Parent | Wellglade Group |
---|---|
Founded | October 1913 |
Headquarters | Heanor, Derbyshire England |
Service area | |
Service type | Bus and coach |
Routes | 43 (June 2024) |
Depots | 5 |
Fleet | 247 (June 2024) |
Managing Director | Tom Morgan |
Website | Official website |
Trentbarton operates both local and regional bus services in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
In October 1913, the Trent Motor Traction Company was founded, [1] commencing operations with a bus service between Ashbourne and Derby. A second service between Derby and Stapleford was introduced the following month. The Trent Motor Traction Company's buses were originally painted green, however from 1923, the fleet colour was changed to red. [2]
By 1925, a large network of services was operating from Derby, Loughborough and Nottingham; as services expanded, the Trent Motor Traction business grew, with a total of seven depots being established, with a total of 52 smaller operators subsequently acquired during the 1930s. Around this time, Trent Motor Traction standardised on buses manufactured by Midland Red, the last of which were delivered following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1940. [2]
In August 1949, a co-ordination agreement was reached between the Trent Motor Traction Company and the Derby Corporation. A joint service operated by both Trent and Derby, running from the town to Cavendish via Corporation Avenue, was established, with return tickets purchasable for use on both opeartors' buses. [3] This co-ordination scheme would be maintained until the mid-1980s, being renewed in 1979 to split Derby's services to be operated 83.34% by Derby Transport, with the remaining 16.66% operated by Trent Motor Traction. [4] Additionally in 1958, following the opening of the A52 road, Trent Motor Traction and neighbouring Barton Transport commenced operations of a joint express coach service between Derby and Nottingham. [2]
In 1969, Trent Motor Traction, which had previously been under the ownership of British Electric Traction, became part of the National Bus Company (NBC), [5] and in 1972, took over the operations of fellow NBC subsidiary Midland General, including its Notts & Derby Traction subsidiary; the identities of both companies, however, were retained as part of this takeover. [6] A fire at the company's Meadow Road depot in Derby on the night of 14 July 1976 destroyed 40 buses and destroyed another 12, and despite costing the operator £1 million (equivalent to £13,163,000in 2023) in damages, operations ran as normal the following morning. [7]
Following the passage of the Transport Act 1985, which deregulated the British bus industry and ordered the break-up of the National Bus Company, Trent Motor Traction was sold by the NBC in a management buyout, led by Brian King and Ian Morgan, to the Wellglade Limited holding company in January 1987, with the newly-independent business renamed Trent Buses. [8] Trent Buses gained a 6% shareholding in Leicester City Transport in January 1988 following the sale of its competitive operations and depot in Loughborough, Leicestershire, [9] [10] and in 1989, the business of Barton Transport was purchased by Trent Buses for £22 million (equivalent to £69,134,000in 2023), becoming a separate subsidiary company of the main Trent Buses operation, although both subsidiaries soon began co-ordinating their operations on a day-to-day basis. [11] [12] The separate Trent Buses and Barton Transport companies would eventually be brought together as 'Trent Barton' in 2005. [2]
During September 2022, it was announced that managing director Jeff Counsell was to retire in February 2023. He was succeeded by Tom Morgan, the former commercial director for the Trent Barton and Kinchbus companies. [13]
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Trentbarton operates services from Loughborough, Ashbourne, Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, and Nottingham with most operating under a brand name with branded vehicles although some still use conventional route numbers, Some services within the network operate through to around 03:00 on Saturday and Sunday mornings.[ citation needed ]
During the 1990s and 2000s, Trent Barton operated a large network of 'Rainbow Routes', with frequent services running from Nottingham and Derby under R-prefixed route numbers, replacing pre-existing numbered services. The first of these routes was launched in early 1992, operating using a fleet of 20 new Optare Deltas cleaned out in front of passengers at Derby bus station between service runs. The relaunched routes saw a 5% rise in ridership in their first four weeks of operation. [14]
Services part of the Rainbow Routes network included R11, R12 and R13 from Nottingham to Eastwood and into Derbyshire, later rebranded to 'Rainbow One' and 'Rainbow Allestree', the latter running from Derby to the village of Allestree; this service is now known as 'The Allestree'. Most of the Rainbow routes were rebranded in the early 2000s leaving just 'Rainbow 1 to 5', running frequent buses from Nottingham to various suburban towns. Branding for Rainbow Routes 2 through 5 were dropped when newer vehicles were launched,[ when? ] leaving just 'Rainbow One' as the remaining Rainbow Routes brand.
'Indigo' became the first bus service in the United Kingdom to operate a '24 hours a day, 7 days a week' from 24 July 2011. [15] 'Indigo' also operated between East Midlands Airport and Loughborough until March 2012, when that section of the route was replaced by a revised 'skylink Nottingham' service, which runs between Nottingham and East Midlands Airport via a quicker route.[ citation needed ]
Buses operate from Nottingham to the suburbs of Calverton, Cotgrave and Keyworth while the 'mainline' and 'rushcliffe villager' run along the A52 to Bingham and Radcliffe-on-Trent.
