that wasn’t important.
Neoplan was called in to give the remaining eleven Skyliners a thorough safety check which proved that they were free from any defects and gave them a clean bill of health. In fact, one vehicle hadn’t even entered service! They returned to the road in May 2007 – and even though Trathens bolstered its National Express fleet with some Berkhof Axial 100 bodied Volvo deckers, National Express still had strong reservations about the use of double-deck coaches and subsequently required them all to be replaced. Needing the capacity of double-decks but unable to buy them, the solution was found by opting for 15m tri-axle single deckers, Plaxton Panther bodied Volvos, a type that Stagecoach – and Parks themselves – had pioneered on Megabus and Scottish Citylink work a couple of years earlier. They seated only 65 rather than the 75 or more of the deckers but options were limited. Even so, it wasn’t until March 2009 that they arrived in Plymouth. The Berkhofs and a couple of the Skyliners were moved to Parks’ own fleet, the rest of the Skyliners were sold and the era of double-deck coaches on National Express was over.
This wasn’t the only problem that the Company had to contend with. In 2009 it, and 24 drivers, was prosecuted for multiple tachograph and driving hours offences. The upshot was that owners, Parks, then surrendered the Trathens Travel Services licence, having been granted authorisation to run the Plymouth depot on their own licence. They still do today and indeed they still use the same depot in Plymouth that Yelloway-Trathen Express opened way back in 1985 but after some sixty years, the Trathens name now found itself consigned to the history books. At the time of transfer the fleet strength stood at around thirty, of which around a half a dozen were band buses which operated for a while with Trathens names removed but that side of the operation would be wound down by early 2011 and the coaches disposed of.
An interesting aside is that neither Trathens Travel Services nor Parks has ever operated National Express’ more recent standard types, currently the Caetano Levante, or the Irizar PB before that - possibly the only National Express contractor(s) never to have run either model. In fact, Parks hasn’t bought a Caetano body since the large batch of 46 coaches that were delivered back in 1986 and as far as I can ascertain, has never bought anything from Irizar... ever.
The photo shows Neoplan Skyliner 516 (YN51 XML) at Bulleid Way, Victoria ready for the long trip up to Aberdeen. Oddly, these were the only coaches that appeared to carry fleetnumbers.
5: Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd
After the original Trathens operation went bang rather spectacularly in September 1985, the various assets were sold off by the adminstrators. The London operations and the band bus business went to Len Wright Travel, with the National Express Rapide work being bought by the then owners of Yelloway, Carlton PSV, a subsidiary of ATL Holdings. They acquired an existing company from the administrators called Trathens Rapide Ltd, renamed it briefly Trathens Express Ltd and then renamed it again to Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd. The company didn't have a licence at the time but one was applied for and coaches carried Yelloway Trathen as a fleetname. In the meantime, Yelloway itself maintained the services for the first few months.
The initial fleet consisted mainly of former Trathens’ Skyliners – Yelloway took ten ex-Trathens coaches, including all seven Skyliners and an Astromega. These were supplemented by a further pair of Skyliners from Yelloway’s own fleet and were soon joined by another one, a brand new one registered C174 KET. Owners Carlton PSV being the UK Neoplan importer meant that a fleet standardised on that make was always going to be very likely!
At least one new Skyliner appeared every year, along with various second-hand coaches, usually more Neoplans, and including a couple of single-decks - a Cityliner and a Jetliner. The Yelloway relationship soon meant that Y-TE vehicles started running up-country too, as well as on the Westcountry – London runs and this would set the scene for many, many years. To augment the Plymouth fleet, a batch of four-year old, one-time National Travel (East) Volvos with Jonckheere bodies was transferred in.
When ATL Holdings got into financial difficulties themselves in 1989, the group was taken-over by National Express and Y-TE found itself becoming a joint venture between National Express and the Trathen brothers. National Express was quite keen on joint venture companies at that time, having already set-up Durham Travel Services and Dorset Travel Services. More would soon follow. Accordingly, Yelloway-Trathen Express Ltd was renamed Trathens Travel Services Ltd. The fleet at this point numbered 17, consisting of ten Neoplan Skyliners and seven of the Volvo/Jonckheeres. The Volvos didn’t last much longer, being seen off as the fleet was updated with new Skyliners and some nearly new Volvos with Plaxton Paramount bodies acquired from Parks of Hamilton.
The Company grew with the acquisition of Devon General’s National Express work in November 1990, inheriting four MCW Metroliners which were not operated but were quickly swapped with Happy Days for two, three-year old, Skyliners, augmented by yet more new ones, plus a couple of brand new Plaxton Paramount bodied Volvos.
