GM Buses

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Greater Manchester Buses Ltd
company_
type = Bus
slogan = People On The Move
fate = Demerger
Predecessor = Greater Manchester Transport
successor = After 1996:
First Manchester/Stagecoach Manchester
foundation = 1986
defunct = 1994(Split into North and South)
1996(North and South companies sold)
closed = 1994
parent = Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (until 1994)
location = Greater Manchester
industry = Bus transport

GM Buses was the main bus company serving the area of Greater Manchester, England. The company was public owned by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, which is a public body responsible for helping to co-ordinate public transport services in the Greater Manchester area. The company was split into two in 1993 to increase competition for services in area before they were taken over by First Group and Stagecoach Group.

History

Original GM Buses

In 1968, a new Transport Act was introduced. As part of the new act, several bus companies ran by local authorities around the Manchester area would merge to create a central organisation. They would made up of companies operating in the following areas:
*Ashton
*Bolton
*Bury
*Leigh
*Manchester
*Oldham
*Rochdale
*Salford
*Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield (Operated by the SHMD Joint Board)
*Stockport
*Wigan

The new central organisation was named SELNEC, which was the South East Lancashire North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Executive. The SELNEC catchment area would eventually become Greater Manchester. SELNEC introduced a standard livery of orange and white with the company split into three zones, Northern, Central and Southern.

In 1974, The Local Government Act changed the administrative areas and the county of Greater Manchester was created. As a result, SELNEC would rename itself to Greater Manchester Transport. In 1981 [ [http://www.gmbuses.co.uk/library/history/history.html GM Buses Group - History Information] ] , a new livery was adopted of orange, brown and white. Also in the same year, Lancashire United Transport, who were based in Atherton was absorbed into Greater Manchester Transport.

In 1986, deregulation was introduced to bus services and Greater Manchester Transport was split into two. The management of service information and tendering, bus stations and stops would be run by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, or GMPTE for short. The bus operation would be named Greater Manchester Buses or GM Buses as it is commonly known. Deregulation also saw competition introduced on several routes run by GM Buses.

Some companies include The Bee Line Buzz Company, which ran several services along routes across the Greater Manchester area, Wall's and Finglands introduced several services along the Wilmslow Road corridor and Bluebird and Citibus introduced several routes in the North Manchester area. A lot of the companies that tried to compete with GM Buses usually failed with most going out of business while the other would be taken over by GM Buses. Some companies that did succeed included Bluebird and Mayne, who run several services between Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester.

On December 31 1993, GM Buses were forced to split [ [http://www.gmbuses.co.uk/library/history/history.html GM Buses Group - History Information] ] [ [http://www.selnec.org.uk/gmt_beyond.htm GMT Beyond] ] , as the Government felt that they had a monopoly of bus services in the Greater Manchester area and wanted to increase competition. GM Buses was split into two separate companies, GM Buses North, or GMN, and GM South Buses, or GMS Buses. It had been hoped by spliting the companies up, then GM Buses North and GM South Buses would compete against each other. However, as their names would suggest, the two companies would mainly stay in their respective operating areas.

Prior to the formation of the North/South GM Buses companies Merseyside's dominant bus company MTL Trust Holdings Ltd was in a phase of expansion and turned its attention to Greater Manchester. In the summer of 1993 MTL Manchester began operations from a depot in Miles Platting and added an extensive network of new/copycat services to Manchester's already hotly contested bus market. In October 1993 the Merseybus depot at St Helens was rebranded Lancashire Travel and a further series of new/copycat services were introduced in the Wigan, Leigh, Bolton, Salford and North Manchester areas that Merseybus/MTL had been gradually increasing its profile in since the late 1980s. Finally around 1993/94 MTL purchased Bolton Coachways and used their fairly substantial minibus network to perhaps further strengthen their position in the town against GM Buses (North).

MTL's incursions into Greater Manchester sparked a bus war with GM Buses and predictably they retaliated with new services on Merseyside. At first route 79 (Croxteth-Liverpool City Centre) - one of Merseybus's most profitable routes, saw high frequency GM Buses operation from September 1993 perhaps as a means to discourage further MTL expansion in Greater Manchester. In the Spring of 1994 GM Buses South began Birkenhead & District from a depot at Cleveland Street in Birkenhead's docklands. The vehicles used a light blue and cream livery that had slight echoes to a darker blue version used by Birkenhead Corporation and many of MTL's profitable services on the Wirral saw competition from Birkenhead & District. GM Buses North almost beseiged by MTL's Lancashire Travel operation began further operations in Liverpool, Kirkby, Formby and Southport and also opened a new depot this time in Bootle to assist its Atherton and Wigan depots in the operation of these new services on Merseyside. Furthermore some Greater Manchester PTE "standard" Leyland Atlanteans and Fleetlines originally sold by GM Buses to Yorkshire Rider in 1987/88 were re-acquired by GM Buses North for use at the new depot at Bootle.

However by the summer of 1995 both MTL and GM Buses North/South were making substantial losses with their incursions into Greater Manchester and Merseyside. A controversial gentleman's agreement was therefore signed between the three companies in June 1995 which saw MTL pull out of much of Greater Manchester - with the exception of services linking St Helens with Leigh and Wigan, along with GM Buses North/South completely withdrawing from Merseyside including the long established GM Buses North Services 34 (Liverpool-St Helens-Leigh-Manchester) and 320 (Liverpool-St Helens-Wigan) which had existed for decades and had origins with the Lancashire United operation.

During 1996, both GM Buses companies would be the subject of takeovers. GM Buses North were taken over by First Group. They would re-name the company as Greater Manchester Firstbus, or as Greater Manchester followed by the First logo, and the livery of orange would be re-painted as 'Tomato Soup Red', as it was described. By 1997 they would be re-named as First Manchester and adopted the standard First Group livery. GM South Buses were taken over by Stagecoach Group and the company was re-named Stagecoach Manchester.

New GM Buses

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = GM Buses Ltd (NEW)
company_
type = Bus(Trading Name of UK North Buses)
slogan =
fate = Banned from Roads By North West Traffic Commissioner
Administration
Predecessor =
successor = N/A (Some vehicles sold on to various companies)
foundation = 2005 (joint operation with UK North)
defunct = January 2007
closed = 2007
parent = Part of UK North Bus Company
location = Gorton, Manchester
industry = Bus transportIn 2006, the GM Buses name would re-appear on the side of buses in Greater Manchester when UK North decided to re-name some of their bus services as GM Buses, including the 192 service between Hazel Grove or Stepping Hill and Manchester. They used the original logo of GM Buses, which was used in the late 1980s/early 1990s and a picture indicating the depot that the bus is operating from, although they didn't adopt the orange livery, keeping UK North's red and white livery instead.

However, this was to be short lived as in December 2006, UK North and GM Buses services were suspended during the Christmas period, due to safety fears after a man was killed involving a UK North bus and buses involved in accidents. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6204717.stm|title=Bus companies banned from roads|date=2006-12-23|publisher=BBC News] . The North West Traffic Commissioner, Beverley Bell, launched an investigation into the company and found that 100 of its 130 drivers were Polish, who had a poor understanding of English and felt that they weren't properly trained. It had been planned for the company to return to the street in January 2007 but this didn't happen as the company went out of business.

References

External links

* [http://www.gmbuses.co.uk GM Buses archive website]
* [http://www.gmts.co.uk Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport]
* [http://www.gmts.co.uk/education/history/gmbuses.html GM Buses (Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport)]