 A preserved Aldershot & District bus at the 2008 Alton rally. | |
| Industry | Public transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | 24 July 1912 |
| Defunct | 1 January 1972 |
| Fate | Merged with Thames Valley Traction |
| Successor | Alder Valley |
Areas served | Hampshire and Surrey |
Aldershot & District Traction Company Limited was a major bus company operating services in East Hampshire, West Surrey and parts of adjoining counties for sixty years during the 20th century, from 1912 until 1972 when it became part of Alder Valley.
Aldershot & District was inaugurated on 24 July 1912 when the British Automobile Traction Company Limited (a subsidiary of British Electric Traction Company - BET) bought the pioneering Aldershot & Farnborough Motor Omnibus Company Ltd, whose five buses had operated services between those two towns since 1906. [1] The initial livery was dark green and white, with the upper deck of double-deckers being a lighter green. Variations on a theme of two-tone green continued, later with cream relief replacing the white. The familiar looped fleetname was introduced in 1923 and lasted until 1968. In its early years, the company was also a general haulage contractor, operating a fleet of Foden steam lorries. In common with many other rural bus companies, it also carried parcels on its buses until the 1970s. [2]
There was increasingly close co-operation between British Automobile Traction and rivals Thomas Tilling in the 1920s and, in 1928 BAT was reconstructed with the new title, Tilling & British Automobile Traction Ltd but, in 1942 the company was wound up and A&D's ownership reverted to the parent company BET.
Aldershot & District expanded during the pre-World War II period, taking over a number of smaller concerns and establishing depots at Guildford, Woking, Hindhead, Haslemere, and Alton, [3] with smaller "outstations" elsewhere. World War II provided a challenge to the company – conscription meant that fewer men were available to serve as bus crews, service engineers and administrators, which meant recruitment and training of a great number of women, and maintenance of the vehicles was difficult; requisition of vehicles to replace destroyed vehicles in London or for conversion to military ambulances caused shortages locally and being based in Aldershot (the "Home of the British Army") meant that the company's vehicles were in continuous demand for transport of troops.
Following the war the company invested in new vehicles, mainly AEC single-deckers and Dennis double-deckers and services returned to pre-war levels for a while, until the increase in car-ownership brought about significant loss of custom from the mid-1950s onwards. A&D sought to minimise the impact by taking over routes from other operators, for instance Yellow Bus Services, Guildford. Large peaks in traffic levels occurred on a regular basis to meet the special demands of the Aldershot Military Tattoo and the Farnborough Airshow. Passenger numbers had peaked in 1950 at almost 52,000,000 journeys. [1] At its peak services based in Aldershot and Guildford reached as far as Reading, Egham, London, Horsham, Bognor Regis, Petersfield and Winchester. Seasonal services operated to coastal towns such as Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, Portsmouth and Southsea. Summer excursions ran to many destinations including Cheddar Caves, Longleat Safari Park, Hampton Court and race meetings such as Goodwood and Ascot. Demand for services to local beauty spot Frensham Ponds on summer Sundays sometimes necessitated running an extra double-decker for that part of route 19 in addition to the usual single-decker. Buses and coaches were also available for private hire, often being used by works' social clubs and public houses for outings. Some services were operated jointly with other companies, such as the service to Reading (jointly with the Thames Valley Traction Company. Through tickets were available on many routes, allowing the traveller to transfer from the A&D bus to another company's vehicle to complete the journey (e.g. Aldershot to Southampton, changing at Winchester to a Hants and Dorset vehicle). On some routes return tickets were valid for use by bus or train, both in Southern Railway and British Rail periods. The company absorbed the private hire and excursion coach company of Gudge's of Lower Bourne (trading as "Comfy Coaches") during the 1960s, which also gave them a booking and enquiry office in Farnham.
Although BET had campaigned vigorously against the proposed compulsory nationalisation of the UK bus industry, the company's policy changed and it sold its bus interests to the government's Transport Holding Company on 14 March 1968. The Transport Act 1968 formed the National Bus Company, which came into existence on 1 January 1969, [4] amalgamating the interests of The Tilling Group (BET's main competitor) with the recently acquired BET Group. From that point the company's independence was lost, as exemplified by the immediate change in purchasing policy, with centrally-specified Bristol buses coming in instead of the locally sourced Dennis and AEC vehicles. The company continued to trade as Aldershot and District under nationalised ownership until it was merged with the former Tilling Group company, Thames Valley Traction Company Limited on 1 January 1972 to form the Thames Valley and Aldershot Omnibus Company, which traded under the contrived fleet name of Alder Valley.
Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London bus has become a symbol of the city.
Reading Transport Limited, trading as Reading Buses, is an English municipal bus operator owned by Reading Borough Council, serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Hampshire, as well as parts of Greater London.
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.
Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE), at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire. The Metro brand has been used from the outset and, since the formal abolition of the WYPTE on 1 April 2014, it has remained the brand name of public transport in the region, overseen by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which is also responsible for the delivery of transport policies.
RailAir describes a number of airport bus and coach services designed to connect the National Rail network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on Heathrow Airport, with one other from Luton Airport. RailAir services are operated as public transport services by or on behalf of train operators, where the whole journey is paid for as a through ticket which combines the railway and bus journey, although journeys can be made using the bus only. As such, many are operated where the train and bus operator are owned by the same company.
Arriva London is a major bus company operating services in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus and operates services under contract to Transport for London. It was formed in 1998 from a fusion of previously separate Arriva subsidiaries Grey-Green, Leaside Buses, Kentish Bus, London & Country and South London Transport. Operations are split between two registered companies, Arriva London North Limited and Arriva London South Limited.
The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies.
Crosville Motor Services was a bus operator based in the north-west of England and north and mid-Wales.
The Transport Holding Company (THC) was a British Government-owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission (BTC). It came into existence on 1 September 1962, with certain assets of the BTC vested in it on 1 January 1963.
Stagecoach (South) Limited, trading as Stagecoach South, is a bus operator providing services in South East England as a subsidiary of Stagecoach. It operates services in Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex with some routes extending into Brighton and Wiltshire. It operates 487 buses from eight depots.
Western Welsh was a Welsh bus operating company, based in Cardiff covering South Wales and the northern parts of the West Country. Formed in 1920, it was nationalised when the BET Group sold their bus interests to the Transport Holding Company in 1967. From 1969 W.W. became a part of the National Bus Company and several years later was a component of the newly formed, but ill-fated, National Welsh operation.
London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1970 until 1986, when it was split up and later sold as part of the bus deregulation programme.
The West Yorkshire Road Car Company was a major bus operator operating in North and West Yorkshire between 1906 and 1987.
Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Limited, which traded as Arriva Guildford & West Surrey, was a bus operator based in Guildford, England. It was a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operated services in West Sussex and Surrey, as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division. Services that were run were primarily centred on hubs at Guildford, Woking and Cranleigh.
Alder Valley was a bus operator in South East England.
Thames Valley Traction Company Limited was a major bus company operating services to and from Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Newbury, High Wycombe and Oxford and surrounding areas for 52 years in the 20th century. For many years it ran the "Reading A" and "Reading B" limited-stop services between London's Victoria Coach Station and Reading via two differing sets of intermediate stops.
The Tilling Group was one of two conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948.
Tillingbourne Bus Company was a bus company based in Cranleigh, Surrey. The company operated bus and coach services in Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire from 1924 until 2001.
Stagecoach Gold route 1 is a bus route in southern England that links Camberley and Frimley in Surrey and Farnborough and Aldershot in Hampshire. The service is run by Stagecoach South.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
