1.
First Berkshire & The Thames Valley
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First Beeline Buses, trading as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, is a bus operator providing services in Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup, in late 1987 The Berks Bus Company was sold to Q Drive and renamed Beeline. In 1990 the High Wycombe operations were sold to the Oxford Bus Company, in 1993 Beeline purchased the Slough operations of Luton & District Transport, until 1986 the Slough depot of London Country Bus Services and later part of the London Country North West division. In March 1996 Beeline was sold to CentreWest who in turn was sold to FirstGroup in March 1997, initially trading as First Beeline, in 2001 it was rebranded as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley. The company currently operates most of the services in Slough, as well as services to surrounding areas such as Heathrow Airport, High Wycombe. The company was previously the dominant operator in Maidenhead, but town services there were abandoned in 2004 and are now run by Courtney Buses, as well as normal First branded services, there are five specially branded groups of routes. Some routes to Heathrow Airport are run with blue Heathrow 7 Series Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaros and have also began using Volvo 7900 Hybrids. Some routes in Slough are branded as Slough Trading Estate Hoppa, the Legoland Shuttle is run with yellow buses in Legoland graphics. A new service, route 100, started on 2 June 2012, coach services are also run under different brands. The Reading to Heathrow service are branded as RailAir, and routes 701 and 702 as Green Line, First Berkshire & The Thames Valley operates American Bluebird school buses from an outstation in Chertsey for schools around Runnymede. The company also used to operate Ride Pegasus, a larger scheme run under contract to Surrey County Council from an outstation in Merrow, Guildford. This ceased in July 2010 after the cut the funding. As at July 2015 the fleet consisted of 136 buses and coaches, list of bus operators of the United Kingdom First Berkshire & The Thames Valley website First Group website First Berkshire gallery
2.
Marshall Capital
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The Marshall Capital was a single-decker bus body built by Marshall between 1997 and 2003. It was typically placed on the Dennis Dart SLF chassis and it has a double-curvature windscreen, an arched top with a separately mounted destination display and it has a peaked roof dome. The most significant buyer was First London, purchasing more than 400 on the Dennis Dart SLF chassis for its Centrewest, Capital, many have been cascaded to other FirstGroup subsidiaries, across large parts of the UK. MTL purchased 76 for their London operations - all of which passed to Metroline in 1998 - as well as 75 for their Merseyside fleet, other notable customers were London Central, Halton Transport, Warrington Borough Transport and Isle of Man Transport. When Marshall was closed in 2002, MCV bought the design of the Capital body, MCV built only five Capital bodies on Dart SLFs for Warrington Borough Transport before TransBus ceased supplying Dart SLF chassis to MCV for body assembly. The successor of the Marshall Capital body is the MCV Stirling midibus exclusively for the Dennis Dart SLF, list of buses Media related to Marshall Capital at Wikimedia Commons Buses portal
3.
Dennis Dart
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The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker bus chassis that was manufactured by Dennis in Guildford, England. More than 11,000 were produced during 18 years of production, most were purchased by United Kingdom operators, although examples were sold to the North America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Dennis Dart was conceived when Hestair Group decided to produce a bus between a minibus and a full-sized single-decker and it was launched in 1988 and was originally offered with the Duple Dartline bodywork. It was 2. 3m wide and was available in the length of 9m. It was powered by a Cummins 6BT engine and coupled to the Allison AT545 gearbox and this model was sold to London Buses and to some operators outside London. Soon after it was launched, Duple was sold to Plaxton, Plaxton decided not to acquire the design rights of the Duple Dartline and it was sold to Carlyle Works, who continued producing the bodywork from 1991. Production passed to Marshall of Cambridge in 1992 who bodied five Darts to this design, in 1993, Marshall updated the design to the C36 and later, the C37. In 1990, Wadham Stringer became the builder to body the Dart with a body called the Portsdown. In the same year, Wright bodied the Dart with the Handybus, in early 1991, Plaxton launched the Pointer. Later in 1991, East Lancs bodied the Dart with its EL2000, in the latter half of 1991, Alexander launched the Dash. Another contender entering the market at the time was the Northern Counties Paladin. Initially, it was built with a design of a barrel shaped windscreen with quarterlights and it was phased out when Plaxton bought Northern Counties in 1995. In 1995, Dennis launched a version of the Dart, the Dennis Dart SLF. It was 2. 4m wide and initially offered in lengths of 9. 2m, 10m and 10. 6m, the driveline of the step-entrance Dart was retained, although some early examples were fitted with Eaton manual transmission. It was initially offered with the low floor version of the Pointer and it was also offered with a wide variety of bodies, namely the East Lancs Spryte, UVG Urbanstar, the Wright Crusader, Alexander ALX200, Marshall Capital, Caetano Nimbus and MCV Evolution. Some Dart SLFs with Alexander ALX200 bodies were delivered to the North America, in 1997, the Dart SPD was launched with the length of 11. 3m. It has a powerful engine and a more heavy duty Allison World Series B300R gearbox. Originally offered only with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork this larger bus was later offered with other such as East Lancs, the Alexander ALX200
4.
