 | |
 Leyland Olympian in Chester in July 2007 | |
| Parent | FirstGroup |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 1995 |
| Ceased operation | 13 January 2013 |
| Headquarters | Oldham |
| Service area | Cheshire Merseyside |
| Service type | Bus operator |
| Hubs | Chester Birkenhead Wrexham |
| Depots | 2 |
| Fleet | 110 (January 2013) |
| Website | First Chester & The Wirral |
First Chester & Wirral was a British bus operator operating in the Cheshire and Merseyside regions between February 1990 and January 2013. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
In February 1990, the Chester, Ellesmere Port and Rock Ferry depots of Crosville Motor Services were sold by the Drawlane Group to Potteries Motor Traction with 150 buses. [1]
It was included in the sale of Potteries Motor Traction to Badgerline, which in June 1995 became part of FirstBus. The company was later split, with the original Potteries Motor Traction becoming First Staffordshire & South Cheshire and the north Cheshire and Wirral operations, First Chester & The Wirral.
On 19 June 2007, the ChesterBus municipal bus company was purchased from Chester City Council and integrated into the Chester depot. [2] [3] [4]
First Chester & The Wirral remained part of First Potteries until 2010, when the company was reorganised, with the Staffordshire operation reporting to First Midlands and the Chester & Wirral operations to First Manchester. [5]
On 12 November 2012, First Chester & Wirral was sold to Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire with 110 vehicles and 290 staff. [6] [7] The sale was concluded on 13 January 2013 [8] and is now operated as Stagecoach in Chester & Wirral. [9]
Merseytravel is the passenger transport executive, responsible for the coordination of public transport in the Liverpool City Region in North West England. Merseytravel was established on 1 December 1969 as the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive. From 1 April 2014, with the creation of the Liverpool City Region, Merseytravel expanded its area of operation from the metropolitan county of Merseyside to also include the Borough of Halton.
Strathtay Scottish was a bus operator running services in Dundee, Angus and parts of Grampian in eastern Scotland. Formed in 1985 ahead of bus deregulation as a subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group from parts of Walter Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd and Walter Alexander & Sons (Northern) Ltd., Strathtay was purchased by the Traction Group in 1991 and operated as a subsidiary of the company until 2005, when parent company Yorkshire Traction was purchased by the Stagecoach Group. The company today trades as part of Stagecoach East Scotland.
Badgerline was a bus operator in and around Bristol from 1985 until 2003. Its headquarters were in Weston-super-Mare. Initially a part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, it was privatised in September 1986 and sold to Badgerline Holdings in a management buyout. It went on to purchase a number of bus companies in England and Wales. In November 1993, Badgerline Group was listed on the stock exchange and, on 16 June 1995, it merged with the GRT Group to form FirstBus.
First Potteries is a bus company based in Stoke-on-Trent operating services in North Staffordshire, England. It is a part of First Midlands and a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
Stagecoach North West was a major bus operator in North West England. The company was a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and had its origins in the purchase of Cumberland in 1987 and Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company. The head office of Stagecoach North West was in Carlisle. Although the cities of Liverpool and Manchester are in the North West of England, Stagecoach Manchester and Stagecoach Merseyside were run as separate divisions.
Arriva North West and Wales was a division of Arriva that operated bus services around North West England and Wales. It was made up from several previous bus operators, including North Western, most of MTL North, the Bee Line Buzz Company, and most of what was once Crosville Motor Services.
First Greater Manchester is a bus operator in Greater Manchester. It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, operating franchised Bee Network bus services on contract to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The operator was once dominant in the northern areas of Greater Manchester, competing against Stagecoach Manchester, which was dominant in southern areas of the county; however in recent years it has scaled back its operations, now primarily serving the metropolitan boroughs of Oldham and Rochdale.
Crosville Motor Services was a bus operator based in the north-west of England and north and mid-Wales.
Stagecoach Merseyside is a major operator of bus services in the city of Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside region. It is a sub-division of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire.
National Welsh Omnibus Services was a bus company which operated in south-east Wales and in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire from 1978 to 1992. It used the trading name National Welsh and its Welsh equivalent Cymru Cenedlaethol.
Stagecoach South Wales is a bus operator providing services in South East Wales. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group.
Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in North West England based in Preston.
The Passenger Transport Executive (PTE) bus operations were the bus operating divisions of the passenger transport executives in the United Kingdom. In 1986 they underwent a process of deregulation and privatisation, forming some of the largest private bus companies in the UK outside London, with all being sold to their employees or management. Despite their relative size and lucrative operating areas, none of the companies survived beyond the late 1990s, with all falling into the hands of the major bus groups, who had their origins in privatised regional subsidiaries of the former National Bus Company and the Scottish Bus Group.
The North Western Road Car Company was a bus company in Stockport, England, formed in 1923 from the existing bus services of the British Automobile Traction Company Limited in Macclesfield. The company operated bus services in five counties through a combination of growth and the acquisition of other bus companies, such as the takeover in 1924 of the Mid-Cheshire Motor Bus Company Limited, which brought new operations in Northwich and Flixton. The company also operated express coach services to London, North Wales and Yorkshire.
North Western Road Car Company was a bus operator based in Liverpool, England. The company operated between 1986 and 1998.
Glenvale Transport (GTL) was a bus company that operated services in Liverpool between July 2001 and July 2005.
Julian Peddle is an entrepreneur who has worked in the bus industry since the early 1980s, having owned or part-owned numerous bus companies. He spent 11 years as co-owner of Stevensons of Uttoxeter between 1983 and 1994, having previously been its traffic manager. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he ran Status Group, a group of small bus companies spread across England which included BakerBus, Choice Travel and MK Metro. He was a major shareholder in Tellings-Golden Miller and Centrebus Holdings before their sale to Arriva.
'First Manchester, Midlands & South Yorkshire is an operating unit of FirstGroup operating in the English Midlands, Manchester and South Yorkshire. The unit was formed in 2008 with the merger of the management and administration of First Potteries, First Worcester and First Leicester. On 1 June 2020, First Midlands merged with First Manchester and First South Yorkshire. During a group restructure in 2022, Worcester moved from Midlands control to First West & Wales.
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company and Glenvale Transport in 2005. The head office of Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is in Liverpool and was formed in 2011 following the merger of Stagecoach Merseyside and Ribble Motor Services which was the Chorley and Preston operations of Stagecoach North West.
Media related to First Chester & The Wirral at Wikimedia Commons