In Derby, Trent Barton run some urban services, such as the non-stop 'X38' and Comet service, and 'The Mickleover' and 'The Allestree'. There are also a number of longer-distance services for example 'Swift' to Uttoxeter and 'The Sixes' to Belper and Matlock with their unusual numbering system: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6E, 6N and 6X. 'The Villager' services run south to Burton on Trent with the numbering system V1 and V3 plus a number of services run north towards Ilkeston and Heanor such as the Ilkeston Flyer and 'H1'.
Trent Barton also operates a number of express services around the East Midlands. These include:
Services that operate with conventional numbers are operated using plain red vehicles which feature branding advertisements for the Mango and Hugo apps, these vehicles also substitute for a branded vehicle if it is unavailable.
As a result of driver shortages and lower passenger numbers following the COVID-19 pandemic, Trent Barton announced in August 2022 that already-suspended services Spondon Flyer and 1A would officially be withdrawn, while service 141 would be transferring to Stagecoach East Midlands from 4 September. From 2 October 2022, a number of other services were revised alongside the creation of a new local network centred around Ilkeston and Heanor to replace long-standing services, including Amberline and Black Cat. [16]
In April 2012, Trentbarton entered into a joint venture with Centrebus. This saw the company's operation in Buxton combined with Bowers Coaches to form High Peak Buses. [17] [18]
The joint company operates all services previously run by Bowers Coaches, as well as the Buxton operations of Trentbarton, including the 199 service, which runs between Buxton and Manchester Airport via Stockport, as well as the Transpeak service which runs between Buxton and Derby via Matlock, and also used to run on from Buxton towards Stockport and Manchester.
The 'Mango' system was initially tested on the company's Rainbow 4 (now i4) and Indigo routes. After this proved successful, Trent Barton proceeded to extend the scheme to all of its services. [19]
Trent Barton operates from depots in Derby, Langley Mill, Nottingham and Sutton in Ashfield, with outstations located in Ashbourne, Belper and Matlock.[ citation needed ]
Langley Mill depot also serves as the headquarters for Trentbarton and the wider Wellglade Group. [20]
West Bridgford is a town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Rushcliffe, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies south of Nottingham city centre, east of Wilford, north of Ruddington and west of Radcliffe-on-Trent. It is also southwest of Colwick and southeast of Beeston which are on the opposite bank of the River Trent. The town is part of the Nottingham Urban Area and had a population of 36,487 in a 2021-census.
Stagecoach in Mansfield is a bus operator providing bus services in Mansfield and surrounding areas. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach East Midlands, a subdivision of the Stagecoach Group.
Stapleford is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 14,991, at the 2011 census it was 15,241, and 15,453 at the 2021 census.
Nottingham Corporation Tramways was formed when Nottingham Corporation took over the Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited, which had operated a horse and steam tram service from 1877.
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is the major bus operator of the city of Nottingham, England. NCT operates extensively within Nottingham as well beyond the city boundaries into Nottinghamshire county. Publicly-owned, it is today the second largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom after Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Optare Tempo is an integral low-floor, heavy duty, full-size rigid single-deck bus manufactured by Optare and was launched in late 2004. It is marketed and sold as the replacement for the Optare Excel. It is designed as a lightweight bus, to use less fuel than traditional heavy duty integral rigids. As of July 2017, 233 had been built, including 27 Tempo SRs. The Tempo SR has now been replaced in the UK market by longer variants of the Optare MetroCity, although production of the Tempo SR continues for the Australian market.
Barton Transport was a bus company that operated in Nottinghamshire from 1908 until 1989.
Felix Bus Services was a company formerly based in Stanley, Derbyshire. The company operated bus and coach services in Derbyshire between 1921 and 2012.
Bowers Coaches was a bus company based in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, England. The company operated bus and coach services in Cheshire East, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester from 1952 until 2012. In its later years, it was a subsidiary of Centrebus and in 2012 it was merged with the Dove Holes depot of Trent Barton to form High Peak Buses.
Broadmarsh bus station is a bus station serving the city of Nottingham, England.
Kinchbus, formerly G.K. Kinch, is a bus operator in Loughborough, England. Since 1998 it has been a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Premiere Travel was a bus company in Nottinghamshire.
Notts+Derby is a bus operator providing services in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Star Trak was a real-time bus information system operating in Leicester and Derby between 2000 and 2011. It was run by the Leicester City Council.
The Nottingham trolleybus system once served the city of Nottingham, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. It opened on 10 April 1927, and gradually replaced the Nottingham tramway network.
High Peak Buses Limited is a bus company based in Dove Holes, Derbyshire, formed in 2012. It operates a mixture of local and long-distance commercial and subsidised public bus services in and around the Borough of High Peak, after which it is named.
The Wellglade Group (WG), is a transport group operating bus and tram services in the English Midlands.
Skylink is the brand name for bus services that serve East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire. Services are operated by Kinchbus and trentbarton, both a part of Derbyshire-based Wellglade Group.
Centrebus Group, is a public transport company based in Leicester with bus services in the Midlands, North West and South East of England.
The Ilkeston Flyer is a bus route that operates between Cotmanhay and Derby via Ilkeston and Spondon. It is operated by Trent Barton.