The bus services we lost.
In the early 1980s the Bristol Omnibus Co. implemented its Market Analysis Project. Others will know more than I do about the history of this infamous market research scheme which aimed to identify the travel patterns of passengers. I think it was undertaken throughout the National Bus Co, if not the whole industry. As a result of its findings rural bus services were "Beechingized". Many were abandoned and those that remained were amalgamated. Main trunk services now had to take detours through housing estates and villages previously served by routes of their own. Single deck buses, many almost new, were disposed of and replaced by double-deckers in anticipation of heavier loadings. It was probably a Thatcherite scheme to make the industry more attractive to private buyers when it was deregulated in 1986.
In the late 70s the Company was still operating many of these loss-making rural bus routes. My favourites were a group of services known to we drivers as the "Thornbury Locals". These linked Thornbury, 12 miles north of Bristol, with various villages in the Vale of Berkeley. The driver stayed on this duty for a week, and no two days were the same. There were three different routes linking Thornbury with Berkeley. Wednesday was the day the tiny hamlet of Shepperdine, on the banks of the Severn estuary, received its weekly bus. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there was one return trip from Sharpness to Dursley and on Friday Thornbury was linked with far-off Yate, by way of Tytherington, Latteridge, Itchington and Iron Acton. There were few passengers to mar the driver's solitude and, since he was away from his home depot for the duration of the duty, there were always 40 minutes or so of "non-driving time" built into the schedule during which he could park up somewhere and spread out on the back seat to read his paper and have a snack. In the summer these routes were a delight to operate ...more like a week's touring holiday than work.
The bus worked its way out to Thornbury every morning on the 311 service. This particular journey had a permutation of the normal route to serve Marlwood School at Alveston. Here, having just dropped off the schoolchildren, I have parked to take a photo in Quarry Road. The bus is a Bristol LH with ECW bodywork. Bristol Commercial Vehicles had by now become part of British Leyland who, after a discreet couple of years, closed down this old and distinguished company to leave a clear field for its own products. The LH had many Leyland components, including its 0.400 engine; the capacity of Leyland engines was given in cubic inches, not litres. Drivers called them "Jumping Jacks" because of their lively riding characteristics. The LH did not long survive the MAP project and a large batch of almost new ones was disposed of. The photo was taken Friday 17th February 1978.
The bus services we lost.
In the early 1980s the Bristol Omnibus Co. implemented its Market Analysis Project. Others will know more than I do about the history of this infamous market research scheme which aimed to identify the travel patterns of passengers. I think it was undertaken throughout the National Bus Co, if not the whole industry. As a result of its findings rural bus services were "Beechingized". Many were abandoned and those that remained were amalgamated. Main trunk services now had to take detours through housing estates and villages previously served by routes of their own. Single deck buses, many almost new, were disposed of and replaced by double-deckers in anticipation of heavier loadings. It was probably a Thatcherite scheme to make the industry more attractive to private buyers when it was deregulated in 1986.
In the late 70s the Company was still operating many of these loss-making rural bus routes. My favourites were a group of services known to we drivers as the "Thornbury Locals". These linked Thornbury, 12 miles north of Bristol, with various villages in the Vale of Berkeley. The driver stayed on this duty for a week, and no two days were the same. There were three different routes linking Thornbury with Berkeley. Wednesday was the day the tiny hamlet of Shepperdine, on the banks of the Severn estuary, received its weekly bus. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there was one return trip from Sharpness to Dursley and on Friday Thornbury was linked with far-off Yate, by way of Tytherington, Latteridge, Itchington and Iron Acton. There were few passengers to mar the driver's solitude and, since he was away from his home depot for the duration of the duty, there were always 40 minutes or so of "non-driving time" built into the schedule during which he could park up somewhere and spread out on the back seat to read his paper and have a snack. In the summer these routes were a delight to operate ...more like a week's touring holiday than work.
The bus worked its way out to Thornbury every morning on the 311 service. This particular journey had a permutation of the normal route to serve Marlwood School at Alveston. Here, having just dropped off the schoolchildren, I have parked to take a photo in Quarry Road. The bus is a Bristol LH with ECW bodywork. Bristol Commercial Vehicles had by now become part of British Leyland who, after a discreet couple of years, closed down this old and distinguished company to leave a clear field for its own products. The LH had many Leyland components, including its 0.400 engine; the capacity of Leyland engines was given in cubic inches, not litres. Drivers called them "Jumping Jacks" because of their lively riding characteristics. The LH did not long survive the MAP project and a large batch of almost new ones was disposed of. The photo was taken Friday 17th February 1978.