Slough
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Slough is a large town in Berkshire, England,21 miles west of London,3 miles north of Windsor,6 miles east of Maidenhead,12 miles south-east of High Wycombe and 20 miles north-east of Reading. The A4 and the Great Western Main Line pass through the town, in 2011, Sloughs population was the most ethnically diverse in the United Kingdom outside London. With the highest proportion of adherents in England. Slough is home to the Slough Trading Estate, the largest industrial estate in single ownership in Europe. Blackberry, McAfee, Burger King and LEGO have head offices in the town, the Slough Trading Estate provides over 17,000 jobs in 400 businesses. The town is approximately 9.1 miles to the west of Heathrow Airport, the name, which means soil, was first recorded in 1195 as Slo. It first seems to have applied to a hamlet between Upton to the east and Chalvey to the west, roughly around the Crown Crossroads where the road to Windsor met the Great West Road. The Domesday Survey of 1086 refers to Upton, and a wood for 200 pigs, during the 13th century, King Henry III had a palace at Cippenham. Parts of Upton Court were built in 1325, while St Mary the Virgin Church in Langley was probably built in the late 11th or early 12th century, though it has been rebuilt and enlarged several times. From the mid-17th century, stagecoaches began to pass through Slough and Salt Hill, by 1838 and the opening of the Great Western Railway, Upton-cum-Chalveys parish population had reached 1,502. In 1849, a line was completed from Slough railway station to Windsor and Eton Central railway station, opposite Windsor Castle. In April 1920, the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd, repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925, when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company to establish an industrial estate. Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK, during the Second World War, Slough experienced a series of air raids, mostly in October 1940, and an emergency hospital treating casualties from London was set up in Slough. Local air raid deaths and deaths at the account for the 23 civilian lives recorded lost in the borough area. After the war, several large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London. In the 21st century, Slough has seen major redevelopment of the town centre, old buildings are being replaced with new offices and shopping complexes. Tesco has replaced an existing superstore with a larger Tesco Extra, the Heart of Slough Project is a plan for the large-scale redevelopment of the town centre as a focus and cultural quarter for the creative media, information and communications industries. It will create a complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks
5.
Cambridge
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Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, on the River Cam about 50 miles north of London. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, its population was 123,867, there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area in the Bronze Age and in Roman Britain, under Viking rule, Cambridge became an important trading centre. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although city status was not conferred until 1951, the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209, is one of the top five universities in the world. The university includes the Cavendish Laboratory, Kings College Chapel, the citys skyline is dominated by the last two buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, the chimney of Addenbrookes Hospital and St Johns College Chapel tower. Anglia Ruskin University, evolved from the Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen with industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies spun out of the university. More than 40% of the workforce has a higher education qualification, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world, is soon to be home to AstraZeneca, a hotel and the relocated Papworth Hospital. Parkers Piece hosted the first ever game of Association football, the Strawberry Fair music and arts festival and Midsummer Fairs are held on Midsummer Common, and the annual Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Jesus Green. The city is adjacent to the M11 and A14 roads, settlements have existed around the Cambridge area since prehistoric times. The earliest clear evidence of occupation is the remains of a 3, the principal Roman site is a small fort Duroliponte on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre around the location of the earlier British village. The fort was bounded on two sides by the lines formed by the present Mount Pleasant, continuing across Huntingdon Road into Clare Street, the eastern side followed Magrath Avenue, with the southern side running near to Chesterton Lane and Kettles Yard before turning northwest at Honey Hill. It was constructed around AD70 and converted to use around 50 years later. Evidence of more widespread Roman settlement has been discovered including numerous farmsteads, evidence exists that the invading Anglo-Saxons had begun occupying the area by the end of the century. Their settlement—also on and around Castle Hill—became known as Grantebrycge, Anglo-Saxon grave goods have been found in the area. During this period, Cambridge benefited from good trade links across the hard-to-travel fenlands, by the 7th century, the town was less significant and described by Bede as a little ruined city containing the burial site of Etheldreda. Cambridge was on the border between the East and Middle Anglian kingdoms and the settlement slowly expanded on both sides of the river, the arrival of the Vikings was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 875. Viking rule, the Danelaw, had been imposed by 878 Their vigorous trading habits caused the town to grow rapidly. During this period the centre of the town shifted from Castle Hill on the bank of the river to the area now known as the Quayside on the right bank. In 1068, two years after his conquest of England, William of Normandy built a castle on Castle Hill, like the rest of the newly conquered kingdom, Cambridge fell under the control of the King and his deputies
6.