In 1991, the company made a tentative move back into the band bus business with an incredibly rare Ayats bodied Magirus Deutz. The original Starider operation, had passed originally to Len Wright Travel, which went bust in 1988, being taken over by Cantabrica Travel and whilst Len Wright restarted operations, the upshot was that the Starider name was no longer being used. Trathens’ new band bus operation resurrected the previous name, although it now tended to be styled as StarRider (with two ‘r’s) and was consolidated with the acquisition, and conversion of four Van Hool Astron semi-deckers from Mandale of Greystoke in 1993. Over the next fifteen years, the fleet would be a common sight around the UK and Europe, sporting a very smart and bright, metallic blue livery.
Band buses and a small private hire operation aside, it was the National Express contracts which were the company’s bread and butter. The joint ownership with National Express only lasted a few years before National Express started to sell off their various joint venture holdings and in 1996 the company became wholly owned by Parks of Hamilton.
New coach deliveries had moved away from Neoplan from 1994, in favour of Van Hool bodied Volvos, most however, were still double-deck. By the turn of the century, Neoplans had all but been eradicated from the fleet. The National Express fleet was now around thirty (two-thirds were Van Hool bodied Volvo deckers and the remainder, single-decks with a mix of Van Hool and Plaxton bodies. The band bus fleet stood at around a dozen vehicles - four Van Hool Astrons, a Van Hool Astromega and a selection of Van Hool bodied Volvo deckers. A natural cascade path now existed, regularly seeing members of the main fleet converted to band bus use after their age rendered them surplus from National Express work.
The policy on new coach purchases changed again at the end of 2001, seeing a switch back to Neoplan Skyliners for the double-deck requirements and in line with Parks’ own intakes, the single-deckers were still Volvos but now featured Jonckheere bodywork. Not surprisingly there was much more swapping of vehicles with the parent fleet and considerable use of Parks’ numerous HSK, KSK and LSK cherished registrations.
Most of the 2001 Skyliners were replaced with another similar, but longer, batch over the winter of 2006, however they were not to stay for long. Just as the last ones were being delivered, one of the first to arrive was involved in a fatal accident, overturning on the M25 near Heathrow in January 2007. The driver was later held responsible and jailed. The media had a field day and National Express ordered double-deckers to be suspended from use on all of its workings, which saw Parks transfer single-deck coaches from its Scottish fleet to Plymouth to cover. Of course, they were in a variety of liveries but that wasn’t important.
Neoplan was called in to give the remaining eleven Skyliners a thorough safety check which proved that they were free from any defects and gave them a clean bill of health. In fact, one vehicle hadn’t even entered service! They returned to the road in May 2007 – and even though Trathens bolstered its National Express fleet with some Berkhof Axial 100 bodied Volvo deckers, National Express still had strong reservations about the use of double-deck coaches and subsequently required them all to be replaced. Needing the capacity of double-decks but unable to buy them, the solution was found by opting for 15m tri-axle single deckers, Plaxton Panther bodied Volvos, a type that Stagecoach – and Parks themselves – had pioneered on Megabus and Scottish Citylink work a couple of years earlier. They seated only 65 rather than the 75 or more of the deckers but options were limited. Even so, it wasn’t until March 2009 that they arrived in Plymouth. The Berkhofs and a couple of the Skyliners were moved to Parks’ own fleet, the rest of the Skyliners were sold and the era of double-deck coaches on National Express was over.
This wasn’t the only problem that the Company had to contend with. In 2009 it, and 24 drivers, was prosecuted for multiple tachograph and driving hours offences. The upshot was that owners, Parks, then surrendered the Trathens Travel Services licence, having been granted authorisation to run the Plymouth depot on their own licence. They still do today and indeed they still use the same depot in Plymouth that Yelloway-Trathen Express opened way back in 1985 but after some sixty years, the Trathens name now found itself consigned to the history books. At the time of transfer the fleet strength stood at around thirty, of which around a half a dozen were band buses which operated for a while with Trathens names removed but that side of the operation would be wound down by early 2011 and the coaches disposed of.
An interesting aside is that neither Trathens Travel Services nor Parks has ever operated National Express’ more recent standard types, currently the Caetano Levante, or the Irizar PB before that - possibly the only National Express contractor(s) never to have run either model. In fact, Parks hasn’t bought a Caetano body since the large batch of 46 coaches that were delivered back in 1986 and as far as I can ascertain, has never bought anything from Irizar... ever.
The photo shows Neoplan Skyliner 516 (YN51 XML) at Bulleid Way, Victoria ready for the long trip up to Aberdeen. Oddly, these were the only coaches that appeared to carry fleetnumbers.