Our wander today take s us along deepdale road , , to the old preston tram depot , now the home of preston bus again , after a brief , occupation , by stagecoach , the story of preston bus is quite a long one .....On 2nd May 1859, a gentleman by the name of Richard Vievers started a service of Horse buses , running between Preston and Fulwood, and so began public transport in Preston. On 20th March 1879, a TRAMWAY about 2½ miles long was opened by the Preston Tramways Company under the sanction of the Corporation, which, by the provisions of the 1870 Tramways Act was not permitted to undertake the actual operation. Three years later, the Corporation started to form an enlarged system: with routes between Fishergate Hill and the Pleasure Gardens in New Hall Lane; better known as the Farringdon , wonder , as there was a what would be described today as a theme park , with animals and the like ... Anyway I digress , The corproration also ran a service from the Town Hall to Ashton. These began operating during Guild Week 1882. The Town Council acquired powers by Acts of Parliament in 1900 and 1902 to electrify the tramway system. Construction of a Power Station was completed and the first electric tramcars operated in June 1904 from a purpose built depot in Deepdale.,which features in our images below .. The first Corporation bus service started on 23rd January 1922, and served the Plungington district. From that time onwards the fate of the tram was sealed. By 1930 it was obvious that the tramway cars and track were in need of extensive renewal, and after serious consideration, the Town Council decided to convert the whole system to Trolly Bus operation. Routes were converted to Diesel Motor Omnibus between 4th July 1932 and 15th December 1935. During their life Preston’s trams ran over 32 million miles and carried more than 370 million passengers.Withe main routes travelling through town down to broadgate , and also up to fulwood , with tram sheds also being found close to the garrison pub . Since the adoption of Motor Omnibuses, vehicles were manufactured by Leyland Motors Limited, at a large factory within seven miles of Preston, employing thousands of local people. During 1968 One Person Operated buses began as an efficiency measure, replacing the need for conductors. thats when the annoying habit of having to stand and try and find change also started ,change was given at the start , as I recall myself , but as we all remember , its reached a stage , where we literally just put the closet amount in that machine , that then makes an horrendous noise , as it disappears in to the bowels of the long box ......meanwhile ........ In October 1969 Preston’s new Central Bus Station and Car Park was officially opened by Lord Stokes of Leyland Motors. At that time the Bus Station was the largest in Europe. In the early 1970’s the traditional colour scheme of cream and maroon buses was changed in favour of a blue and cream fleet. which I ve always thought had something to do , with Preston north ends kit colour .. thats just a conspiracy theory , and not to be taken seriously ... The Government’s decision to de-regulate the bus industry on 26th October 1986 resulted in a period of significant change. Preston Borough Transport Limited was set up to trade as an arms length’ company, as required by the 1985 Transport Act. Competition from new and established bus and coach firms on the company’s routes occurred, resulting in PBTL responding by introducing minibus services in April 1987. And along with zippy buses , we saw all sorts of buses appear on the streets of preston , and then began the fun thing of flagging buses down , while you were half way down the street , and because competition , was rife , they ,d stop for you , --Try that today see how far you get --? The 1990’s were a period of competitive stability, during which the Company was sold to its employees in 1993, and renamed Preston Bus. In December 1999, Preston Bus began operating low floor easy access buses to Tanterton. These replaced the traditional high stepped-entrance vehicles, and began the process of making boarding and alighting much easier, easing wheelchair and pushchair access.Which was long over due . Between 2000 and 2006 Preston Bus was successful, through partnership working with Lancashire County Council, in securing government funding towards a variety of projects including: Quality Bus Partnerships, Real Time Information, Preston Orbit and the CIVITAS project. During 2006 Stagecoach North West subsidiary began to revise its local network in Preston. In 2007 Preston Bus was subject to high profile competition from the national operator (16% of the UK bus market), with Stagecoach introducing over 30 new low floor buses and offering lower discounted fares on the busiest routes. which saw , kangarooing , on busy routes , for all of you not in the know ,that meant running empty buses , and blocking your opposition , brian souter of stagecoach , had used this method before , in many of his bus wars ,crushing the competition ,and his strong arm tactics were very apparent in preston . On 23 January 2009, Preston Bus was sold to Stagecoach, however within 6 weeks an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading began, culminating in the Competition Commission ruling that the takeover had adversely affected competition in the area, and ordering the sell off of Preston Bus. In January 2011, Rotala Group was announced as preferred buyer and took over the ownership and operations of Preston Bus , and so the story has come full circle almost .. the depot still exists ,but what of the future people will always use buses ,and although its park and ride , as literally been seen as a joke running as it does with empty buses ,and even emptier park and ride bus park,s ,with the death knell of tram -power , theres a market ,there ,but will they eventually price them selves out of the market again, only time will tell , ..........
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:31:04 +0000
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