AEC Routemaster
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The AEC Routemaster is a front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company and Park Royal Vehicles. The first prototype was completed in September 1954 and the last one was delivered in 1968, the layout of the vehicle was traditional for the time, with a half-cab, front-mounted engine and open rear platform, although the coach version was fitted with rear platform doors. Forward entrance vehicles with platform doors were produced as was a unique front-entrance prototype with the engine mounted transversely at the rear. The first London bus route to be operated by the Routemaster was route 2, on 8 February 1956, the same bus, with a revised front end, appeared at the Lord Mayors Show in November 1956. Most Routemasters were built for London Transport, although numbers were built for British European Airways. A total of 2,876 Routemasters were built, of which 1,280 are still in existence, in modern UK public transport bus operation, the old-fashioned features of the standard Routemaster were both praised and criticised. Despite the retirement of the version, the Routemaster has retained iconic status. In 2006, the Routemaster was voted one of Britains top 10 design icons which included Concorde, Mini, Supermarine Spitfire, London tube map, World Wide Web, in the late 2000s work began on a New Routemaster bus inspired by the Routemasters traditional design. It entered service in February 2012, the Routemaster was developed between 1947 and 1956 by a team directed by AAM Durrant and Colin Curtis, with vehicle styling by Douglas Scott. The resulting vehicle seated 64 passengers, despite being three-quarters of a ton lighter than buses in the RT family, the first task on delivery to service was to replace Londons trolleybuses, which had themselves replaced trams, and to begin to replace the older types of diesel bus. The Routemaster was designed by London Transport and constructed at Park Royal Vehicles, both companies were owned by Associated Commercial Vehicles, which was taken over by Leyland Motors in 1962. It was a design and used lightweight aluminium along with techniques developed in aircraft production during World War II. As well as a novel, weight-saving integral design, it also introduced for the first time on a bus independent front suspension, power steering, a fully automatic gearbox and power-hydraulic braking. This surprised some early drivers, who found the chassis unexpectedly light and nimble compared with older designs, footage of RM200 undergoing the skid test at Chiswick was included in the 1971 film On the Buses. The Routemaster was a departure from the traditional chassis/body construction method and it was one of the first integral buses, with a combination of an A steel sub-frame and a rear B steel sub-frame, connected by an aluminium body. The gearbox was mounted on the underside of the structure with shafts to the engine. Later pre-war London trolleybuses, however, had previously adopted chassisless construction, London Transport placed four prototype Routemasters in service between 1956 and 1958. The first two were built at the London Transport works at Chiswick, the third by Weymann at Addlestone and the fourth, the third and fourth had Leyland engines
7.
Duple Coachbuilders
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Duple was a bus bodybuilder in England from 1919 until 1989. Duple Bodies & Motors was formed in 1919 by Herbert White in Hornsey, before World War I, he had briefly built cars under the Bifort name in Fareham, Hampshire. The name Duple is intended to convey the principle of a vehicle being suitable for a dual role. The first vehicle of this type was called the Bifort, subsequently, former military Ford Model Ts were fitted with the newly designed dual-purpose bodywork. The bodies looked like a touring car, but could be transformed into a van by removing the decking at the rear of the car. In 1926 a new factory was opened in Hendon to meet growing demand, coachwork had been built on occasions since the inception of the company, including a six-wheeled Lancia-Barton Charabanc. But in 1928 it was decided to make an effort to increase output of this body type substantially, as a result, the order book began to grow and within ten years the number of people employed had risen to around 800. In 1928, Walter Ernest Brown, a partner in the Strachan & Brown bodybuilding business, joined the firm. Major clients of this included the Great Western Railway, who ordered a number of bodies for its expanding bus fleet. Accordingly, there was a trend towards vehicles with higher standards of finish, in August 1931, two Bedford passenger chassis were announced. Duple had built early bodies on the WLB chassis for the Vauxhall Motors, as demand for the type rose, Duples ability to produce in quantity set them apart from their competitors, and soon Duple-bodied Bedford WLBs were in service around the country. The association with Bedford was to last over 50 years, in 1932, Duple acquired the business of London Lorries who, despite the name, were heavily involved in the manufacture of coach bodies. By the middle of the 1930s, Duple was widely regarded as a coachbuilder, an order was received from Vauxhall Motors for special sports tourer bodies on Vauxhall 14 hp light six chassis and a stand was taken at the 1933 London Motor Show to display them. They were advertised by Vauxhall up to 1935 and may have been Duples last car made in quantity. Also built in the 1930s was a special coupé on an Alvis speed 20 model for Lloyd Thompson of the Holdsworth Moquette company, export orders were also received in quantity from East Africa and Argentina, and closer to home in Europe. This in part helped to compensate for the demand for UK bodywork. By 1934, the site had become inadequate and 3½ acres of adjoining land were purchased for expansion. The late 1930s saw the era of the coach design
8.
