Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive Volvo Ailsa B55/Alexander AV-type
The Buses of Scotland - Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive
Seen here is AV1 (GGG300N), one of three pre-production Ailsas which has been preserved and repainted in the bright livery of the erstwhile Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive (GGPTE).
GFPTE was created in 1972 but didn’t start officially until the following year and was Scotland’s first (and indeed only) PTE but the fifth overall in the UK. It was formed to coordinate public transport within Greater Glasgow and the Clyde Valley. Unlike other PTE’s, which came into existence to combine various municipal fleets scattered around the area into one bigger fleet, only the Glasgow Corporation Transport bus fleet was taken over at its formation although unlike the other PTEs, it also assumed responsibility for the Glasgow Subway. On top of that it took over responsibilities for providing and funding rail services within its area. A not very well known fact is that the rail network in and around Glasgow is the most extensive local rail network outside London.
At the outset it decided that a new bus livery was a priority, to stamp its mark on the city’s fleet. Many different and radical schemes were considered - indeed its believed its first Director General wanted a blue based scheme - but the scheme eventually settled is that seen here. It was a very bright livery and to my mind probably the best ever worn by Glasgow’s Buses. However in a city bedevilled sadly by the scourge of sectarianism, hackles were raised by some to its similarities to the flag of the Irish Republic.
The livery was first shown to the public in the middle of 1973 and later the PTE’s logo, an arrow shaped GG was added. This logo would also appear - eventually - on the newly modernised Subway trains and also on the sides of trains, where the PTE supported routes run by British Rail.
GGPTE continued with the Corporation’s preference of Leyland Atlanteans for the fleet and even went as far to design a standard body design with Alexander’s for the Atlantean. This incorporated a single door, large panoramic windows and an updated interior. It was later discovered that these large windows weren’t suited to the Atlanteans but they did look good. However, like other operators, they shared misgivings about Leyland’s stranglehold on the UK market and bought two batches of MCW Metropolitans which were seen as a more futuristic design. Sadly, these buses suffered from premature corrosion are were withdrawn after less than ten years. A more successful purchase was the Volvo Ailsa. Initially the plan was that the PTE would purchase ten pre-production examples but it was later scaled back to just three. Despite this, the model, although a bit more simplistic compared to the Atlantean, they settled down to provide a good reliable service. However, a changing in chief engineer saw a decision made to stick with the Atlantean and make the most of a standardised fleet.
In 1975, Strathclyde Regional Council was formed and the PTE became its public transport arm. This extended the PTE’s influence well beyond its original area, as far south as Girvan and Moffat, north to almost Oban, West to the Clyde Coast islands and Ardshaig and east as far as Harthill and Shotts. n 1980 the PTE officially became known as Strathclyde PTE.
The grandiose vision which accompanied the PTE’s creation was sadly never achieved, namely an integrated transport service like in Continental Europe. Mainly, this failure was on the bus side, as the Scottish Bus Group (SBG), which provided most of the services outside the big Scottish cities, saw the PTE as a threat. Cooperation was very limited and despite the PTE’s desire to have all its buses painted in a common livery within the PTE’s designated area - like that in Tyneside - and having the GG logo accommodated into its fleetnames, SBG was having none of it. The closest it came to accommodating the PTE was to have little blue ‘Trans-Clyde’ stickers applied to windows at the front of its buses, to mark the launch of that brand. Where they appeared exactly on individual vehicles depended on the initiative of cleaners at SBG’s garages.
That’s not to say that all the PTE did was bad. It rescued Glasgow’s bus fleet from impending collapse under the Corporation, it oversaw the creation of the Argyle Line in cooperation with British Rail and modernised the Subway, albeit at considerable cost. It also modernised and standardised the city’s bus fleet to an extent not seen before and unlikely to be seen again. It introduced better and customer focused services. Some worked, some didn’t. But it also removed the worst of the Corporation’s practices and linked up services in the city centre. This had the benefit of saving buses as less were laying over in the City Centre. Some changes were painful, garages closed and services were cut but it laid the foundations for a leaner, better company.
It introduced a City Tour, a coach hire fleet and brought single-deckers back. But possibly the biggest change - and indeed a change that carries forward to this very day - was the introduction of an exact fare system.
With the opening of the Argyle Line in 1979, Trans-Clyde logos were added to buses, trains and the subway either beside or underneath the GG logo. However in 1980, the green/white/yellow livery began to be phased out and the GG logos began to be removed, as the PTE began to trade as SPTE. A new bus livery of green/yellow/black was adopted, although it took until 1984 for the last bus in the original PTE livery to disappear. By this stage the orange/black of Strathclyde Transport was already making its mark.
Although only around for just over a decade, the GGPTE livery is one fondly recalled by many Glaswegians. Indeed, it was, in my humble opinion, the best livery work by Glasgow’s buses.
Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive Volvo Ailsa B55/Alexander AV-type
The Buses of Scotland - Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive
Seen here is AV1 (GGG300N), one of three pre-production Ailsas which has been preserved and repainted in the bright livery of the erstwhile Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive (GGPTE).
GFPTE was created in 1972 but didn’t start officially until the following year and was Scotland’s first (and indeed only) PTE but the fifth overall in the UK. It was formed to coordinate public transport within Greater Glasgow and the Clyde Valley. Unlike other PTE’s, which came into existence to combine various municipal fleets scattered around the area into one bigger fleet, only the Glasgow Corporation Transport bus fleet was taken over at its formation although unlike the other PTEs, it also assumed responsibility for the Glasgow Subway. On top of that it took over responsibilities for providing and funding rail services within its area. A not very well known fact is that the rail network in and around Glasgow is the most extensive local rail network outside London.
At the outset it decided that a new bus livery was a priority, to stamp its mark on the city’s fleet. Many different and radical schemes were considered - indeed its believed its first Director General wanted a blue based scheme - but the scheme eventually settled is that seen here. It was a very bright livery and to my mind probably the best ever worn by Glasgow’s Buses. However in a city bedevilled sadly by the scourge of sectarianism, hackles were raised by some to its similarities to the flag of the Irish Republic.
The livery was first shown to the public in the middle of 1973 and later the PTE’s logo, an arrow shaped GG was added. This logo would also appear - eventually - on the newly modernised Subway trains and also on the sides of trains, where the PTE supported routes run by British Rail.
GGPTE continued with the Corporation’s preference of Leyland Atlanteans for the fleet and even went as far to design a standard body design with Alexander’s for the Atlantean. This incorporated a single door, large panoramic windows and an updated interior. It was later discovered that these large windows weren’t suited to the Atlanteans but they did look good. However, like other operators, they shared misgivings about Leyland’s stranglehold on the UK market and bought two batches of MCW Metropolitans which were seen as a more futuristic design. Sadly, these buses suffered from premature corrosion are were withdrawn after less than ten years. A more successful purchase was the Volvo Ailsa. Initially the plan was that the PTE would purchase ten pre-production examples but it was later scaled back to just three. Despite this, the model, although a bit more simplistic compared to the Atlantean, they settled down to provide a good reliable service. However, a changing in chief engineer saw a decision made to stick with the Atlantean and make the most of a standardised fleet.
In 1975, Strathclyde Regional Council was formed and the PTE became its public transport arm. This extended the PTE’s influence well beyond its original area, as far south as Girvan and Moffat, north to almost Oban, West to the Clyde Coast islands and Ardshaig and east as far as Harthill and Shotts. n 1980 the PTE officially became known as Strathclyde PTE.
The grandiose vision which accompanied the PTE’s creation was sadly never achieved, namely an integrated transport service like in Continental Europe. Mainly, this failure was on the bus side, as the Scottish Bus Group (SBG), which provided most of the services outside the big Scottish cities, saw the PTE as a threat. Cooperation was very limited and despite the PTE’s desire to have all its buses painted in a common livery within the PTE’s designated area - like that in Tyneside - and having the GG logo accommodated into its fleetnames, SBG was having none of it. The closest it came to accommodating the PTE was to have little blue ‘Trans-Clyde’ stickers applied to windows at the front of its buses, to mark the launch of that brand. Where they appeared exactly on individual vehicles depended on the initiative of cleaners at SBG’s garages.
That’s not to say that all the PTE did was bad. It rescued Glasgow’s bus fleet from impending collapse under the Corporation, it oversaw the creation of the Argyle Line in cooperation with British Rail and modernised the Subway, albeit at considerable cost. It also modernised and standardised the city’s bus fleet to an extent not seen before and unlikely to be seen again. It introduced better and customer focused services. Some worked, some didn’t. But it also removed the worst of the Corporation’s practices and linked up services in the city centre. This had the benefit of saving buses as less were laying over in the City Centre. Some changes were painful, garages closed and services were cut but it laid the foundations for a leaner, better company.
It introduced a City Tour, a coach hire fleet and brought single-deckers back. But possibly the biggest change - and indeed a change that carries forward to this very day - was the introduction of an exact fare system.
With the opening of the Argyle Line in 1979, Trans-Clyde logos were added to buses, trains and the subway either beside or underneath the GG logo. However in 1980, the green/white/yellow livery began to be phased out and the GG logos began to be removed, as the PTE began to trade as SPTE. A new bus livery of green/yellow/black was adopted, although it took until 1984 for the last bus in the original PTE livery to disappear. By this stage the orange/black of Strathclyde Transport was already making its mark.
Although only around for just over a decade, the GGPTE livery is one fondly recalled by many Glaswegians. Indeed, it was, in my humble opinion, the best livery work by Glasgow’s buses.