Mayne Coaches
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Mayne Coaches is a coach operator with depots in Manchester and Warrington. The company was formed by Arthur Mayne before the World War I, originally delivering furniture from its shop in Bradford, in the 1920s Maynes branched out into coach excursions, running trips to the coast and to Buxton. They would later expand to operate trips to matches and race meetings. By the start of the 1930s, the company had decided to concentrate on passenger transport, during the 1960s, the company received numerous take over offers from Manchester Corporation Transport. By resisting the offers, the company was able to grow steadily, in 1982 Barry Cooper Coaches of Warrington was purchased with 20 coaches by members of the Mayne family. Although this was originally a business to Mayne, the Mayne name and red. In 1989 the coach operations in Manchester expanded into the Fairclough Street depot, in 1998 Barry Cooper Coaches was renamed Mayne Coaches, and moved to its present site. The company resisted numerous attempts at nationalisation due to an agreement made in 1930 with Manchester Corporation regarding bus service provision. In January 2008 Maynes bus division was sold to Stagecoach Manchester, the Ashton New Road bus depot was sold to supermarket chain Aldi, which commenced demolition in December 2007. The bus fleet then operated from the Fairclough Street coach depot. After obtaining Office of Fair Trading clearance on 10 January 2008, the company remains as a coach operator, and was under the ownership of Stephen Mayne until he died in July 2012. The company continues to be run by the Mayne family, bus services were operated by a separate legal entity, A Mayne & Son, mainly in East Manchester, with the majority of services running between Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester via Ashton New Road. Following the sale, the 37 bus fleet was transferred to Stagecoach Manchesters Hyde Road depot, as at September 2013 the fleet consisted of 51 coaches. Mayne Coaches operate out of depots in Clayton and Warrington Official website
9.
Carlyle Works
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Carlyle Works was an English builder of bus and coach bodywork based in Egbaston. In 1920, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company established a bus facility on land adjoining Rotton Park Reservoir. It initially performed repair work before chassis construction commenced in 1925, the eight acre site was redeveloped over a five-year period from 1949. It derived its name from its address, Carlyle Road, the company was famous for building its own buses and coaches, under the BMMO name. These buses were very innovative and were the first to introduce many advanced features. When the development and production of its own vehicles became prohibitive in the late 1960s the central works continued to provide engineering services for the company. On 1 January 1969, Midland Red became part of the National Bus Company and these services included major vehicle modifications and adaptations. In the mid-1980s, minibuses became very popular for operators, allowing them to higher frequency service on routes that could serve areas larger vehicles could not access. Carlyle developed a range of bodywork for minibuses, notably Ford Transit conversions, on 5 September 1981, Midland Red was divided into five operating companies with the Carlyle Works retained to provide engineering support. On 5 March 1987, Carlyle Works became the 22nd National Bus Company subsidiary to be privatised and it was purchased by Frontsource Limited, a company set up by Robert Beattie to purchase eight former National Bus Company engineering companies. Carlyle set about building upon its minibus expertise, and developed bodywork for the Freight Rover chassis and these sold well, especially to former NBC operators. Designs for Iveco and Mercedes Benz 700 and 800 series vehicles followed, in 1989, the body designs for the Duple Dartline were acquired from Trinity Holdings. This body was adapted for the Dennis Dart and was available in 8. 5m,9. 0m and 9. 8m lengths, Carlyle built 140 of an order for the 8. 5m vehicles from London Transport. Warrington Borough Transport bought most of the 9. 0m versions, the 9. 8m version was bought by China Motor Bus and Luton & District. Small numbers of each were bought by independent operators. New orders became increasingly hard to find, as the minibus vogue had ended, in October 1991, Carlyle Works was placed in receivership and closed. The rights to the Dartline were sold to bodybuilder Marshall Bus
10.
Transport for London
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Transport for London is a local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London, England. Its head office is in Windsor House in the City of Westminster, the underlying services are provided by a mixture of wholly owned subsidiary companies, by private sector franchisees and by licensees. In 2015-16, TfL had a budget of £11.5 billion, the rest comes from government funding, borrowing, other income and Crossrail funding. On 21 January 2016, it was announced that the responsibility for franchising all of Londons inner suburban services would be transferred from the DfT to TfL. This transfer will take place as current franchises fall due for renewal, TfL was created in 2000 as part of the Greater London Authority by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It gained most of its functions from its predecessor London Regional Transport in 2000, the first Commissioner of TfL was Bob Kiley. The first Chair was then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and the first Deputy Chair was Dave Wetzel, Livingstone and Wetzel remained in office until the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor in 2008. Johnson took over as Chairman, and in February 2009 fellow-Conservative Daniel Moylan was appointed as his Deputy, TfL did not take over responsibility for the London Underground until 2003, after the controversial Public-private partnership contract for maintenance had been agreed. Management of the Public Carriage Office had previously been a function of the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London Group Archives holds business records for TfL and its predecessor bodies and transport companies. Some early records are held on behalf of TfL Group Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives. After the bombings on the underground and bus systems on 7 July 2005 and they helped survivors out, removed bodies, and got the transport system up and running, to get the millions of commuters back out of London at the end of the work day. Those mentioned include Peter Hendy, who was at the time Head of Surface Transport division, and Tim OToole, head of the Underground division, carrying open containers of alcohol was also banned on public transport operated by TfL. The Mayor of London and TfL announced the ban with the intention of providing a safer, there were Last Round on the Underground parties on the night before the ban came into force. Passengers refusing to observe the ban may be refused travel and asked to leave the premises, the Greater London Authority reported in 2011 that assaults on London Underground staff had fallen by 15% since the introduction of the ban. In an effort to reduce sexual offences and increase reporting, TfL—in conjunction with the British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police Service, TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position held by Sadiq Khan since May 2016. The Commissioner of Transport for London reports to the Board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities, the body is organised in three main directorates and corporate services, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. This network is sub-divided into three service units, BCV, Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines. JNP, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, SSL, Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines
11.
British Electric Traction
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British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, the company was founded in 1895 as British Electric Traction Company Ltd, with Sir Charles Rivers Wilson as chairman and Emile Garcke as managing director. It was involved in the electrification of tramways in British towns and cities, from operating trams, BET moved on to manufacturing them with the purchase of Brush Electrical Engineering Company in 1901. The BET became the largest of the owners of tramways in the British Isles. In 1905 a subsidiary was formed to operate buses, which became increasingly important to the group as many municipalities were compulsorily acquiring company-owned tram networks in their areas. Nationalisation of BETs electricity generation and distribution activities took place in 1947 leaving BET with a portfolio of bus companies, a number of investments. From 1949 until 1967 BET continued to be one of the two bus groups in the UK, alongside the state-owned Tilling Group. In 1956 BET acquired a 20% interest in United Transport Company, United Transport continued with its freight road haulage business, and also moved into shipping, particularly containers and tank containers. United Transport had passenger transport and freight interests in southern Africa, BET owned and operated Jamaica Omnibus Service, a 600-bus operation in Kingston, Jamaica, until it was nationalised by the Jamaican Government in 1974. However, in 1988 United sold Bee Line and Zippy to Ribble Motor Services, in 1947 BET acquired a substantial minority interest in Broadcast Relay Service Ltd, trading as Rediffusion, which distributed radio and television signals though wired relay networks. BET acquired a controlling interest in 1967, and the remaining 36% in 1983, in the beginning, Associated Rediffusion lost money. By the end of 1956 Associated Newspapers sold 80% of its back to BET. Around that same time, Associated Rediffusion struck a very favourable deal with Granada Television, by 1964, when Associated Rediffusion changed its name to Rediffusion London, its efforts had left it sitting on a mountain of cash. As a result of this re-allocation of interests, ABC took a controlling 51% interest in Thames Television, Thames Television was given the new weekday London franchise. BET sold its interest in Thames Television in 1985, between 1955 and 1968 BET made other acquisitions in the leisure sector, including a controlling interest in Wembley Stadium Ltd, which was sold in 1985. BET acquired the Argus Press group in 1966, BET acquired Eddison Plant Ltd in 1949, and expanded into construction after the sale of its bus interests in 1968. It acquired Boulton & Paul Ltd and Grayston Ltd, in 1985 BET acquired the crane company G W Sparrow & Sons plc, and combined its craneage interests into a new subsidiary, Grayston White and Sparrow. BET entered the business in 1934, and in 1935 acquired an interest in Advance Linen Services
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Media related to Marshall Bus at Wikimedia Commons